DunedinDragon
Member
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2005
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- 374
It seems the new controversial "no-retreat" law that went into effect in Florida last month has seen it's first test and passed with flying colors.
Evidently this poor guy, who has some mental problems, who was being harassed and teased by his neighbors, had been complaining to the police who had done nothing about it. From what I gathered on the TV news, the police have decided not to charge Devries as he was well within his rights under the new "no retreat" law given the fact that it was determined his neighbors were standing on his doorstep, pounding on his door, and holding Tiki lamps at that time of the shooting.
When the shooting first occurred, the three assailants told the police they were out in the street when Devries just opened fire on them. Thankfully, the forensics proved otherwise.
My advice to Mr Devries, get a bigger caliber gun...
Shooting of three ends in surrender; [NORTH PINELLAS Edition]
JACOB H. FRIES, SHANNON TAN. St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Nov 19, 2005. pg. 1.B
Abstract (Document Summary)
Those wounded - Samantha Frances Sipka, 16; Jason Thomas Biaso, 19; and Mark Eric Hoover, 46 - sustained injuries that weren't considered life-threatening. Sipka was in stable condition and Hoover in fair condition at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, authorities said. Biaso, who was shot in the shoulder, was treated and released.
Physical evidence uncovered at the scene, however, indicated they had been on Devries' doorstep - not the street - when Devries fired, [Marianne Pasha] said. Detectives also learned there had been a fourth person present, Miles Bailey Jr., 23, further supporting Devries' account of the shooting.
The elder Devries, who visited his son after he was taken into custody, said his son had felt the need to defend himself Friday morning. The neighbors had been banging on the door and windows and Devries thought they were trying to get inside, his father said.
Full Text (996 words)
Copyright Times Publishing Co. Nov 19, 2005
Jeffrey Devries had long complained the neighbors were out to get him.
He told police he had been the victim of various crimes, from battery to burglary. Officers had gone to his Beverly Circle home eight times this year.
So when he saw four people on his porch carrying tiki torches about 2 a.m. Friday, he feared they were trying to break in, Pinellas sheriff's detectives said.
He fired six shots through the front door of his home at 1818 Beverly Circle, wounding three of the people, said sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha.
As squad cars and ambulances raced to the scene, Devries, a retired University of South Florida campus police sergeant, barricaded himself inside, triggering a standoff with authorities that would last more than seven hours.
Those wounded - Samantha Frances Sipka, 16; Jason Thomas Biaso, 19; and Mark Eric Hoover, 46 - sustained injuries that weren't considered life-threatening. Sipka was in stable condition and Hoover in fair condition at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, authorities said. Biaso, who was shot in the shoulder, was treated and released.
The three of them initially told investigators they had been walking in the street, carrying the torches, when all of a sudden, shots rang out and they were hit, Pasha said.
Physical evidence uncovered at the scene, however, indicated they had been on Devries' doorstep - not the street - when Devries fired, Pasha said. Detectives also learned there had been a fourth person present, Miles Bailey Jr., 23, further supporting Devries' account of the shooting.
Confronted with the discrepancies, one of the four admitted they had been at the door at the time of the shooting, reading signs Devries had posted on the door, said Pasha. She declined to identify the person.
Sipka and Hoover declined to comment through a hospital spokesman. Biaso also declined to answer questions. Efforts to reach Bailey were unsuccessful.
No charges had been filed late Friday.
"There are various levels of conflicts in their statements," Pasha said, "so there's still more work for the investigators to do."
The first 911 call came at 1:51 a.m.
"I heard the gunshots - boom, boom, boom!" said neighbor Ken List, 50. "Then screaming, like the people were trying to run."
Jennifer Lechner, 46, another neighbor, went outside and ducked behind a bush to take a look. She heard screams from Sipka, who was shot in the jaw and thigh.
She saw Hoover, who was shot in the arm, yelling from the street at responding officers, "We're here. We're here. The gunman's next door."
Both Clearwater police and Pinellas County sheriff's deputies responded because the street lies on the city-county line. The sheriff's SWAT team eventually replaced Clearwater's team and resumed attempts to communicate with Devries, Bordner said.
List, through his window, saw camouflaged deputies approach Devries' house, then retreat, again and again for hours in the darkness.
"They were very methodical," he said. "For a while, I thought they were going to storm the back of the house."
Finally, after hours talking with negotiators over the phone, Devries surrendered at 9:30 a.m. As he walked out his door, he ignored some of the deputies' commands. He was struck with a Taser and shot with a rubber bullet, Bordner said.
Devries, who wore blue sweat pants and a T-shirt, was then handcuffed and taken to a hospital for evaluation.
"He looked very docile," List recalled. "He just looked worn down."
In recent weeks, Devries had called 911 and e-mailed police with increasing frequency, claiming that he had been the victim of various crimes, Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor said. Officers responded to his house but found nothing to substantiate his claims.
In April, he told police someone was using "transponders" to harass him at home, reports show. Last month, he said neighbors had developed a way to send voices through his electrical wiring. Among the voices he heard inside his house, he told officers, was that of fiction writer Stephen King.
Jeffrey Devries worked as a police officer at USF's St. Petersburg campus from 1988 to 1998 when he retired as a sergeant, a university spokeswoman said. His father said his son left the job when he developed thyroid cancer.
"That really devastated him," said Stanley Devries, 73.
The elder Devries, who visited his son after he was taken into custody, said his son had felt the need to defend himself Friday morning. The neighbors had been banging on the door and windows and Devries thought they were trying to get inside, his father said.
"They were obviously making a lot of noise and were very threatening," he said.
Stanley Devries said police didn't take his son's complaints seriously and seemed to think his son was making things up.
"They don't have a caring attitude," he said of Clearwater police.
Stanley Devries said people in the neighborhood had harassed his son before. About two months ago, his son was outside testing his new video camera when two neighbors came in front of him, a third behind him, and knocked him onto the asphalt, Stanley Devries said.
Neighbors said Hoover, Sipka and Bailey had moved next door to Devries in April, though no one was aware of any tensions between the two homes.
After the shooting Friday, Beverly Circle was blocked off from traffic as detectives examined Devries' door and front yard. Bleary- eyed residents who had been awake since 2 a.m. recounted the strange episode.
"It was something out of a movie," List said, "but it was so real."
Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
Evidently this poor guy, who has some mental problems, who was being harassed and teased by his neighbors, had been complaining to the police who had done nothing about it. From what I gathered on the TV news, the police have decided not to charge Devries as he was well within his rights under the new "no retreat" law given the fact that it was determined his neighbors were standing on his doorstep, pounding on his door, and holding Tiki lamps at that time of the shooting.
When the shooting first occurred, the three assailants told the police they were out in the street when Devries just opened fire on them. Thankfully, the forensics proved otherwise.
My advice to Mr Devries, get a bigger caliber gun...
Shooting of three ends in surrender; [NORTH PINELLAS Edition]
JACOB H. FRIES, SHANNON TAN. St. Petersburg Times. St. Petersburg, Fla.: Nov 19, 2005. pg. 1.B
Abstract (Document Summary)
Those wounded - Samantha Frances Sipka, 16; Jason Thomas Biaso, 19; and Mark Eric Hoover, 46 - sustained injuries that weren't considered life-threatening. Sipka was in stable condition and Hoover in fair condition at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, authorities said. Biaso, who was shot in the shoulder, was treated and released.
Physical evidence uncovered at the scene, however, indicated they had been on Devries' doorstep - not the street - when Devries fired, [Marianne Pasha] said. Detectives also learned there had been a fourth person present, Miles Bailey Jr., 23, further supporting Devries' account of the shooting.
The elder Devries, who visited his son after he was taken into custody, said his son had felt the need to defend himself Friday morning. The neighbors had been banging on the door and windows and Devries thought they were trying to get inside, his father said.
Full Text (996 words)
Copyright Times Publishing Co. Nov 19, 2005
Jeffrey Devries had long complained the neighbors were out to get him.
He told police he had been the victim of various crimes, from battery to burglary. Officers had gone to his Beverly Circle home eight times this year.
So when he saw four people on his porch carrying tiki torches about 2 a.m. Friday, he feared they were trying to break in, Pinellas sheriff's detectives said.
He fired six shots through the front door of his home at 1818 Beverly Circle, wounding three of the people, said sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha.
As squad cars and ambulances raced to the scene, Devries, a retired University of South Florida campus police sergeant, barricaded himself inside, triggering a standoff with authorities that would last more than seven hours.
Those wounded - Samantha Frances Sipka, 16; Jason Thomas Biaso, 19; and Mark Eric Hoover, 46 - sustained injuries that weren't considered life-threatening. Sipka was in stable condition and Hoover in fair condition at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, authorities said. Biaso, who was shot in the shoulder, was treated and released.
The three of them initially told investigators they had been walking in the street, carrying the torches, when all of a sudden, shots rang out and they were hit, Pasha said.
Physical evidence uncovered at the scene, however, indicated they had been on Devries' doorstep - not the street - when Devries fired, Pasha said. Detectives also learned there had been a fourth person present, Miles Bailey Jr., 23, further supporting Devries' account of the shooting.
Confronted with the discrepancies, one of the four admitted they had been at the door at the time of the shooting, reading signs Devries had posted on the door, said Pasha. She declined to identify the person.
Sipka and Hoover declined to comment through a hospital spokesman. Biaso also declined to answer questions. Efforts to reach Bailey were unsuccessful.
No charges had been filed late Friday.
"There are various levels of conflicts in their statements," Pasha said, "so there's still more work for the investigators to do."
The first 911 call came at 1:51 a.m.
"I heard the gunshots - boom, boom, boom!" said neighbor Ken List, 50. "Then screaming, like the people were trying to run."
Jennifer Lechner, 46, another neighbor, went outside and ducked behind a bush to take a look. She heard screams from Sipka, who was shot in the jaw and thigh.
She saw Hoover, who was shot in the arm, yelling from the street at responding officers, "We're here. We're here. The gunman's next door."
Both Clearwater police and Pinellas County sheriff's deputies responded because the street lies on the city-county line. The sheriff's SWAT team eventually replaced Clearwater's team and resumed attempts to communicate with Devries, Bordner said.
List, through his window, saw camouflaged deputies approach Devries' house, then retreat, again and again for hours in the darkness.
"They were very methodical," he said. "For a while, I thought they were going to storm the back of the house."
Finally, after hours talking with negotiators over the phone, Devries surrendered at 9:30 a.m. As he walked out his door, he ignored some of the deputies' commands. He was struck with a Taser and shot with a rubber bullet, Bordner said.
Devries, who wore blue sweat pants and a T-shirt, was then handcuffed and taken to a hospital for evaluation.
"He looked very docile," List recalled. "He just looked worn down."
In recent weeks, Devries had called 911 and e-mailed police with increasing frequency, claiming that he had been the victim of various crimes, Clearwater police spokesman Wayne Shelor said. Officers responded to his house but found nothing to substantiate his claims.
In April, he told police someone was using "transponders" to harass him at home, reports show. Last month, he said neighbors had developed a way to send voices through his electrical wiring. Among the voices he heard inside his house, he told officers, was that of fiction writer Stephen King.
Jeffrey Devries worked as a police officer at USF's St. Petersburg campus from 1988 to 1998 when he retired as a sergeant, a university spokeswoman said. His father said his son left the job when he developed thyroid cancer.
"That really devastated him," said Stanley Devries, 73.
The elder Devries, who visited his son after he was taken into custody, said his son had felt the need to defend himself Friday morning. The neighbors had been banging on the door and windows and Devries thought they were trying to get inside, his father said.
"They were obviously making a lot of noise and were very threatening," he said.
Stanley Devries said police didn't take his son's complaints seriously and seemed to think his son was making things up.
"They don't have a caring attitude," he said of Clearwater police.
Stanley Devries said people in the neighborhood had harassed his son before. About two months ago, his son was outside testing his new video camera when two neighbors came in front of him, a third behind him, and knocked him onto the asphalt, Stanley Devries said.
Neighbors said Hoover, Sipka and Bailey had moved next door to Devries in April, though no one was aware of any tensions between the two homes.
After the shooting Friday, Beverly Circle was blocked off from traffic as detectives examined Devries' door and front yard. Bleary- eyed residents who had been awake since 2 a.m. recounted the strange episode.
"It was something out of a movie," List said, "but it was so real."
Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
