Friday, September 01, 2006

Those Who Reportedly Shoot State Troopers Should Not Be Called Folk Heroes

My post title is not quite my usual style, since no one has been convicted of shooting that happened in Elmira back in June and the shootings that took place last night. Here's the script on the main story in Western New York today:
TWO STATE TROOPERS ARE IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER POLICE SAY THEY WERE SHOT BY ESCAPED CONVICT RALPH "BUCKY" PHILLIPS IN THE TOWN OF POMFRET. STATE POLICE SUPERINTENDENT WAYNE BENNETT SAID 32-YEAR OLD JOSEPH LONGOBARDO AND 38-YEAR OLD DONALD BAKER JR. WERE EACH SHOT ONCE WITH WHAT POLICE BELIEVE IS A HIGH POWERED RIFLE. ONE WAS SHOT IN THE BACK WITH A BULLET THAT PIERCED HIS BULLET RESISTANT VEST AND EXITED THROUGH HIS ABDOMEN. THE OTHER OFFICER WAS SHOT IN THE THIGH AND SUFFERED MASSIVE BLOOD LOSS DUE TO A SEVERED ARTERY. NEITHER TROOPER LAID EYES ON PHILLIPS BEFORE THEY WERE SHOT. LONGOBARDO WAS TRANSFERRED TO ERIE COUNTY MEDICAL CENTER, AND BAKER WAS TREATED AT HAMOT MEDICAL CENTER IN ERIE. BOTH MEN, BASED OUT OF TROOP G NORTH OF ALBANY, UNDERWENT SURGERY LATE THURSDAY. BENNETT, WHO FLEW FROM ALBANY TO THE STATE POLICE BARRACKS IN FREDONIA LATE THURSDAY, ORDERED 75 ADDITIONAL TROOPERS TO HELP WITH THE MANHUNT. SHORTLY AFTER THE SHOOTINGS, STATE POLICE CONVERGED NEAR THE RESIDENCE OF PHILLIPS' FORMER GIRLFRIEND NEAR BACHELOR HILL ROAD. POLICE NOW BELIEVE THAT PHILLIPS HAS BEEN TRAVELING BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN PHILADELPHIA AND NEW YORK STATE LINES. PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE WERE CHECKING VEHICLES ENTERING THE STATE FROM NEW YORK LATE THURSDAY. AND STATE TROOPERS HAD ALSO SET UP ROADBLOCKS NEAR THE TOWN OF POMFRET AND THE THRUWAY ENTRANCE.
Yes, it's easier to read on the air when it's all in caps. I got the news of this story at 9pm last night after chamber orchestra rehearsal ended. Despite my exhaustion, the adrenaline started running at light speed through my body. You can leave the news business, but the drive to get the news never leaves you. If I didn't have a paying job to worry about, I probably would have been up in Stockton or Fredonia last night with the rest of the media pool, waiting for the press conference that eventually happened at 1 AM. Fortunately, Matt stayed up to watch it on tv and then I got up at the excruciating hour of 4 AM to go in and do the news live for our favorite local pop station. Here's to hoping it all ends a lot less violently.

2 comments:

TM said...

I hope you didn't wake the old guy up at 4am. We 30somethings need our beauty rest.

Kevin_H said...

So far three NYS troopers have been shot, supposedly by Bucky - (the new two still haven't been confirmed atm)
One citizen was shot MULTIPLE times and KILLED by a NYS trooper (with supposed invetigation of said shooting swept under the rug from the public eye)

This won't end peacefully. Bucky will either shoot himself or go out in a gunfight. At this point no way would he want the NYS troopers to get their hands on him.

That is if NYS troopers actually get their act together and find this guy.

Bucky is a so called folk hero for some because he's a thorn in the side of the NYS troopers who've been nothing more then heavy handed and draconian in their tatics with regular citizens. And on a larger sense a lot of peopleare fed up with the justice system. Not saying this is right or wrong it just is. Jessie James was a 'folk hero' even if was a criminal. Not a surprise Bucky has become one for some.

Don't wanta see anyone else die/injured, but I expect a violent conclusion.

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