Man killed, deputies hurt in county where 4 officers were slain last month

EATONVILLE, Wash. - Two sheriff's officers responding to a domestic dispute were wounded and a 35-year-old man was killed Monday after he opened fire on the officers at a home in Washington state's rural Pierce County, authorities said.

The shooting is the third in the last three months in which authorities say a gunman has taken aim at law enforcement officers in Washington State.

“The majority of police officers will make a deadly force decision but only get services for the traumatic event if they actually pull the trigger,” said Dr. Joel Shults, a former college professor who presently is the Chief of Police for Adams State College in Colorado.

The cop killer who took the life of a Boston police officer walked out of prison a free man yesterday after just 15 years behind bars, leaving the family of Thomas F. Rose Sr. “sickened,” a family friend says.

Rose, a dad of three, was 42 when he was shot and killed by Terrell Muhammad during a struggle inside the Government Center police station in 1993. Muhammad, in an escape attempt, grabbed Rose’s gun and shot him in the chest. He was sentenced to 26 to 30 years in prison for manslaughter, but served only 15 years.

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. — An Alabama man convicted of killing a police officer has been executed in South Carolina.

Thomas Treshawn Ivey was put to death by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. Friday in the state's death chamber in Columbia. The 34-year-old made no final statement.

Ivey had been awaiting execution since 1995, when he was convicted of killing Tommy Harrison. Prosecutors said Ivey shot the 38-year-old Orangeburg police sergeant in 1993 after trying to pass a bad check.

NICEVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Two deputies from a troubled sheriff's office in Florida had no warning a confrontation with a National Guard soldier accused of beating his wife would turn deadly, the sheriff said.

Deputies Burt Lopez and Warren "Skip" York used a stun gun to subdue Joshua Cartwright, but he was able to start shooting at them from the ground. Both Lopez and York died.

VIENNA TOWNSHIP, Michigan -- A man barricaded in his home shot at police about 100 times before shooting himself in the chest.

No police officers were hurt.

"It was just by the grace of God that nobody was killed," said Sheriff Robert J. Pickell. The man, who had no previous criminal history, used three different assault rifles to shoot at police.

Richard Gary Schempf Jr., 47, was in critical condition at Hurley Medical Center on Saturday.

By O'Ryan Johnson
Boston Herald

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — A five-year veteran of the Framingham Police Department was shot at least once last night in the face and cops were still hunting for a suspect this morning, police said.

When Richard Poplawski learned the fourth victim of a deadly encounter at his Stanton Heights home survived with a wound to his hand, he callously responded, "Oh, I thought I got that one, too," investigators said Tuesday.

During interviews with police, Poplawski, 22, described how he fired extra bullets into the motionless bodies of Officers Stephen J. Mayhle and Paul J. Sciullo II "just to make sure they were dead," detectives said.

PITTSBURGH — The bodies of three slain Pittsburgh police officers will lie in state at a downtown municipal building, city officials announced Monday.

The viewing at the City-County Building will begin Wednesday afternoon for officers Eric Kelly, Stephen Mayhle and Paul Sciullo II. A memorial service will be held Thursday at an arena on the University of Pittsburgh Campus.

PITTSBURGH — A 911 call that brought two police officers to a home where they were ambushed, and where a third was also later killed during a four-hour siege, was precipitated by a fight between the gunman and his mother over a dog urinating in the house.

The Saturday argument between Margaret and Richard Poplawski escalated to the point that she threatened to kick him out and she called police to do it, according to a 12-page criminal complaint and affidavit filed late Saturday.