Ohio Amish Community Shaken by Shooting

Yahoo ^

[sonsofliberty2000]

Ohio Amish Community Shaken by Shooting Thu Sep 4, 2:55 AM ET

By JOE MILICIA, Associated Press Writer

MOUNT HOPE, Ohio - It's an annual prank in this tranquil Amish community, where men wear straw hats and women bonnets and plain dresses: Youngsters hide in cornfields and hurl tomatoes at passing cars.

This year, the mischief turned deadly.

A motorist who had been pelted several times on Labor Day got out of his car and fired three to five rounds into the 7-foot-high corn, killing 23-year-old Steven L. Keim.

No arrest has been made.

Residents are reeling from shock, unable to understand why anybody would retaliate so violently. Authorities say the county hadn't seen a firearm-related homicide in about three decades.

"The prank has gone on for years and years," said Marty Yoder, who owns Marty's Shoes in this town about 60 miles south of Cleveland. "All over the county it's been happening every year."

The shooting occurred just north of Mount Hope in Holmes County, where the clip-clop of horses pulling Amish buggies is just as common as the sound of passing automobiles.

Holmes County has what is believed to be the world's largest population of Amish, who do not believe in modern conveniences such as electricity and automobiles.

Keim, 23, an Apple Creek resident of Amish heritage, died of multiple wounds to the chest, Holmes County Coroner Robert Anthony said.

Keim was with about 10 other members of the Amish community, ages 15 to 23. The group told the sheriff's office they had been throwing tomatoes and firing paintball guns at passing vehicles.

The crime scene is marked by trampled corn stalks that interrupt an otherwise uniform stretch roadside corn. About eight rows into the cornfield, well hidden from the road, two buckets of rotting, fly-covered tomatoes still sat.

According to the sheriff's department, the driver of a Lincoln or Cadillac stopped, got out and threatened to shoot whoever threw the tomatoes Monday night.

The vehicle turned around and drove past the cornfield again. The car was struck with tomatoes a second time.

About 25 minutes later the vehicle passed the cornfield two more times. On a third pass, the driver stopped and challenged the group to throw more tomatoes — then fired his shotgun into the cornfield.

The sheriff's department did not have a suspect, only a vague description of a middle-aged male of medium height.

Residents say the community will be nervous until the shooter is caught.

"People won't be resting too good until they know who it is at least," said Ivan Miller, 41. "He should be punished. The guy lost it."

Wayne Miller, an Amish man from nearby Kidron, said the young people "shouldn't have been throwing tomatoes."

"But if people start shooting people for throwing tomatoes, this country's in bad shape," he said.

Keim was born into an Amish family, but his family left the Amish church and became Mennonites, said Yoder.

Mennonites share similar beliefs with the Amish, but drive cars and use more modern conveniences.

"He was a real outgoing person, always willing to help you," Yoder said.

[wideawake]

The prankster in question was not Amish. He was a nominal Mennonite, and the Mennonites aren't always as readily recognizable as the Amish.

[mountaineer]

I don't know what the vigilante caucus is. I stated that deadly force was not appropriate, and never advocated shooting vandals, but also noted that throwing objects at moving cars can be dangerous. If you can't see the distinction, I'm sorry.

[marshmallow]

Boooooooooo!!!!!!

Did I frighten anyone? Make anyone spill their coffee?? Hell, I hope not! Judging by the posts on this and other threads on this topic, FR might have an anti-prank militia which could be dispatched to rub me out.

It sure is good to know that Freepers believe that tomato throwing deserves the death penalty.

What's the penalty for water balloons? Anyone?

Whackos.

[50sDad]

The Amish have paintball guns??

Actually, this makes perfect sense. The Amish avoid any "modern" device that creates a dependence/connection with the outside world. Electricity is "hard wired" in on power lines, and so is shunned. Bottled propane for stoves is allowed. Paintball guns, via the propane example, would be permitted...they run off of CO2 cartridges, right?

However laudable the Amish contention to shun material things, though, it sounds like the rules can be parsed for the right reasons...I have heard that cordless power tools, run on DC batteries, are permitted by clergy to be used in the famous Amish furniture!

[Thud]

This might merit a Darwin Award - these Amish idiots were using paintball guns as well as tomatoes. Paintball guns can blind people, and the cars attacked sometimes had open windows.

I read a story here on the Freep a while ago about some white teenagers who fire paintball guns at pedestrians from their car in an urban black neighborhood. One of their victims shot back with a real gun and killed of the paintball idiots.

[Thud]

Yup. This one was murder. Invited murder but still murder.

[50sDad]

Look up the definition of "assault". Any kind of assault is wrong, on both sides. But I am surprised that the staid Amish parents would permit this to go on for as long as this "traddition" apparently has.

[concerned about politics]

There's been no evidence the assailant knew these so-called "kids" were Amish. He probably just thought they were punks - and he'd be right.

In Amish country? They live in large groups. They cover wide areas. It's hard to miss an Amish countryside.
I have to dissagree with you on this one. They were easy targets. THE easiest targets.
The kids were wrong, I'll agree there, but I think the guy felt superiority.

[concerned about politics]

What's the penalty for water balloons? Anyone?

Lethal injection.

[50sDad]

I am told by an FBI buddy that laser pointers are outlawed in Washington, DC. True anyone? Imagine you are a cop, walking a beat, and you see an intense red dot appear on your buddy's back. Swivel, kneel and fire? And what of the "prankster" who tagged the cop with that $12.95 "toy"?

[Bikers4Bush]

Show me where anyone who posted here said the guy deserved to die for throwing tomatoes.

All most of us have said is that the prank is not so innocent. I haven't seen anyone post that he deserved to die.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Failure with reading comprehension? Who here has advocated that the kid deserved to be killed? No one. I called the shooter a murderer. But at the same time it doesn't excuse stupid vandalous actions that precipitated this. The kids were causing trouble, and risking a reaction. They got an overreaction, but it doesn't excuse their lawbreaking. Yes, it is against the law to shoot paintballs and damage cars. How would you like it if you some 23 year old's 'prank' ended up costing you $2000 dollars for a new paint job on your car?

Yeah, it is a shame that some pick on the Amish, but that doesn't excuse lawbreaking on the part of their kids(if the kids really were Amish). And maybe this incident will cause some of those parents to reassess the wisdom of their look-the-other-way attitude when allowing their kids to go through a 'sowing their wild oats' phase. Those unfamiliar with that aspect of the Amish culture might want to research it a bit, they'd be quite surprised at how it conflicts with the quiet religious stereotype. Some of the wildest teens in Central PA (where I lived) were Amish. Yeah, it surprised me at first, too.

Actions can lead to consequences, sometimes unfairly or out of proportion, but that is the risk that is taken.

[headsonpikes]

Okay. 'deadly force was not appropriate'.

You're no vigilante.

[mountaineer]

Youngsters hide in cornfields and hurl tomatoes at passing cars.

They were hiding in a cornfield and the driver could guess their religious affiliation? More power to him.

[Diddle E. Squat]

But I am surprised that the staid Amish parents would permit this to go on for as long as this "traddition" apparently has.

Google the phrase 'sowing wild oats', 'rumschpringe', and 'Amish'. You'll be surprised.

[Physicist]

By his traffic pattern, the shooter is probably a local.

Oh, I wouldn't say that. He might have come back looking for trouble, hoping to settle the score for the first incident. Either way, he'd better have a damn good reason for going back that way a second and a third time, assuming they catch him.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

In some jurisdictions a projectile of greater than an ounce is assault with a deadly weapon.

[50sDad]

I recall that from some recess of my gray matter. It is funny the trouble that "social engineering" of any stripe runs into when confronted with human Id. Anybody remember "the Red Hour" in the old TOS Star Trek episode where Landru the computer ran a "perfect" society?

[mtbopfuyn]

Throw the "youngsters" in jail. They could have caused an accident. Paint guns do not follow their staunch belief of non-violence and turning the other cheek and neither does tomatoes.

Obviously law enforcement has turned a blind year for years to this activity so filing charges against unknown persons in a corn field would not have been investigated. I can understand the guy getting angry, I would have been angry too. Chasing them down would have been fruitless (no pun) and if he'd caught one he'd be brought up on charges himself. Granted firing shots into the field was wrong, but no more wrong in throwing objects at a moving car.

[IGOTMINE]

Yup! Paintball guns are in the bible, right next to the orange flourescent "slow vehicle" signs!