Posted on 06/05/2004 8:01:15 AM PDT by ClintonBeGone
SEYMOUR — An eye doctor was shot and killed by police after he shot another doctor during an argument Friday afternoon.
The fatal shot by police is believed to be the first such case in Seymour Police Department's history.
Doctors pronounced Dr. Dennis A. Kissel of Middlebury dead after he was taken to Griffin Hospital in Derby, police said.
The motive for the shooting was unclear.
Kissel, an optometrist who had an office on Tower Lane off Route 67 in Oxford, walked into the office of Dr. George Z. Tzepos shortly before 5 p.m., said Sgt. Paul Vance, state police spokesman.
Kim Chernecky, a medical secretary in Tzepos' office at 25 New Haven Road, said Kissel called earlier in the day complaining he had something wrong with his eye and wanted Tzepos to look at it. Four hours later, Kissel showed up at the office, said Chernecky, of Bethany.
When Kissel arrived, he gave a fake name, Chernecky said. She said Tzepos recognized him and said hello.
"When he first called, he sounded a little off. Then when he came in, he didn't really know where he lived, or his phone number, and he was holding his side," she said. "I thought maybe he had had a stroke or something." The two doctors went into Tzepos' office and closed the door. They began arguing, Chernecky said, and then she heard several gun shots. She called 911 at 4:45 p.m. Tzepos managed to escape the inner office. "I guess George managed to get the gun out of his hand," said Chernecky, who had blood on her hands and left arm and smeared blood stains on her mint green scrubs.
Chernecky held the inner office door shut until police arrived.
"Then he (Kissel) lunged at the cop and they shot him in the chest," she said.
Police would not comment on Chernecky's version of the events.
She said two bullets grazed Tzepos' head and he also was shot in the hand. State police would not confirm or deny this, stating only that Tzepos had "two non-life threatening injuries."
Police also would not say where the officer shot Kissel, how many times or how many total shots were fired. First Selectman Robert Koskelowski, a former police officer, said this is the first time he remembers a Seymour police officer fatally shooting someone. The officer who shot Kissel is off active duty, Koskelowski said. The first selectman and police officials would not comment further.
The police officer shot Kissel after he made a "threatening gesture," Vance said.
Koskelowski said he knew both doctors and that "they were both good people." Kissel was Koskelowski's eye doctor. "Why did this happen?" he asked.
According to a Web site for Kissel's practice, he graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and had been in private practice for more than 30 years.
Tzepos is an active member of the parish council at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Waterbury, which hosts a popular Greek festival every year. He is part of a large extended family with ties to Greater Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley. His father, Zoi, owns Zoi's Pizza in Seymour, said the Rev. Stephen Natsis, pastor at Holy Trinity.
Natsis said George Tzepos and his wife have two young sons and a baby daughter who was baptized recently. "He's a very nice person, very professional," Natsis said. Tzepos was admitted to Yale New Haven Hospital.
"George is going to be OK," said his father Zoi Tzepos, who returned to his son's office later Friday evening to get his red pickup truck from behind police tape. Visibly shaken, he did not comment further and drove down Garden Street, the road directly behind his son's office.
A neighbor of the medical complex, Monica Tallarino of 55 Garden St., said she wasn't home when the shooting occurred, but was shocked to find out what had happened. Her house faces the side of Tzepos' office, which shares the Seymour Optometric Center with another group of doctors.
"Nothing like this happens here," Tallarino said. " This is just shocking and terrible. That's scary that it happened so close."
Ben Conery and Cara Rubinsky contributed to this report.
An eye for an eye?
Eye for an eye?
A woman?
nice one
Did the good doctor have a prescription for the gun?
I'm wondering what the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine will have to say about one of their own committing a gun crime.
Or worse. Perhaps they had their own thing going on?
Something like ..."He became mentally unstable, which only re-enforces our claims that guns should be prohibited, as anyone, at any time, may suffer the same malady, there-by placing all of us in danger".
Now back to the lead story ... "In the latest news on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal ...
Ahhh I think I'd get a second opinon
We haven't heard yet, but if this doctor had a concealed carry permit this could be the start of a campaign to change our current laws.
brain tumor I bet
"The motive for the shooting was unclear" ...indicates a new prescription is needed.....let's keep an eye on this case.......was there an eye-witness?
second opinion: one of them was a pretty good shot...
What this story does not reveal is whether Tzepos is an ophthalmologist or an optometrist. There is a longstanding feud between these two professions. An ophthalmologist has his full medical degree and can prescribe glasses and perform surgery. The optometrist's main duties are to check your eyes and prescribe your refraction. But optometrists are continually lobbying the powers that be to give them more and more license to do more and more procedures normally reserved for the ophthalmologist.
It looks as if Tzepos can perform Lasik, so he must be an MD.
http://www.lasikeyesurgery.com/SendMail.asp?DoctorId=1804&FromUSA=1
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.