Pittsburgh Gunman Feared Gun Ban

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-04-2009
Pittsburgh Gunman Feared Gun Ban
26
Sat, 04-04-2009 - 5:06pm

So far, Obama has done nothing as president that would indicate that firearms would be banned, but I guess the fear of it (stoked by the media I think), caused him to kill three police officers:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30043893/


Police: 3 officers killed in Pa. shooting


‘I am going to die today,’ friend says shooter told him
updated 1 hour, 16 minutes ago

PITTSBURGH - A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said. Friends said he recently had been upset about losing his job and that he feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.


Neighbors described how a quiet street in the city’s Stanton Heights neighborhood turned into a battlefield with hundreds of rounds cracking through the morning air and fallen police officers lying bleeding in the street, their colleagues unable to reach them.


Three officers were killed, said a police official at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity because was not authorized to talk to the media. Police spokeswoman Diane Richard would only say that at least five officers were wounded, but wouldn’t give any other details.


Friends identified the suspect as Richard Poplawski, 23, but police would not immediately confirm his name. The gunman was arrested after a four-hour standoff, police said.


The shooting occurred just two weeks after four police officers were fatally shot March 21 in Oakland, Calif., in the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001. The officers were the first Pittsburgh city officers to die in the line of duty in 18 years.


Neighbors said the shooting began at about 7 a.m. and that two officers were shot almost immediately.


“When I looked down I saw two police officers laying in the street,” said Don Sand, who lives across the street and was awoken by the sound of gunfire.


A short time later, more officers, SWAT teams and other law enforcement arrived and a third officer was shot, Sand said.


“They couldn’t get the scene secure enough to get to them. They were just lying there bleeding,” Sand said. “By the time they secured the scene enough to get to them it was way too late.”


Witness: Hundreds of shots fired



Gail Moschetti, who lives diagonally across the street from the Poplawski house, said she heard hundreds of shots as she and her husband took refuge in their basement. Tom Moffitt, 51, a city firefighter who lives two blocks away, said he came to the scene and heard “hundreds, just hundreds of shots.”


Police planned to release more details at a mid-afternoon news conference Saturday.


Edward Perkovic said Poplawski, his best friend, feared “the Obama gun ban that’s on the way” and “didn’t like our rights being infringed upon.” Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said Poplawski feared that President Barack Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he “wasn’t violently against Obama.”


 


Perkovic, 22, said he got a call at work from him in which he said, “Eddie, I am going to die today. ... Tell your family I love them and I love you.”


Perkovic said: “I heard gunshots and he hung up. ... He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot.”


Vire, 23, said Poplawski once had an Internet talk show but that it wasn’t successful. Vire said Poplawski had an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum.


Gunman reportedly out of work



Another friend, Joe DiMarco, said Poplawski had been laid off from his job at a glass factory earlier this year. DiMarco said he didn’t know the name of the company, but knew his friend had been upset about losing his job.


The last Pittsburgh police officers killed in the line of duty were Officers Thomas L. Herron and Joseph J. Grill, according to a Web site that tracks police killings. They died after their patrol car collided with another vehicle while chasing a stolen car on March 6, 1991.


According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 133 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2008, a 27 percent decrease from year before and the lowest annual total since 1960.


Poplawski had often fought with neighbors and had even gotten into fistfights with a couple, Sand said.


“This is a relatively really quiet neighborhood except for him,” Sand said. “He was just one of those kids that we knew to stay clear from.”


Rob Gift, 45, who lives a block away, said the well-kept single-family houses with manicured lawns are home to many police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other city workers.


“It’s just a very quiet neighborhood,” Gift said. >>>


 

 



Opal

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2009
Sat, 04-04-2009 - 6:21pm
As long as people worship guns, you will continue to see bloodshed, you can

A Proud Grandma

"Worrying is the same thing as banging your head
against the wall. It only feels good when you stop."

—

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2009
Sat, 04-04-2009 - 6:22pm
It is a sick society that thinks guns will solve all their problems...

A Proud Grandma

"Worrying is the same thing as banging your head
against the wall. It only feels good when you stop."

—

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-03-2009
Sat, 04-04-2009 - 6:23pm
I totally agree with you.

A Proud Grandma

"Worrying is the same thing as banging your head
against the wall. It only feels good when you stop."

—

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-25-2008
Sat, 04-04-2009 - 6:31pm
I don't know of anyone who feels that guns can solve all their problems.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-25-2008
Sat, 04-04-2009 - 6:34pm

Ah, some of the distinct soundbytes of the more avid gun control crowd... "worship", "think they'll solve all their problems".

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-23-2008
Sat, 04-04-2009 - 7:25pm

How many people lose their jobs but don't go out and kill other people.


My guess is that these sick people who kill after having something go wrong in their lives, is that they have brain damage.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-22-2008
Sat, 04-04-2009 - 10:51pm

To try and blame this man's actions on a political party is absolutely ridiculous.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-04-2009
Sat, 04-04-2009 - 11:18pm

I think that the right wing is going over the top with prophecies of

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-25-2008
Sat, 04-04-2009 - 11:41pm

It does look (from what you've linked and what I've found) like this is all just going way too far.

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-04-2009
Sun, 04-05-2009 - 12:34am
My