|
|
|
 > |
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
|
Posted on 07/08/2003 3:44:40 AM PDT by visagoth
State police trooper killed during standoff
The Associated Press 7/8/2003, 2:35 a.m. ET
FREMONT, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan State Police trooper was killed Monday during a standoff with a barricaded man, state police said.
Trooper Kevin Marshall, 33, was shot and taken to an area hospital Monday afternoon, where he died during surgery, state police said in a statement.
Marshall was with the Newaygo post and had served with the state police for eight years. He was honored with the Michigan State Police Bravery Award in May, officials said.
State police said the standoff in Fremont began early Monday morning when officers from the Hesperia Police Department and the Newaygo County Sheriff's Department tried to serve the man with a felony warrant for criminal sexual conduct.
The suspect barricaded himself in his home, and the Michigan State Police Emergency Support Team was called. Marshall was a member of that team.
The suspect fired two shots at the officers while they were attempting to negotiate with him. A state police entry team then entered the home, and the suspect shot at them.
The standoff in Fremont, about 30 miles northeast of Muskegon, was ongoing Monday night.
State Police Col. Tadarial Sturdivant said Monday was a sad day for the Michigan State Police, the state of Michigan and the Marshall family.
"Today we lost a courageous and caring young man in the prime of his life," he said.
Marshall is the 49th Michigan State Police trooper to die in the line of duty. His death is the department's first in three years.
|
|
|
|
> |
FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794
|
|
It is in the breaking news sidebar! |
|
All that need be mentioned is a 'sex crime', now this guy is instantly hated. I'm curious as to the complete story, something doesn't sound right.
It sucks the cop got killed, though.
The suspects sister was just on TV - saying that the she thinks his words were nowhere near that. She says that the suspect is believes in the strict subordination of women, as written in the Bible, and that he was probably telling the 'scantilly' dressed teens that they should cover themselves.
The sister also say that the suspect believed women should never wear shorts or pants - and should wear dresses only.
Hated by whom?
Public Opinion. Anytime a person is accused of a sex-crime, their reputation is instantly ruined. A cousin of mine said it best:
"They can make you dirty, but they can't make you clean."
Need another example? Look at the Koby Bryant story. The media was all over it because it was a 'sex-crime'.
I find myself biting my tounge every time I go into town. Some teens apparently have little taste. My step-daughter tried to dress like Brittney Spears or Christina Agulara (IOW, like a little whore), and I put my foot down.
Doubt it. People with "obsessions" like this are generally unstable and will say anything. His belief in subordination could have caused his desire to bring them into correction in his harem.
Here's another one--except he's accused of trolling a teenage boy.
| Posted on Fri, Jul. 04, 2003 |   |
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||||
Fiery street preacher accused of solicitation
|
||||||||||
WEST CHESTER - The Rev. C. Stephen White's bullhorn-amplified, open-air preaching against homosexuals and "fornicators" has riled students and annoyed authorities on campuses and street corners in Philadelphia and beyond for more than a decade.
But if a 14-year-old boy from West Chester is telling the truth, the minister - known on area college campuses as Brother Stephen - may have practiced what he condemned.
White, 40, who also runs an urban ministry for children in North Philadelphia, was accused at an arraignment here yesterday of offering to pay money to perform oral sex on the boy on June 26. White remains in the Chester County Prison with his bail set at $100,000 cash. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 1.
White, who lives in North Philadelphia, appeared 90 minutes late for his arraignment yesterday looking anxious and holding a Bible.
He declined to comment.
Michael Considine Jr., his West Chester attorney, said White proclaimed his innocence, saying that he had only stopped to ask directions from the boy.
"Someone is lying here," Considine said, adding, "I believe [White] is innocent."
Authorities did not identify the boy who made the accusation. He told police that a man, whom he later identified from a driver's license photo as White, drove up beside him on the street in West Chester and asked whether he knew of any strip clubs or stores that sold adult books.
A short time later, the boy said, White offered to commit the act for money. The boy said no and walked away. He then memorized the license tag on the vehicle, repeating it to himself as he ran to his aunt's nearby house. The tag number was later traced to White.
The charges against White include criminal solicitation of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and other offenses.
Considine said White had been visiting him in West Chester on June 26 to talk about a federal lawsuit he has filed against the Philadelphia Police Department concerning several arrests for street-corner preaching. The suits sought better police training in handling similar situations, he said.
West Chester authorities said White has no prior criminal record; his attorney said all charges were dropped in the preaching arrests, which took place over a period of several years on South Street, North Broad Street near Temple University, and near St. Joseph's University.
When West Chester District Justice Mark Bruno asked White at his arraignment whether he had ever been arrested, the minister said he had, "for preaching the Bible."
White has periodically appeared on campuses as far away as New Haven, Conn.; Binghamton, N.Y.; and Princeton, where he was known as Brother Stephen.
A student newspaper account of White's visit to Binghamton University in 2002 said his outdoor preaching included declarations that "fornicators" and homosexuals blaspheme God.
He told the Princeton Spectator that it was his practice while preaching on campuses to point out women in tight-fitting clothes and call them "whores." He also told the paper that "homosexuals will go to hell. That's offensive, but it's true. Jesus offended a lot of people."
On White's Pennpreacher.org Web site, he includes a list of celebrities who are destined to go to hell. They include: "Lucille Ball - made thousands laugh but did not know God," "Muhammad - false prophet," pop singer "John Denver - loved animals and nature more than God. Loved creature more than Creator," and gay murder victim "Matthew Shepard - sodomite."
Zeal began in teen years
White, who was born in Culver City, Calif., said on his Web site and in interviews that he lived for several years in Arkansas. He said he became serious about religion when he was a teenager and later became a Pentecostal minister.
He moved to Philadelphia in 1991, he told the Princeton paper, because the Northeast is "the most spiritually dark part of the country. If you want to spread the word of God," this is the place to do it."
White, who is married and has three children, started a campus group called Soldiers for Christ at Temple University and worked at a youth ministry in Clayton, N.J., he said on his Web site. He also began an urban ministry for children in North Philadelphia that was first called the Victory Outreach Center and later renamed the Philadelphia Gospel Outreach Center.
White's open-air theatrics had rankled students on the Penn campus for years, and even prompted the chaplain's office to hold a panel discussion on his methods in 1998. "Sometimes he would bring his own kids along with him," said Ian Sneed of Penn's InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter. "His son would try to be like Daddy, ranting and raving while holding a Bible."
Job status unclear
White said at his arraignment that he also worked for the Delta-T Group in Bryn Mawr, a broker of contract services that provides licensed and non-licensed professionals to hospitals, community mental health centers, outpatient treatment facilities, and residential homes.A spokesman for the company said he found no record of employment for Smith.
Yesterday, neighbors around the former North Philadelphia garage in the 2100 block of Van Pelt Street that White has spent the last two years trying to turn into a ministry headquarters said they were disturbed by the news of his arrest. "
"It's scary, it really is," said Virginia McCall, 72, a retiree. "I really hope it's not true."
Neighbors described White as an outgoing figure with a particular interest in ministering to children. Soon after arriving on the block, White distributed flyers to neighbors advertising his youth ministry.
Some children responded well to the minister, whom they called "Brother C," said Carolyn Cooper, 38, a neighbor. Around the holidays, Cooper said, White distributed toys such as basketballs and action figures to local youngsters.
At last August's Community Day block party, organized by a neighboring church, White donned a clown suit and roller skates. "He was like a pied piper," said Virginia McCall, 72, whose grandson occasionally stopped at White's establishment.
Other neighbors remember White leading long games of basketball inside the building. "I've seen him playing basketball with the kids a lot," said Ron Peoples, 22, another neighbor.
Some parents said they grew leery of the newcomer, who seemed to discourage too much parental involvement. "I was always curious about his intentions," said Cooper. "Basically, he was like, 'Bring your kids and go away.' It all kind of made me nervous."
But neighbors said they'd never heard allegations against the minister. And at the Martin Luther King Community Center on Cecil B. Moore Avenue in North Philadelphia, where White led youth classes before his ministry moved into the Van Pelt Street building, longtime staffer Bo Justice said no one had ever complained, either.
Considine, White's lawyer, said his client was shaken by the arrest but consoled himself with "the Scripture that says that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose."
|
The resulting confrontation led to one trooper being killed, another injured and a standoff lasting into a second day, forcing evacuated neighbors to spend the night at a nearby elementary school. The suspect remained barricaded in the home this morning.
"His worst fears were coming true," said Jerry Woodring, the father of 40-year-old Woodring, who police said holed up in his home after authorities tried to serve an arrest warrant Monday morning for soliciting sex from a minor at a Hesperia Wesco gas station.
The father also said he doubted his son would come out of the house alive.
"We expect them to carry Scott out in a body bag," Woodring said.
Authorities said this morning they were ready to wait Woodring out. "We are not going to leave until we accomplish the goal, and that is to place him under arrest," State Police Inspector Barry Getzen said. "We will be prepared for many different options. ... Anything's an option."
Officers haven't had contact with Woodring since Monday afternoon. "At this point we're just in a waiting pattern," Getzen said.
He wouldn't say why authorities believe Woodring is still in the house, but said they are confident he is.
State police have continuously circled the area to show the suspect that they're not going away.
When police tried to enter the house Monday afternoon, there was an exchange of gunfire that resulted in a fatal wound to Trooper Kevin Marshall, Getzen said.
The 33-year-old father of two wastaken to Spectrum Health Butterworth Campus on Monday afternoon, where he died during surgery, state police said in a statement.
Marshall was with the Newaygo post and had served with the state police for eight years. He was honored with the Michigan State Police Bravery Award in May for wresting a knife away from a woman who was trying to stab someone, officials said.
"He was a great individual, an outstanding officer and a great family guy, well-respected in the community," Getzen said. "We're going to miss him."
Getzen said officials would evaluate the circumstances that led to the killing.
When a reporter asked whether Marshall could have been shot by friendly fire, Getzen said the matter remains under investigation and that authorities would examine evidence at the hospital to "determine what rounds the officer was hit with."
Dozens of police vehicles from the state, county and nearby departments lined the 3500 block of Osborn Avenue in Dayton Township. Neighbors were removed from their homes Monday night and sent to wait out the event at nearby Pathfinder Elementary School.
State police said the standoff began early Monday morning when officers from the Hesperia Police Department and the Newaygo County Sheriff's Department tried to serve Woodring with a felony warrant for criminal sexual conduct.
Family members say Woodring is accused of soliciting sex on July 1 at the gas station, where he encountered a group of young women.
His sister, Debbie DeVisser, said that Woodring believed women should be subservient to men, and the way they do that is by dressing the way he believes the Bible commands.
"He thinks women should wear dresses, not pants," said DeVisser, who added that her brother spent hours studying at the Calvin College library to learn about the Bible. "It's possible they were dressed provocatively and he said something."
The girls filed a complaint in Hesperia and an arrest warrant was issued.
The suspect barricaded himself in his house, and the State Police Emergency Support Team was called. Marshall was a member of that team.
The suspect fired two shots at the officers while they were attempting to negotiate with him. A state police team then entered the house, and the suspect shot at them.
Later, Woodring's wife, Darlene, asked police to help her escape from the home.
Most neighbors and acquaintances described the suspect as a seemingly nice guy -- if a bit quirky. They told of the bearded Woodring riding around town on his bicycle with no shirt -- even during cold weather. His only income was a newspaper delivery route.
"He used to ask us if we needed help. I never thought he'd do something like this," said neighbor Debbie Salkovich.
They also described Woodring's philosophies, a blend of anti-tax rhetoric, self-taught theology and militia-inspired paranoia. His father and older sister say he believed a nuclear holocaust was coming. He also had a cache of weapons, canned food, water and likely gas masks and other protective gear that he collected while preparing for the anticipated havoc that was predicted for Jan. 1, 2000.
In 1996, Woodring ran for Dayton Township supervisor on an anti-government platform.
He believed that the Bible and the Constitution were opposed to income tax, registration of vehicles and regulating gun ownership. He received several tickets for refusing to register his car, his sister said, but there was no record of any more serious crimes.
"He was a militia member, but it was the non-violent militia," DeVisser said. "He was not a violent man at all."
DeVisser and her father placed as much, if not more, blame for the situation on police, who they say only made the situation worse.
DeVisser said she was sympathetic toward the family of the slain trooper, but believes if she had been allowed to speak to her brother, she could have talked him out before things spun out of control.
Police swarmed around Woodring's home throughout the night, spotlighting the house and circling overhead in a helicopter.
During the night police turned off Woodring's phone and power, used a ramming device on the home and knocked down a HAM radio tower he was using to communicate with his wife. At various points loud explosions were heard from the direction of the home.
"It's something you don't want to see happen, I wish it had never happened, but what are you going to do?" Jerry Woodring said.
State Police Col. Tadarial Sturdivant said Monday was a sad day for the state police, the state of Michigan and the Marshall family.
"Today we lost a courageous and caring young man in the prime of his life," he said.
Marshall is the 49th Michigan trooper to die in the line of duty. His death is the department's first in three years.
Press reporter John Agar and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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.
