Posted on 05/13/2007 2:09:20 AM PDT by billorites
The cousin of famed skier Bode Miller who shot and killed a Franconia police officer was then shot and killed by a witness who used the slain officer's .45 caliber gun to do it.
Liko Kenney, 24, of Franconia, convicted in 2003 of assaulting Franconia Police Cpl. Bruce McKay, shot him dead Friday night and then ran over him with his Toyota, authorities said yesterday at a Concord press conference.
Passer-by Gregory W. Floyd, 49, a former Marine, witnessed the shooting and came to the officer's aid.
Floyd positioned his pickup truck to shield the fallen officer, grabbed McKay's .45 caliber gun and shot Kenney, who was in his car, holding his Colt .45 caliber handgun.
McKay's cruiser videotaped the incident. The tape shows McKay, who had not drawn his gun, being shot by Kenney, according to Attorney General Kelly Ayotte. McKay, a 12-year veteran of the Franconia Police Department, was not wearing a bullet-resistant vest.
"This is a terrible loss to our state," Ayotte said. "It once again reminds us of the difficult and dangerous work that is done every day by law enforcement of the state to protect each of us. The police officers of the state, including Cpl. McKay, are nothing short of heroes."
Gov. John Lynch directed all American and state flags be flown at half staff until further notice. Yesterday, he met with members of the Franconia community to extend his condolences and offer assistance.
Governor Lynch speaks to residents outside of the Franconia police station yesterday. "This terrible tragedy has impacted families, the Franconia area and the entire state of New Hampshire," Lynch said in a prepared statement. "My thoughts and prayers, and those of my wife, Susan, are with the family of Cpl. McKay, whose courage, service and commitment to protecting others is an example for us all."
Ayotte, Capt. Russell Conte of the State Police Major Crime Unit, and Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Strelzin, chief of the homicide division, detailed what happened Friday night when a routine traffic stop ended the lives of McKay and Kenney.
At 6:30 p.m., McKay pulled over the 1984 Toyota Celica Kenney was driving on Route 116 in Franconia for speeding and a problem with the car's registration. Caleb Macaulay, 21, Kenney's best friend and co-worker at Merrill's Agway in Littleton, was in the passengr seat.
Kenney asked for another officer to handle the traffic stop when he saw it was McKay who pulled him over, according to Conte and friends of Kenney.
McKay and Kenney had a long-standing dislike of each other, according to Kenney's friends and family. Kenney was convicted in 2003 of assaulting a police officer -- McKay -- and resisting arrest, Ayotte said.
Friday, when McKay refused to call in another officer, Kenney drove off. Rob Hayward, who said he talked with Macaulay, said Kenney drove off at a slow speed.
Conte said he did not know how fast McKay was driving when he overtook theToyota about 1 1/2 miles later on Route 116. Strelzin said McKay, who radioed in the pursuit and asked for backup, pulled his cruiser ahead of Kenney's car, forcing him to stop.
The officer then backed his cruiser into Kenney's Toyota, pushing it off the road and preventing Kenney from driving off a second time. McKay used a "small amount of force, not excessive" to move the car, Strelzin said.
The officer got out of his cruiser, walked up to the driver side of Kenney's car and pepper-sprayed both Kenney and Macauley.
Once he sprayed them, McKay walked away -- Conte said either to avoid the spray himself or to go back to his cruiser to check on something. Authorities don't know for sure.
Kenney fired his Colt .45, as McKay walked away, hitting the officer four times in the "upper trunk", according to Ayotte. She and Strelzin both said they had not seen the complete autopsy report and do not know if the officer was shot in the back or the chest. The bullet wounds killed him, according to the autopsy, they said.
McKay collapsed in the road, and then Kenney ran over him, pinning the officer under his car.
Authorities said Floyd and his son, Gregory P. Floyd, 21, were in their 4-door Tahoe and witnessed the shooting. Floyd, who told investigators he is a Marine veteran, immediately positioned his truck to shield the downed officer. Then he picked up McKay's gun, which was on the ground.
Ayotte said investigators are not sure if McKay drew his gun after he was hit by the shots or if it came loose after he was run over by the Toyota.
Floyd pointed the gun at Kenney, who was still in his car holding the Colt .45, and told him to drop the gun. When Kenney failed to comply, Floyd pulled the trigger, killing the 24-year-old man.
Ayotte said Floyd's actions appear to be a "justified use of deadly force."
Bode Miller, who once bailed his cousin out of jail, is en route to Franconia, his father said.
Merrill said Kenney was learning the job at Agway, was good with customers and had "good future here ... I think it's a shame it had to happen."
It was Carl Drega. Up in Columbia. Just below Colebrook.
From the article mentioned in # 13.
The feeder street outside my subdivision is 45 mph and has a blind corner. Pull out and somebody doing 60+ flys around the corner and starts hitting the horn and flashing lights as they start riding your bumper.
I think the dead scumbag had a number of problems, all cured now but at the terrible loss of a LEO. To shoot a cop and then run over him. I don’t care what the provocation, that’s just wrong.
He’s the offspring of hippy parents and fits the image. I doubt if he has a lot of money. And his image was tarnished (rightfully so) after the ‘06 Olympics.
I’m sure Floyd was trying to make a citizens arrest.
“I live on a 25 mph street and people routinely flash through doing 45 mph.”
Speed bumps.
When I lived in Rochester,NY you could call the city and request they install speed bumps on your street. It only took a few residents asking to get the city to install them.
Pulling people over for small traffic violations sometime leads to bigger crimes, but then you may know about that.
Drive by character assasination...how quaint, and predictable. Intimating that I would escalate the situation if I were to be pulled over 'cause I'm a criminal at heart?
Do you think we did not watch him?
Oh, I'm sure we did.
Now Phil I bet if some guy told you he had no problem killing you, you would demand the cops protect you, or would you kill him first?
Now, tiger-1, you're coloring the picture. I would have no problem killing you, or anyone else, if they were in the act of harming myself or others and I was in a position to stop it. I would expect that someone else in the same position would put me down. So see, I've got no problem with someone saying they had no problem killing me. A cop would say such a thing, wouldn't they? "I have no problem killing "whomever" if I caught them in the act of a crime endangering myself or others."
Would you like to "kill me" right now for being such a smartass (in your perceptions, of course)?
However, if you, or someone else, were to say straight out that they were going to kill me (see how the words shift the emphasis in how they're said) then that's another story.
As to police protection, you should be the first person to know that the proper course of events would be to put a restraining order out on the person making such a threat, not go out and kill them first. I would, however, take all precautions I thought necessary to protect myself from that person including arming myself, 'cause cops have no duty to protect me, that duty is mine! (or do I need to show you the court cases where that is shown?)
Could you be any more obtuse and condescending?
Nothing like getting the whole story, is there?
Pat Grossmith needs to find a new line of work, either that or sober up and put down the bong before attempting to keyboard.
Yeah, it's no model of clarity.
Pat Grossmith, there are a lot of unemployed ink-stained wretches wandering around out there today. Better get your A-Game on.
You have that right. Was Cpl McKay following department policy in the stop? Pulling in front of the suspect's car, backing into the car and pushing it off of the road? Pepper spraying the occupants and then walking away? Not wearing a vest?
This was designed for disaster.
I guess we’ll have to disagree on this issue.
There are many ways to handle “rogue cops” without killing them.
Every encounter I’ve had with an LEO I’ve been polite from the start, even when I was in the wrong. The LEO was polite, even when he gave me a ticket.
More people should try being polite, it works wonders.
Which, of course, justifies Kenney shooting the officer dead (possibly in the back, but undrawn nonetheless) and then running over him with his car.
Seriously, WTF is wrong with you?
Regardless of the ‘long standing issues’ between the two, Kenney had been stopped justifiably.
No problem. IMO 70% of the people reading this thread, and the other threads on it, won’t go any further than what they read at FR. Following links pays off. (and I didn’t have to register anywhere to do it!)
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