Suspect jailed after standoff that followed illegal-burn call
By Paul Hammel
Omaha World-Herald (Nebraska)
Copyright 2007 The Omaha World-Herald Company
ASHLAND, Neb. — “Shots fired. Firefighter down.”
The words crackled over emergency dispatch radios in town just before 5 p.m. Wednesday.
As he lay bleeding from a wound to his left forearm, Rodger Alley, 43, the fourth generation of his family to serve with the Ashland Volunteer Fire Department, was in stunned disbelief.
After he responded to a complaint of an illegal trash burn at Horseshoe Lake along Interstate 80 near Mahoney State Park, he said, an upset homeowner emerged from his house with guns in both hands and opened fire. Eight shots were sprayed at four firefighters.
“We go out to help people,” Alley said. “A pile of burning leaves and someone gets shot.”
The incident began about 5:15 p.m. when four firefighters came to Stanley N. Bjorkman’s residence, 1091 Smitty Lane, to investigate the report. Winds were gusting at more than 50 mph at the time.
When the four got out to speak with Bjorkman, Bjorkman allegedly fired on them, striking Alley, authorities said.
The standoff ensued between Bjorkman and dozens of officers from the State Patrol and sheriff’s deputies from Cass and Saunders Counties.
Bjorkman came to the door of his house about 7:30 p.m. with a gun drawn, authorities said. Officers opened fire.
After Bjorkman was shot, officers cuffed him and dragged him to the side of his yard. Medics cut his clothes off him and put him in the ambulance. He was taken to Creighton University Medical Center, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to the shoulder. He then was booked into the Cass County Jail.
This morning, Alley, an 18-year fire department veteran, was still shaking his head as he discussed the incident.
Alley was the only firefighter struck by the gunfire. He is a late-shift maintenance man at Lincoln’s Kawasaki plant.
Alley was treated, then released Wednesday night from Creighton. His wound will require a plastic surgeon’s attention.
The incident won’t deter his love of firefighting, but it will take some mental adjustment, Alley said.
“We always joke, ‘Calm down, it’s only a grass fire.’ But that goes out the window” now, he said.
Alley, a 280-pound former football lineman, had already responded to a car fire at Mahoney State Park when his pager indicated there was a complaint about a homeowner’s weed fire at Horseshoe Lake on a day when winds were whipping up to 50 mph.
Another Ashland fire rig manned by Mike Meyer and his son, Matt, already had put out the fire. They told Bjorkman that the sheriff’s office had been called and he could be cited for illegal burning.
Ashland Mayor Ronna Wiig said she was told that Bjorkman became angry and allegedly told the two firefighters, “If I’m going to get in trouble, I’m really going to get in trouble.”
Bjorkman had retreated back into his small house when Alley and fellow volunteer Brett Yochum arrived in a four-wheeldrive pickup fitted with weed-fire-fighting equipment.
The firefighters stood outside talking until a deputy arrived.
Then Bjorkman emerged with a silver handgun in one hand and a black handgun in the other, Alley said.
“We said, ‘OK, OK. We’re leaving, we’re leaving,’” he said.
As Alley opened the pickup door, he said, shots rang out. One struck his forearm; another whizzed above his shoulder and into the truck’s cab.
“Run,” thought Alley, who dashed around the back of the pickup and toward cover behind a tree. He saw two more shots hit the ground as he ran.
He handed his cell phone to Yochum, who called 911.
“The reality didn’t set in until I got to the hospital,” Alley said. “He said, ‘You’re damned lucky.’”
Bjorkman, 58, has previously had trouble with his neighbors at Horseshoe Lake near Mahoney State Park -- even drawing a gun on one of them in the past.
“He is a goofball. Everyone has problems with him,” said Bobbie Peters, who lives about 100 yards across the lake from Bjorkman. “He’s a weird guy, a recluse.”
She said Bjorkman drew a gun a month ago on a woman who recently moved in next door to him. Bjorkman had told the neighbor that he had hurt his ankle and asked her to get his mail. When she showed up the next day to give him his mail, he met her at the door with a gun.