RECKLESS NEW JERSEY COPS SHOT A 76-YEAR OLD MAN INSIDE HIS OWN HOME, AFTER 911 CALL MIX-UP
New Jersey State troopers shoot man, 76, after 911 call mix-up
An investigation is underway after New Jersey State troopers shot a 76-year-old man inside his own home.
By Jeff Chirico
Sunday, July 31, 2016 02:12PM
UPPER DEERFIELD TWP., N.J. -- An investigation is underway after New Jersey State troopers shot a 76-year-old man inside his own home.
The situation was brought on by a series of misunderstandings by police and the victim.
Police responded to the home after dispatchers incorrectly traced a 911 call to Gerald Sykes house on the 300 block of Centerton Road in Upper Deerfield Township.
"Why was the first response to pump four rounds through a door?" said Ronald Lafalce.
Lafalce was shocked and outraged as he showed us the holes from police bullets that nearly killed his father-in-law.
"Twice in the chest. Once in the groin. Collapsed lung. Internal bleeding," said Diana Lafalce, Sykes' stepdaughter.
Just before midnight on Friday, Sykes and his wife, Margot, were awakened by their dog's barks.
"They both stepped into the great room and saw two figures standing right at their French doors, right up against the door. Nothing said. No identification," said Diana Lafalce.
Diana Lafalce says as her stepdad was standing in the living room holding his shotgun when police fired four shots - three hit him.
"After he collapsed on the floor, he lifted the gun up and shot out the door not knowing who was there," said Ronald Lafalce.
Police aren't saying who shot first, but the Lafalces say troopers treated Sykes like a criminal, refusing to get him medical treatment for 45 minutes until he staggered outside where they flipped him over and handcuffed him.
He was flown to Cooper University Medical Center where he is listed in critical, but stable condition.
"The surgeon says it's a miracle he's alive," said Diana Lafalce.
Police say the troopers responding to a 911 call went to the wrong house. A statement says they identified themselves, but the Lafalces don't buy it, pointing Sykes has a deep respect for police, and didn't even know he had been shot by one until he awoke at the hospital.
"His eyes got big as saucers and he said, 'What? Those were state troopers? They never game me a warning. They shot me without even a warning," said Diana Lafalce.
Sykes wife was not hurt in the incident.
It's unclear why police thought the call came from Syke's home, but there is a cell phone tower on that property.
One of the troopers we're told received a graze wound. Both troopers were taken to Inspira Medical Center in Vineland, and later released.
The attorney general's office is handling the case, and they say they will release more information once the investigation is concluded.
The New Jersey cops are particularly reckless. They shoot first and they ask questions (if any) later. They are protected by the pro-police government regime. They have behaved like clowns in this and in many other cases.
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Elderly Upper Deerfield man shot by state police, critically wounded
Joseph P. Smith, @jpsmith_dj 1:52 p.m. EDT July 31, 2016
UPPER DEERFIELD, NJ - New Jersey State Police exchanged gunfire with and critically wounded an elderly township man after approaching his secluded house around midnight Friday while investigating a hangup cellphone call to emergency dispatch, according to a statement Saturday from the New Jersey Attorney General's Office.
The office's Shooting Response Team is investigating what happened at the house, located on the 300 block of Centerton Road in a rural area of Cumberland County.
The wounded resident was identified as 76-year-old Gerald Sykes, who was hit multiple times. He is hospitalized in critical but stable condition at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.
According to the statement, Sykes fired one round from a shotgun. One trooper was hit either from a grazing wound or flying glass, and both troopers who responded were treated at Inspira Health Network Vineland and released.
The initial investigation indicates that two uniformed troopers from the Bridgeton barracks were sent to the house in response to a 911 call received about 11:30 p.m. Friday. Sykes was home with his wife.
The investigation has determined that the 911 call did not come from Sykes' residence, as first thought.
"The shooting occurred after the troopers approached a sliding glass door in the rear of the residence and knocked, shining flashlights into the home and announcing that they were responding to a 911 call," the response team stated. "At the same time, there was an exchange of gunfire through the sliding glass door in which one of the troopers fired four rounds from his service 9mm handgun andGeraldSykes fired a single round from a shotgun. Mr. Sykes, who was struck by multiple rounds, retreated into the house."
Authorities say the Sykes called their daughter, who called 911 to report what had happened. Dispatchers "facilitated Mr. Sykes coming out of his house so that he could receive medical treatment," officials said.
Evelyn Zielke, a Williamstown resident who is Syke’s sister, was on the way to the hospital Saturday.
Zielke said she didn’t want to talk about what happened immediately but was aware of the attorney general’s statement.
“They have admitted that he was not the target,” she said. “They made a mistake in address.”
The Attorney General's office said no additional details would be released at this time, citing an ongoing investigation.
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Reckless and incompetent state police blast New Jersey man four times in own home while responding to wrong address BY Ben Kochman
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, July 31, 2016, 2:12 AM
State police in New Jersey, responding to the wrong address for a 911 call, critically wounded a 76-year-old man as he stood in his own living room with a shotgun, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office said.
The state troopers thought he was a threat, and he apparently thought they were intruders.
The confusion started around 11:30 p.m. Friday with a 911 call from a cellphone near the home on Centerton Road in Cumberland County, authorities said.
The caller hung up before providing a precise location, and police later determined the call had not in fact come from the home where Gerald Sykes lives with his 80-year-old wife.
Gerald Sykes, 76, recovers in the hospital, in this screenshot from Fox 29 News, after he was shot by New Jersey State troopers in his home in Upper Deerfield Township. (Courtesy Fox 29 News)
After two uniformed troopers knocked on the front door and got no response, they approached the home’s back deck, authorities said. An exchange of gunshots followed, with one of the cops firing four times through a sliding glass door and Sykes firing a single round from a shotgun, though in the darkness no one seemed to have a clear look at one another.
Sykes had grabbed his shotgun from his bedroom to confront what he thought were intruders, a family friend and attorney told NJ.com. Sykes was struck three times, and then let off a single blast, attorney Rich Kaser said.
As Sykes lay on the floor, his shirt soaked in blood, his wife tried to call 911, Kaser said.
The bullet-riddled home of Gerald Sykes in Upper Deerfield Township, New Jersey. (ABC 6 Action News)
The state troopers ordered the critically wounded man to lay face down and placed him in handcuffs, the attorney said.
The stepdaughter of Sykes, Diana LaFalce, told Fox 29 News that her mother called and explained he had been shot through the back door of the house.
Sykes was taken to Cooper University Hospital, where he was in critical but stable condition Saturday night, officials said. The state Attorney General’s Office said that no charges have been filed as the investigation continues.
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N.J. is investigating police shooting of homeowner Updated: August 1, 2016 — 11:59 PM EDT
The New Jersey Attorney General's Office is investigating, having acknowledged that a New Jersey State Police trooper fired four shots into Gerald Sykes' home on the 300 block of Centerton Road.
by Chris Palmer, Staff Writer
His dog was barking, and his wife was worried.
So Gerald Sykes, leery of what appeared to be people wandering around his property in Upper Deerfield Township, N.J., about 11:30 p.m. Friday, got out of bed, loaded his shotgun, and walked toward the back of his house, according to Rich Kaser, a longtime family friend.
As Sykes took stock of his surroundings near a set of French doors, the 76-year-old was hit by three bullets through the glass, Kaser said.
After firing a shell while falling backward, Kaser said, Sykes retreated to the bedroom he shares with his wife in a panic, bleeding, calling 911, and screaming that he was going to die.
"He thought they were coming in to get him and his wife," Kaser said.
Not until Saturday afternoon did Sykes, recovering at Cooper University Hospital, learn that he had been shot by police.
The New Jersey Attorney General's Office is investigating, having acknowledged that a New Jersey State Police trooper fired four shots into Sykes' home on the 300 block of Centerton Road. Officers responded to the Cumberland County property, mistakenly believing that a disconnected 911 call had originated there, prosecutors said. They have not said whether the officer or Sykes fired first.
They also have not said why the officer fired at all, saying simply that "there was an exchange of gunfire" after the officers approached the doors and shined flashlights into the home, announcing that they were responding to a 911 call.
Kaser, a Woodbury lawyer who said he had known Sykes and his wife for three decades, called the incident "bizarre" and a "tragic mistake" that has traumatized the couple.
"It's going to have a major impact on the rest of their lives," Kaser said.
He visited Sykes in the hospital this weekend, he said. Officials said Sunday that Sykes was in stable condition, and Kaser said he had been moved out of the intensive-care unit and was no longer relying on a ventilator.
Still, complications remained. Sykes' spleen had been removed, according to Kaser, and he had cuts on his face because of the shattered glass from the doors. Two bullets struck him in the chest and another in the groin.
An officer suffered a graze wound, prosecutors said, and both troopers were treated at Inspira Medical Center in Vineland and released.
For nearly half a day after the shooting, Kaser said, Sykes had no idea police had shot him. The officers involved offered no help at the scene, according to Kaser, and when authorities responded to his 911 call to take Sykes to the hospital, they made him walk onto his front lawn in a blood-soaked shirt - and they handcuffed him.
Sykes' wife, Margot, meanwhile, was taken to the police station in her nightgown, Kaser said.
"There's a whole lot here that doesn't make sense," he said.
Authorities provided no details about their interaction with Sykes beyond saying that dispatchers "facilitated Mr. Sykes' coming out of his house so that he could receive medical treatment."
Prosecutors said Saturday that they would release no further details about the shooting because of the ongoing investigation.
Kaser said that the family was considering a lawsuit, but that the couple, while scarred, were "not angry at police."
Sykes "did what any person would do" upon learning of potential intruders, Kaser said. "Somebody [else], it appears, overreacted."
This is New Jersey, a heavily pro-police state. They will never reveal what happen and they will never issue an apology. Crooks and reckless cops all around.