3 police officers shot and killed in Pittsburgh

[HometownGal]

A Petition has been started imploring the DA in Pittsburgh to try this bastard for capital murder. If you agree, please click on the link below and sign the Petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/cmurder/

[XxKnightxX]

Originally Posted by HometownGal

O M G!

http://postgazette.com/pg/09097/961068-53.stm

Critical error by 911 worker failed to note Poplawski owned guns
Call center chief admits 3 officers did not get crucial information

Tuesday, April 07, 2009
By Jonathan D. Silver, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When Richard Poplawski's mother called 911 to ask that her son be removed from their home in Stanton Heights, she acknowledged that he had weapons. But that crucial piece of information never was relayed to the three Pittsburgh police officers who responded Saturday and were fatally shot.

"It should have gone out," Allegheny County Chief of Emergency Services Robert A. Full said yesterday.

Chief Full acknowledged that one of his employees made a mistake but said it was an anomaly considering the 911 center successfully handles almost 1.5 million calls a year.

"There was human error," Chief Full said in an evening interview at 911 headquarters in Point Breeze. "We are all living this now forever and ever."

Mr. Poplawski, 22, is accused of killing officers Paul J. Sciullo II, Stephen J. Mayhle and Eric Kelly and wounding Officer Timothy McManaway. Police said he had an AK-47, a rifle and a pistol.

Chief Full would not identify the 911 call-taker other than to say she has been on the job for less than a year, including training. She was placed on paid administrative leave and has been offered counseling.

"There is no excuse. It could have been handled better, without a doubt," Chief Full said. "If there were any kind of indications there were weapons, the dispatcher would have put it out."

Mr. Poplawski's mother, Margaret Poplawski, called 911 at 7:03 a.m. Saturday asking for police to remove her son from the Fairfield Street home.

On a recording of that call, which was played for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, she sounded calm. In fact, she sounded irritated several times when she was asked to repeat basic information. She even paused twice to chide Mr. Poplawski in the background, saying, "Are you moving or what? Or the police gotta come?"

"I'm requesting that he gets out," Ms. Poplawski said, speaking on her son's cell phone to the 911 operator. "He came in last night when I was gone. ... He stays, he comes and goes, but I want him out."

"Does he have any weapons or anything?" the call-taker asked.

"Yes," Ms. Poplawski answered. There was a long pause. "They're all legal."

"OK, but he's not threatening you with anything?" the call-taker asked.

Ms. Poplawski did not answer. Instead, she said, "Look, I'm just waking up from a sleep. I want him gone."

The call ended cordially.

"OK, we'll send 'em over, OK?" the call-taker said.

"Sounds good."

Chief Full noted that Ms. Poplawski was casual and unhurried during the call and added that "probably a quarter of the houses in Allegheny County have weapons." But he also said the call-taker should have asked more questions once Ms. Poplawski acknowledged the presence of weapons -- a red flag.

Top police brass are aware of the situation, Chief Full said. No one from the department could be reached for comment last night.

However, former Fraternal Order of Police President James Malloy described such an omission as "heart-breaking."

Officers knowing that someone involved in a domestic dispute has guns would handle the situation with more caution, he said.

"You approach the house with a different attitude. You approach the house from a distance. You park your car a distance away from the house so you can hit the dirt," said Mr. Malloy, a retired sergeant.

Each call to the 911 center in Point Breeze is handled by a call-taker, who types information onto a computer screen. That information is sent electronically to a dispatcher, who reads it and sends the police officers on their assignments.

On Saturday, the call-taker typed "no weapons" on her screen -- likely a reference to no weapons being involved in the dispute at hand between Ms. Poplawski and her son.

"When she put 'no weapons,' we swear that she meant to put, 'no weapons involved,' " said Robert P. Harvey, the 911 communications manager.

She never entered any information about weapons being in the house, which is information the dispatcher likely would have broadcast to police, had she known it.

Instead, the dispatcher sent Officer Sciullo and Officer Mayhle, who were less than an hour from ending their shifts, to Fairfield Street for a "mother and son domestic." No mention was made of weapons in the brief dispatch.

County 911 officials uncovered the problem over the weekend during a standard review of how the critical incident was handled.

Chief Full described the call-taker as distraught and emotionally fragile, and he said officials had not been able to get a coherent explanation from her about why she did not ask further questions about the weapons or include the detail in the transmission to the dispatcher.

"She did extremely well in her training, and she was cleared to work the floor by all training officers," Chief Full said.

Something like this is just UNEXCUSABLE, Weapons+Dispute= Bad, As a dispatcher you must address Scene Safety at all Costs to the officers, she failed horribly at it.

2. OH yeah lets keep it confidential. SHE is on paid leave, how nice.

3. This is why Documentation is absolutely important, working doing EMS, our dispatchers are taught to specifically document things while taking calls, something regarding Weapons should not be written so simply, Im sorry I may seem hard on her but just imagine, we wouldnt be talking about this if the information were to be given. I have been involved in situations like those, so human errors do happen, but the police and other public service workers are the ones running into the danger, not the dispatcher and its something that dispatchers need to keep in mind, just pretend that you are there.

[TeeJay]

Originally Posted by HometownGal

These are the three courageous officers who were so tragically murdered yesterday: :

http://postgazette.com/pg/09095/960798-100.stm


Affidavit lays out details of officers' slayings

Sunday, April 05, 2009
By Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Richard Poplawski, the suspect in the killing of three Pittsburgh police officers yesterday, emerged from his Stanton Heights home after shooting two of the officers and fired additional shots into one of the victims, who was sprawled on the ground near the front stoop, a report says.

A police criminal complaint described the sequence of events that began with a domestic-violence call at 7:03 a.m. and led to the shooting deaths of Officers Paul Sciullo III, Stephen J. Mayhle and Eric Kelly at 1016 Fairfield St.

The suspect's mother, Margaret Poplawski, called 911 to say that she had argued with her son after she discovered that a dog had urinated on the floor of the house. She told police she wanted him removed.

Officers Sciullo and Mayhle radioed at 7:11 that they had arrived at the home. Mrs. Poplawski told police she opened the door and told police "come and take his ass."

When the officers were 10 feet into the residence, "she heard gunshots, turned and saw her son about six feet away with a long rifle in his hands, at which point she fled downstairs after asking him 'what the hell have you done?''' according to the report.

An unidentified witness in another house on Fairfield Street, awakened by gunfire, looked out the window and saw an officer down near the front stoop and a man standing in the doorway. The witness saw the suspect fire two or three more shots into the downed officer, later identified as Officer Mayhle, before going back inside.

Officer Timothy McManaway arrived at 7:17 and found Officer Kelly, who had responded as backup, wounded and down near his sport-utility vehicle on the street.

As he checked on Officer Kelly, more gunfire erupted from the house. Office McManaway was hit in the hand by gunfire or shrapnel as he returned fire. He later pulled Officer Kelly to cover behind the SUV. Paramedics arrived and took Officer Kelly to UPMC Presbyterian, where he died.

The report quoted Mrs. Poplawski as saying her son, after being kicked out of the Marine Corps for assaulting his drill sergeant during basic training, had been "stockpiling guns and ammunition, buying and selling the weapons online, because he believed that as a result of the economic collapse, the police were no longer able to protect society."

Mr. Poplawski was taken into custody after a siege of several hours. He faces three counts of homicide and numerous other charges.

This is the SOB who murdered these officers and personally, I think his mother bears some responsibility for her son's actions here, as she clearly knew he was stockpiling weapons and ammo and had some serious "issues".


************************************************** ************

R.I.P Officiers

And HTG, there are probably a lot of concrete steps the SOB (that was very refrained of you!) has to traverse to get to the cells, and who knows?...........he could easily accidently stumble down one of them, and then a few officers could accidently stamp on his face as they went to help him.

Now that's called protecting society Mrs Poplawski......

[X-Terminator]

Just as an aside - Officer Kelly was laid out at the White Memorial Chapel, which is owned by a family friend and is where my uncle and grandmother were laid out prior to their funerals. So there's a little bit of a connection to my family in this tragedy.

[HometownGal]

Originally Posted by TeeJay

R.I.P Officiers

And HTG, there are probably a lot of concrete steps the SOB (that was very refrained of you!) has to traverse to get to the cells, and who knows?...........he could easily accidently stumble down one of them, and then a few officers could accidently stamp on his face as they went to help him.

Now that's called protecting society Mrs Poplawski......

He's already had his ass kicked by, I presume, the Pittsburgh Police as they took him to the County Jail after he murdered those officers in cold blood. His mug shot clearly shows the left side of his face a bit "messed up" and swollen:




Several of my friends are Corrections Officers and have told me stories of how inmates who are "cop-killers" and abuse women and children have these unfortunate "accidents" - IF one of their fellow jailbirds don't shank 'em first.

I only wish one of the SWAT snipers would have taken him out with one shot between the eyes.

I went downtown late last Wednesday evening to pay my respects to these fallen heroes as they lay in repose at the City County Building. There were a lot of officers there and I thanked every one of them and shook their hands thanking them for everything they do to protect all of us. Police officers are probably the most unappreciated people out there.