If it's true, I would have shot him. Once this guy initiated violence, expect violence in return. And you KNOW what happens when you bring a rake to a gunfight.
Posted on 08/22/2003 3:37:32 AM PDT by Born Conservative
MOCANAQUA — State police shot and killed a man who was swinging a garden rake at them while his horrified wife or girlfriend and neighbors watched, witnesses said.
Life Flight was called to help the man neighbors identified as Edward Vega, of 121 Italy St., after he was shot in the chest around 6 p.m. But the Life Flight doctor declared him dead, and the helicopter took off without him, said Dr. George Hudock Jr., county coroner.
A pool of blood and the garden rake remained in the middle of the road. State police strung crime-scene tape to block the street. A forensics team arrived on the scene, and a trooper began interviewing neighbors. The road was still closed off at 9:30 p.m.
It's unclear how the incident began. Channel 28 reported that state police said Vega and a woman who lived in the house with him had been fighting. The woman reportedly called police and said Vega was violating a protection from abuse order.
Neighbors, who said they feared to give their names or get involved, said they came out of their homes to see the man they knew as Ed in the roadway swinging tree branches at two state troopers.
They said Ed backed away toward his detached garage, where he dropped the branches, grabbed the metal rake and began swinging that at the officers.
That's when one trooper, about three steps away from the raging man, fired the shot, the neighbors said.
The man's wife or girlfriend ran into the street, crying and covering him with kisses, they said.
Neighbors recall friendly man
Neighbors said the couple had four children, with a fifth on the way.
Some neighbors said they had seen police cars at the house before.
But several said they were shocked by the shooting.
One weeping woman was gently escorted away by a trooper. Other stunned neighbors watched the troopers from their porches or the sidewalk.
Johnny Cielli, 81, of 102 Italy St., said the man he knew only as Ed and his family had moved into the neat white house with red trim just a few months ago.
Ed was a small man, weighing only 130 to 140 pounds, he said. Cielli used to walk by his house every day.
"I'd see him, and he'd always say 'Hi,'" Cielli said. "He had a little dog, and he'd tell me, 'Don't worry about the dog. He won't bite you.'"
Annette Knorowski, 56, of 126 Pond Hill Road, stared when she saw the police tape and heard what had happened.
"Oh my God, he was such a nice guy," she said.
She said she baby-sat two children in a house just down the street from Ed's home.
She would walk by his house while she took the youngest girl out in her carriage.
Ed always smiled and talked to her, she said.
Sometimes, he would walk with her on his way to do gardening work around the town.
"He told me it was a nice town, that everyone kept the street so nice and clean, that the people were so friendly," she said.
He was always busy, doing yard work for people, she said.
Another time, he stopped by the house where she worked and dropped off some flyers advertising a new house cleaning service he and his wife were offering, he said.
"He was a hard worker," she said. "He was always going someplace to do something for somebody.
"If he just had a rake, they shouldn't have shot him," she said.
State troopers said they would not release a statement about the shooting until their investigation was completed.
Hudock said he would be conducting an autopsy this morning at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital.
You've gotta be frigging kidding me! You can't be serious.
Bullshi'ite .... if you shoot your neighbor for swinging a rake I GUARANTEE you the DA will have you up on charges. These cops are weaklings and protected by law.
He's dead serious! Check out some of the Ashcroft love threads. Blackbird.
Local police in rural areas cannot afford tasers, bean-bag guns, etc
This has to be the most asinine statement on FR I have seen in a long time. As far as matching a gun to a rake, EVER HEARD OF A NIGHTSTICK ???? They're cheap enough for a rural police department to have a less than lethal force weapon at every cop's side.
And f$%^ the authorities on stuff like this if the cops are going to act the way this one did.
Everybody knows the cops would gun down a little scrawny guy with a rake if the little scrawny guy with a rake threatened them with it. Our brave heroes.
Better?
Whaaa! Reality intrudes. Care to make a rational comment and debate the facts, or is whining and juvenile sarcasm more your thing?
Dead, I often agree with you, but you are wrong here. If a person is justified to shoot, they are justified to use deadly force, and there is always a reasonable chance of death resulting. Shooting for an extremity is a good way to get yourself killed or injured. I counsel people to consider shooting for the pelvic girdle if the threat is using a contact weapon, not because it is less likely to be fatal, but because it is more likely to remove them as a threat before they severely injore or kill someone.
You know that I am not a police uber allis type from my past posts, but this article was clearly written to sensationalise the shoot.
I don't think we have enough information to decide if it was justified or not.
LOL, okay, Terminator. If you say so. But what's a scary guy like you doing condoning a cowardly murder?
The cops I know and respect would've subdued him with their bare hands and at most would've had no more to show for it than a couple of scrapes and bruises.
A garden rake (since you don't seem to know what one is) is a rake with a straight row of thick metal points. it is used for breaking up soil and raking out rocks. You can seriously injure (or kill) someone with one if you swing it at them hard enough. If I have a gun and someone is attacking me with one, I would defend myself.
The rake guy didn't exactly sound like a pillar of the community, but did he deserve a double-tap to center mass?
Guys like these two give cops a bad name.
If it's true, I would have shot him. Once this guy initiated violence, expect violence in return. And you KNOW what happens when you bring a rake to a gunfight.
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