The ballistics tests are totally irrelevant. Had Woodring gone quietly Sunday evening, Trooper Marshall would not have been in the line of fire Monday afternoon.
Posted on 07/09/2003 5:52:58 AM PDT by Vigilant1
DAYTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) ? Fire burned the rural home of a man who barricaded himself inside during a deadly police standoff, but authorities were unable to find him when they searched the rubble, Michigan State Police said.
Two hours after the Tuesday afternoon fire, officials found a backpack filled with food and ammunition about three-quarters of a mile away, said Tracy Pardo, a state police communications officer.
The wife of the barricaded man, Scott Allen Woodring, 40, identified the backpack as her husband's, Pardo told the Detroit Free Press for a Wednesday story.
State police said Woodring was believed to be inside when they fired a concussion grenade into the house, which went up in flames a short time later. They were uncertain whether the explosive device, intended to stun Woodring, started the fire or if he set it.
State police scheduled a news conference for Wednesday morning.
Trooper Kevin Marshall, a 33-year-old married father of two and a native of Sterling Heights, was shot Monday afternoon during the standoff. He died later during surgery at a Grand Rapids hospital.
State police were called in after the confrontation erupted Sunday night.
Woodring barricaded himself when officers from the Hesperia Police Department and the Newaygo County Sheriff's Department tried to serve him at his Dayton Township home with a felony arrest warrant. The township is adjacent to Fremont, about 30 miles northeast of Muskegon.
The warrant accuses Woodring of soliciting a minor for sex on July 1 at a gas station, The Grand Rapids Press reported.
Several hours into the standoff, police helped Woodring's wife escape the home, leaving him alone inside.
After Woodring allegedly fired two shots from the house on Monday afternoon, the State Police Emergency Support Team stormed inside and then withdrew. Marshall, an eight-year state police veteran who served on the team, was shot at that time.
When asked whether Marshall could have been hit by a bullet shot by another officer, state police Inspector Barry Getzen said the matter remained under investigation and authorities would examine evidence to "determine what rounds the officer was hit with."
Tom Wayne, former chief of staff and executive officer of the Michigan Militia Corps Wolverines, told The Detroit News that Woodring was active in the group until the mid-1990s. They parted ways over ideological differences.
"He started getting more and more into the Christian Identity movement," said Wayne, who said the militia is largely inactive now.
The movement espouses racist, sexist, anti-Semitic and homophobic beliefs.
Woodring's sister, Debbie DeVisser, of Mount Pleasant, described her brother as a deeply religious man who would help anyone and not ask for anything in return.
Asked if she thought he would shoot at someone, DeVisser said, "Scott would not shoot anybody to harm anybody. The only reason he would have shot (at police) was because he felt threatened and to protect himself."
DeVisser said she wished police had allowed family members to talk to Woodring on Tuesday and speculated that family may have been able to talk him out. Relatives were allowed to converse with him on Monday, the same day police said they last spoke with him during the standoff.
Suzie Burdick, of Everett Township in Newaygo County, said she and Woodring have been close friends for five years. She said they have attended the same church for about a year and often spoke several times a day, mostly about the Bible.
Burdick noted that while Woodring holds strong anti-government views, he was a nonviolent person.
"He's the most loving person I've ever known, just about. He's kind, considerate, loving, caring and loved his wife dearly," Burdick said.
Meanwhile, Gov. Jennifer Granholm has ordered flags at all state buildings to be lowered to half-staff until sundown of the day of Marshall's funeral. Funeral arrangements have not yet been completed, according to her office.
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.
Anyway:
Every indication is that the cops showed up with all the heavy hardware when they served the warrant.
Where do you get that? Every story so far tells that police from the Hesperia and Fremont police attempted to serve the arrest warrant and only called in the state troopers after he barricaded himself in. Fremont and Hesperia are tiny towns, how much heavy hardware do you think they can afford?
You seem to think Barney Fife politely knocked on Woodring's front door, and was sprayed with bullets or something.Not at all. I'm familiar with the timeline. The trooper wasn't killed until roughly 24 hours into the standoff, by which time Barney Fife had been out of the picture for quite a while.
Actually, it wasn't so much putting words in your mouth, as it was a statement of the knee-jerk responses I've seen thrown at anyone questioning the cops motives.
That would seem to be the case.
Chief Wiggins screwed up.
"He broke the law! He solicited a minor for sex and was presented with a warrant."
No, he was accused of this. People are innocent until proven guilty where I come from.
Ah, so we're to have a trial, before the arrest? Then if the Bad Guy is convicted in the pre-arrest trial, he'll have to come in, but only if it's convenient, and not on a weekend or anything like that, for the real trial. Of course, that's only if there's no fringe on the flag in the courtroom.
Get off it, Vig. There was an arrest warrant for this whackjob. While it's not the case that anyone who is arrested is guilty, it's also true that judges don't just hand out arrest warrants.
The constituitional right to due process does not include taking one's innocent wife hostage and barricading oneself in one's home, and endangering one's neighbors enough to require an evacuation of the 2,011 surrounding acres, and certainly not murdering a police officer.
The article from yesterday, after the policeman had been shot, but before the house burned, so stated.
The article did not have any of the "opinion" phrases this one had - like "The movement espouses racist, sexist, anti-Semitic and homophobic beliefs." When I hear that from a reporter, without any supporting quotes from the organization, it raises a red flag. At any rate, the previous article seemed unbiased and factual.
That's where "hostage" came from.
The ballistics tests are totally irrelevant. Had Woodring gone quietly Sunday evening, Trooper Marshall would not have been in the line of fire Monday afternoon.
Here is another perspective on this. It's a very different view of Woodring than the one given by his fellow militia members. I would think fellow militia members, knowing Woodring personally and spending time with him, would be better informed that people passing on local gossip, but in fairness I posted the link here anyways.
Michigan militia chaplin killed in raid
Now I am actually going to go to sleep.
I'll be happy to point you to a Christian Identity website if you want. It'll raise so many red flags that you think you're on Red Square.
You don't suppose they're combing through the ashes for the remainders of the weapons?
We're in tinfoil territory here, of course. It's sad that a trooper had to die when there may have been a peaceful way to get this done. I have no sympathy with CI, though.
You've got it backwards. The wife came out after 3 hours (late Sunday/early Monday). The police officer was shot after 18 hours (Sunday):
The standoff began about 10 p.m. Sunday when officers from the Hesperia Police Department and the Newaygo County Sheriff's Department had tried to serve the suspect a felony warrant for criminal sexual conduct.
The suspect ran into his home and took his wife hostage, police said. The suspect barricaded himself in his home. About three hours later, his wife escaped the home unharmed, leaving the suspect alone in the home.
Police officers worked all day Monday trying to persuade the man to surrender before the special team entered the home about 4 p.m. and the shoot-out began, McGreevy said. He fired two shots at the officers before the Emergency Support Team entered the home.
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