James Tully of Canadensis, who has to walk to work in the heart of the Eric Frein search area, has been stopped by police more than 20 times, including an encounter Friday night when he says he was roughed by an officer.
Posted on 10/21/2014 1:47:36 PM PDT by Bettyprob
James Tully of Canadensis, who has to walk to work in the heart of the Eric Frein search area, has been stopped by police more than 20 times, including an encounter Friday night when he says he was roughed by an officer.
Police searching for Eric Frein have questioned James Tully so many times that he started carrying his driver’s license and work identification on a neck lanyard to prove his identity.
But that wasn’t enough to keep him from being forced to the ground by gunpoint Friday on Route 447, and being held there, face down in the gravel, by a law enforcement officer driving a knee into his back, Tully said.
Tully, 39, lives off Snow Hill Road in Canadensis which has been a key area in the search for fugitive Eric Frein, the man accused of ambushing the police barracks In Blooming Grove on Sept. 12, fatally shooting a state trooper and injuring another.
A father of two, Tully has held a job at J.A. Reinhardt on Spruce Cabin Road, in Mountainhome for more than a year. He keeps up on his child support payments and barely makes the rest of his bills.
Tully does not own a car. The five-mile walk takes two hours each way. He walks to work in the early afternoon and walks home from midnight until 2 a.m. It hasn't been easy, Tully has a bad knee and sometimes walks with a brace and a limp.
The walk takes him along Route 447, a hot spot in the search for Frein. Since the search began, Tully has been stopped well over 20 times and questioned by law enforcement officers. Tully says he's been questioned as much as seven times during a round-trip walk to and from work.
Until Friday, it has usually been the same. Law enforcement rolls up and asks for his name and identification, where he is coming from, where he works, and then they move on. Some have asked him to keep his eyes and ears open for Frein and Tully did report a suspicious person to police once, since the search started.
Tully left work around midnight Friday and about 25 feet from his job’s driveway, police stopped and questioned him as usual.
A co-worker saw him and gave him a lift off Spruce Cabin Road to Route 447 where he walked for five minutes before another routine police questioning. He continued on for 10 more minutes and was near Brinkers Bridge near the intersection of Route 447 and Mill Creek Road when a silver SUV stopped.
"The driver jumped out screaming like a lunatic,” Tully said. He was dressed in camouflage and a tactical vest and had a rifle held high, pointing at Tully.
He did not see a badge or words on clothing. The man did not identify himself.
“The only I.D. I saw was the barrel of the gun,” Tully said.
“He yelled at me to get down on the ground with my arms out wide and he demanded my name.”
Tully says he complied immediately and that the man drove his knee into Tully’s back and continued to ask his name.
Tully told him his name over and over and explained that his identification was on the lanyard on his neck but that he was laying on it.
The law enforcement officer removed the bandana from Tully’s head and then grabbed the lanyard and yanked it off his neck.
“Good thing it had a break away clasp or he would have choked me.”
He continued to badger Tully.
“I will break you right here. What is your name?” the man asked, while still driving a knee into his back, Tully said.
Tully did not know where the gun was but he was afraid the man would shoot him.
“From the minute I saw him with that gun I thought, let me survive this.”
This went on for what seemed like 15 minutes or more when a state trooper who recognized Tully from previous questioning arrived and told the other officer that Tully was telling the truth about his name.
The trooper held out a hand and helped Tully stand up and helped him gather the items he had been carrying, which were scattered on the ground.
No one apologized.
It is unclear what agency the other officer is working with because Tully does not recall seeing any identification on the vehicle or the man’s clothing, and state police did not answer questions about this incident in time for this report.
The FBI, ATF, and US Marshall service are helping state police in the search.
“The trooper took a photo of me and my I.D. and said he would show it to searchers in the morning briefing,” Tully said.
Then, with scrapes and bruising on his bad knee, and pain in his back, Tully limped the rest of the way home.
He walked to work the next day, and was stopped three times. A trooper strongly advised Tully to find a different way to work, but the only other route for Tully is to walk through the woods. That would be even more suspicious. He cannot afford to give anyone money for gas and his parents, who live in Bushkill, cannot drive at night. He is out of options.
Tully did not finish his shift because he started to notice pain while breathing. He was taken to the hospital and learned that his ribs are bruised from the encounter.
He hopes police will pay for the time he had to take off work and for the X-rays and other medical expenses.
“We understand they have a job to do. Bur there are certain protocols,” said Bob Tully, James Tully’s father. “This guy apparently had delusions of grandeur that he would be the one to catch Frein. We completely commiserate with the police but this guy went full commando on my son.”
His mother, Linda Waddington Tully, bought a reflective vest, hat and gloves which he will now wear during the walk.
“Frein isn’t going to be wearing that,” she said. “I believe if not for that state trooper, he could have killed him.”
James Tully says he is having a hard time sleeping at night and he is nervous to walk to work now. “I’m worried about what is going to happen with the next one. Is he going to shoot first and ask questions later?”
This news article probably has a bunch of attorneys coming out of the woodwork now, so there will be no lack of advice for him.
Keep this crap up, officers, and you will learn what being on the “wrong side” is all about.
There are about a million police officers, but 300 million CITIZENS. Do your own figuring when the dogs of war slip.
Bootlickers in 3-2-1...
When the sovereignty of the citizen in a Republic becomes merely one more voter in a democracy, things like this happen.
So you've walked a mile or two in his shoes, have you ?
I don’t know anything about a “sovereignty of the citizen in a Republic.” The US Constitution is just one more promise made by men, either to keep or to break.
There is, however, the inexorable right of every man to declare strict allegiance to the Creator. But this is a Creator who has set forth some rules that “self sovereigntists” may not like.
Who can ascertain that he isn’t long gone from there by now? He might be reading about this brouhaha from halfway across the country, and laughing.
“shadow him on his walks and surreptitiously record every step”
Great idea.....you should sign up.
Let us know if it creates any problems for you.....
I was born in a constitutional republic that specifically eschewed religious tests. The country has since devolved into a mob democracy with an imperator with a phone and a pen.
You are free to direct your loyalties in any direction you choose but the government should be bound by the Constitution.
Some folks are just barely getting by as it is without having to buy apparel solely to prevent the JBT's from assaulting them, which is what this article was about.
Getting stopped several times a day for walking down a public road is bad enough, but to have some likely steroidal thug force you to the ground minutes after another has just questioned you is far from kosher in a free country.
I was kind of wondering how this could happen. Casper the friendly ghost? In invisible mode?
At least he's working, or was, anyway, and paying his bills. He's got a bum leg and is walking to work. It may not be the best of worlds, and he may not have the best of lives, but he's out there doing it.
He thought to at least put his ID on a lanyard so he could show it without reaching for a pocket, but may not have thought about the reflective gear, and you slam him because the cops don't have a clue?
He needs a good lawyer.
He should own the Swiftwater station.
You need a root for every “should” you attempt to invoke.
I have a solid root. You?
We are watching promises break down... men’s promises.
Winner!
Bring in trackers who know what they’re doing and dogs.
Bunch of wannabees floundering around in the woods just get in each other’s way. It’s surprising we haven’t had any friendly fire incidents yet.
Nice. This is an honest, hard working man living through a bad time and in a dangerous area. He’s toughing it out like a man and not whimpering for help or feeling sorry for himself. I’m embarrassed by your post.
Zhit like this is what makes Eric Freins.
If that a-hole reads about this his rage against PSP will be on steroids.
***The five-mile walk takes two hours each way.***
What?
When I was his age I would do 12 miles in 2.5 hours.
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