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Cop shot dead, 2nd wounded in hospital
Philadelphia Daily News ^ | 9/30/2005 | REGINA MEDINA & EMILY CATALANO

Posted on 09/30/2005 9:07:56 AM PDT by TorahTrueJew

ABUCKS COUNTY man being taken last night by two police officers into the emergency room of St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne for blood and urine tests suddenly grabbed a pistol from one officer, shot him to death and wounded the other, Newtown Borough police said.

He also reportedly shot and wounded a hospital technician before bolting from the room about 6:30 p.m.

Pursued by a hospital employee as he ran to the garage next door, the man dashed up a flight of stairs to the roof.

He smashed his way into a car parked there and refused to budge as dozens of officers from around the area flooded the scene and rushed to the roof, police said.

(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: bang; banglist; cop; officerdown; philadelphia; police
This just amazes me... are they telling me the holster had no thumb-break or any sort of retension that would at least slow some drunk guy in a stupor? Put this on the "only cops are safe with guns" pile along with the Atlanta courthouse shooting, that DEA officer who shot himself with his Glock, and the kid who stole a gun from this grandfather and shot up his school....
1 posted on 09/30/2005 9:07:58 AM PDT by TorahTrueJew
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To: TorahTrueJew

Whoa, its a quagmire there in Philly, we need to pull out cops OUT now!


2 posted on 09/30/2005 9:11:05 AM PDT by Paradox (Just because we are not perfect, does not mean we are not good.)
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To: Paradox

Rove's behind this.


3 posted on 09/30/2005 9:13:16 AM PDT by King Koffee
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To: TorahTrueJew

PLEASE do not post excerpts from this newspaper. You have to give them your entire life hustory to get the whole story online.


4 posted on 09/30/2005 9:19:42 AM PDT by pabianice
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To: TorahTrueJew

You've got to realize that this is a small town (Newtown) with a 4-man police force. Little crime here. They probably rarely use their guns. This is a small and wealthy suburb north of Philadelphia. They just lost half of their force in this incident (one dead, one wounded). And it happened at a Catholic hospital which is one of the safest in the area.


5 posted on 09/30/2005 9:21:17 AM PDT by twigs
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To: pabianice; Larry Lucido; big ern; Squantos; FreedomHasACost
From officer.com

MIDDLETOWN, Penn. -- A police officer is dead after a man grabbed a police pistol and opened fire in a hospital Thursday evening, police said.

Police said the shootings took place at St. Mary Medical Center in the 1200 block of Langhorne-Newton Road at about 6:30 p.m.

Two Newtown Borough police officers had arrested 38-year-old Robert Flor on suspicion of drunken driving and taken him to the hospital for blood and urine testing. As hospital officials were about to conduct the tests, Flor, whose handcuffs had been removed, grabbed Officer James Warunek's gun and shot both officers and a hospital employee before fleeing to the garage roof, police said.

Police said the man grabbed the gun and started shooting so quickly that the other officer, Brian Gregg, did not have a chance to pull his gun.

"After firing five shots from the officer?s weapon, he fled the emergency room. He was chased from the emergency room by another hospital employee. He was ultimately apprehended on the upper floor of the garage," Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons said.

Gregg, who has been working for the Newtown Borough Police Department for one year, died. Warunek, who also has one year on the job, is in good condition.

Flor is in the Bucks County Jail without bond and faces charges of murder and attempted murder.

6 posted on 09/30/2005 9:24:45 AM PDT by Horatio Gates (I do not like Code Pink and Sheehan. I do not like them Sam I am.)
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To: TorahTrueJew

I want to know if the perp's dead body was removed from the garage yet. There is no reason for him to still be alive.


7 posted on 09/30/2005 9:43:12 AM PDT by Big Digger (I)
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To: pabianice

Go to http://www.bugmenot.com/ for free passwords to most online journals. Just enter the web's name, and it will (frequently) give you a password. No muss, no fuss.


8 posted on 09/30/2005 9:45:11 AM PDT by jim35 (Casey Sheehan is spinning in his grave)
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To: TorahTrueJew

Sadly, the officer was killed by complacency.


9 posted on 09/30/2005 9:50:29 AM PDT by Jagdgewehr
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To: TorahTrueJew
Another version of the story:

www.philly.com

10 posted on 09/30/2005 9:55:23 AM PDT by lightman (The Office of the Keys should be exercised as some ministry needs to be exorcised.)
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To: Jagdgewehr
Sadly, the officer was killed by complacency.

Rule # 1: No call is routine. No situation is safe.

11 posted on 09/30/2005 9:57:17 AM PDT by lightman (The Office of the Keys should be exercised as some ministry needs to be exorcised.)
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To: twigs

"This is a small and wealthy suburb north of Philadelphia."

Interesting that you say that. I went to Villanova and I was surprised at how little cross-over crime there was in the Philly suburbs/Main Line committed by Philly hoods. They seemed to play in their own yards. No such luck in suburban Boston.


12 posted on 09/30/2005 9:57:33 AM PDT by Airborne1986 (Well, you can do what you want to us. But we're not going to sit here while you badmouth the U.S.A.)
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To: TorahTrueJew
For this to have happened, a complete breakdown in procedure must have occurred. What a tragedy, God bless them and their families.
13 posted on 09/30/2005 10:32:29 AM PDT by 7thOF7th (Righteousness is our cause and justice will prevail!)
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To: Airborne1986

The reason for that is simple.

In Montgomery and Bucks counties, bad guys from Philly get hammered hard. They don't get a wrist slap like they do in Philly. They get the max.

Word got out really fast.

Sat in court one day and watched a car thief from Fishtown get a full dime. He was stunned. It was funny.


14 posted on 09/30/2005 10:48:51 AM PDT by Al Gator (Remember to pillage BEFORE you burn!)
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To: Horatio Gates
Flor, whose handcuffs had been removed

Here's the relevant sentence.

15 posted on 09/30/2005 10:53:53 AM PDT by ArmstedFragg
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To: ArmstedFragg

Yep. Made things a little to comfortable for bad guy.


16 posted on 09/30/2005 11:01:16 AM PDT by Horatio Gates (I do not like Code Pink and Sheehan. I do not like them Sam I am.)
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To: TorahTrueJew

As someone else mentioned, this is a small town - this is very bigs news for Bucks County.

I hope they go after the death penalty - wish the other police officer had been able to get his gun out and shoot to kill on the spot.


17 posted on 09/30/2005 11:24:01 AM PDT by KEmom (Please send viable Republican candidates to Massachusetts!!)
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To: TorahTrueJew
Why do they f*** around with these dick wads?: The car he broke into should have looked like Bonnie & Clyde's...and he should have been dragged out of it looking like an over ripe Swiss cheese.

How much is the hospital's fault? I have worked where nursing supervisors demanded and got policies that "suspects" (as opposed to convicted prisoners) could not be handcuffed; it is "demeaning" and "stigmatizing".

18 posted on 09/30/2005 12:55:42 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Mohamophages of the world, unite!)
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To: ApplegateRanch
I have worked where nursing supervisors demanded and got policies that "suspects" (as opposed to convicted prisoners) could not be handcuffed; it is "demeaning" and "stigmatizing".

Been there, had that done to me too. Was a paramedic and picked up a 220+ lb guy who probly was on PCP. Took many police officers to take him down. I had a little trick where I could restrain a person like that with just triangular bandages on our backboard. We had leather restraints, but because of the bleeding heart liberals in the medical profession such as you point out, I alway used my trusty triangular bandages and to top if all off, tied them with bow knots.

Obviously, I used some anatomical "weak points" to tie them down and keep them immobilized with just a hand full of cravats, but it looked so innocuous - after all, they were just tied with "bow knots"! Hehehehe

We got the guy into the ER and he was straining to break free, still incoherent. The dumb shift supervisor nurse said, "his hands are turning blue, untie him right now!". I told her that they wouldn't be turning blue if he wasn't struggling to break loose, but she would have none of it. After telling her several times that she didn't want me to untie him, she insisted. I told my driver to get everything of ours out of the room and then I popped the bow knots so he was free- then got out of the room quickly. I stood outside the treatment room, listening to the crashing and breaking of various things, and the call for security. Watched security run past me into the treatment room, loaded up our stuff, got into the ambulance and left.

I don't know how much the damage cost the hospital, but I never was "ordered" to untie a restrained, violent patient again.

Oh, by the way, the nurse was the only person in the room when I untied the guy. She wouldn't even call for assistance before I untied him, contrary to my advise. Typical air-headed, out of touch liberal mentality. Ya know, "Ooooh, I'll look at him sternly so he will immediately stop trying to kill me."

And some of the nurses at that hospital considered us just dumb EMT's.

19 posted on 09/30/2005 5:22:59 PM PDT by hadit2here ("Most men would rather die than think. A Ca Guy proves it." - Bertrand Russell)
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To: hadit2here

oh, how sweet! Some just have to learn the hard way.


20 posted on 09/30/2005 11:37:24 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (Mohamophages of the world, unite!)
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