Posted on 10/28/2003 4:22:31 AM PST by lifacs
Tuesday, October 28
Neighbor twice called police over pranksters
By Dani Davies, Jane Musgrave and Pamela Pérez, Palm Beach Post Staff Writers Tuesday, October 28, 2003
Saturday wasn't the first time pranksters targeted Jay Levin.
Three years ago, his suburban Boca Raton home was shot with paint balls that left holes in two front windows, according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office report. A year later, he reported a small hole in the bedroom window of his Woodbury Road house.
Just after midnight Friday, Levin shot back.
Mark Drewes, a Pope John Paul II High School student whose family lives several houses down from Levin on Woodbury Road, had celebrated his 16th birthday at a party with family and friends Friday night. At about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Drewes and a friend ended up at Levin's house, where they tied fishing line to his door knocker and hid in the bushes, a neighbor said.
"When Levin heard knocking, he armed himself with a handgun and answered the door," according to a sheriff's report.
Levin, 40, told investigators that when he opened the door, he saw Drewes standing there. He said he was frightened and thought Drewes had something in his hand that might have been a weapon.
Levin fired one shot, hitting Drewes, who ran into a neighbor's yard and collapsed in the grass. His friend frantically pounded on the doors of Levin's sleeping neighbors for help.
Drewes died a short time later at Delray Medical Center.
Levin, an accountant who lives alone, has not been arrested while authorities investigate because he is not considered a flight risk, sheriff's spokeswoman Diane Carhart said Monday.
By next week, investigators are expected to turn over to the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office the taped 911 call of Levin reporting the shooting, she said.
"This is still an open investigation," Carhart said. "We want to make sure all the facts are correct before we turn it into the state attorney's office."
Attorney Bob Montgomery, hired Monday by Drewes' family, said the teen's relatives are so distraught that they have gone into seclusion. As far as he knows, they did not know Levin before the shooting, Montgomery said.
A private investigator who said he was hired by Levin's attorney chatted with neighbors Monday afternoon. Reached by phone, Levin declined comment and did not identify his attorney.
One neighbor who asked not to be named said she was struggling to understand Levin's actions.
"You know he didn't set out to shoot a 16-year-old prankster," she said. "It's one in the morning. You shouldn't be ringing doorbells."
Since the shooting, Levin's home has become the focal point of a candlelight vigil and a steady stream of teenage mourners. On Monday, candles and crushed flowers littered the sidewalk outside of his home. His green aluminum mailbox had been smashed.
On the lawn of another house across the street, a cross, flowers and candles marked the spot where Drewes collapsed near a tree.
Pope John Paul students drove by, stopping there to pray intermittently. Seniors Brandon Fustanio, Sean Beckett, John Siikarla and junior Tyler Bloechinger wandered over to gaze at Levin's front door. All four said they felt angry that Levin shot their classmate over "a harmless prank."
"Everybody's done it," Siikarla said. "Something like this shouldn't have happened to someone like him."
Levin should have called police or fired a warning shot, they said.
"I don't know what happened to him in his past to make him feel like this, but it's no excuse," Fustanio said.
It was March 2000 when Levin complained that he had been awakened around 1 a.m. by popping noises outside of his window, according to an investigator's report. He told deputies he saw what looked like a young, white man running away. The next morning, he discovered two holes in two windows. A deputy found yellow paint around the holes as well as three other yellow marks on the front of the house and concluded Levin had been the target of a paint-ball attack.
In February 2001, he called deputies again when he discovered a small hole in his bedroom window.
Mike Sedgwick, a Palm Beach County firefighter who lives on the street, posted signs in his yard to express his disgust.
"The guy should be in jail," he said.
Despite his neighbor's venom, there is nothing in court or public records to suggest Levin is anything but an average citizen. He was cited twice for speeding between 1986 and 1996. He was in two car crashes -- one of which was his fault. He hasn't been arrested for any crime in Florida, according to state records.
He has had a permit to carry a concealed weapon since 1993. He had his permit renewed for five years in 1999. State law doesn't require people to reveal what kind of weapons they have.
Drewes had planned to try out for his school's soccer team Monday. Instead, the teen was mourned with a shrine of flowers at the school. Students remembered the sophomore during a day-long open prayer service at the school chapel.
"Today was a very sad day," said the Rev. Guy Fiano, president of the high school. "There were many broken hearts."
Funeral services for Drewes are scheduled at 5 p.m. Wednesday in St. Jude Catholic Church, 21689 Toledo Road. Classmates will plan a special memorial service for Drewes after the funeral.
School officials enlisted the help of a crisis management team to provide counseling for students. Parents on the Spiritual Life Committee also convened an emergency prayer service.
"There was an outpouring of love," said Patti Hughes, committee co-chairman. "The kids were awesome. It was an amazing witness to God's love."
dani_davies@pbpost.com
Just an addition of chlorine to the gene pool as far as I'm concerned.
"Everybody's done it," Siikarla said. "Something like this shouldn't have happened to someone like him."
Levin should have called police or fired a warning shot, they said.
Hows about praying that no one does anything so stupid ever again, and that the school actually start drilling in some notion of how to be neighborly for a change?
No, not everybody wakes people up at 1 am, then makes threatening gestures when they answer the door.
I never did.
Didn't this kid ever read a Lois Lamore novel? You know, where it is spelled out that you don't sneak up on someone's campfire without announcing yourself, because you might get shot?
It is a tragedy, but the young man clearly made horrible mistakes that led to his death.
"When Levin heard knocking, he armed himself with a handgun and answered the door," according to a sheriff's report.
Levin, 40, told investigators that when he opened the door, he saw Drewes standing there. He said he was frightened and thought Drewes had something in his hand that might have been a weapon.
Levin fired one shot, hitting Drewes, who ran into a neighbor's yard and collapsed in the grass.
What is wrong with this moronic newspaper? They're all over the place looking at this guy's driving record and the value of his house, but zero or the specifics of the event. And nothing reconciling huge discrepancies. The kid hid in the bushes. The kid stood on the doorstep. What a BS story.
I'm going to have to ask you to step outside, cowgirl.
Get a rope, big mouth, and head on down there.
What?!
Rumors and inuendo are sufficient here.
Don't be so smart!
Your tax dollars at work. Geeze, Louise - we probably lost 10 students in my class over the 3 years of High School and never was there any need to enlist a "crisis management team" to console students.
Sounds like the neighbors aren't far behind.
As for the other kids "mourning" the little Einstein, welcome to the world of 2003.
Not sure what I would do, I have no weapons, but I certainly would not not be inclined to go quietly into victimhood. The cops have already made it clear, everywhere, that they can't prevent harm to anyone, and calling repeatedly will just get you labelled a troublemaker or worse, a nut.
So what were the victim's options? The shooter, not the Darwin Award candidate.
You are correctly accessing the situation.
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