Volunteer crew arrived at scene, was fired at
By Chris Parker
The Morning Call
Copyright 2007 The Morning Call, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
WEST PENN TWP., Pa. — A Schuylkill County jury on Tuesday found a West Penn Township man who shot at volunteer firefighters guilty of aggravated assault and recklessly endangering others.
Terry R. Boyer, 50, who now lives in Walnutport, testified that he didn’t see any firetruck the evening of Sept. 13, 2005. All he saw, he said, was a sport utility vehicle speeding up a dirt lane near the house he shared with his girlfriend.
The seven firefighters who testified they feared for their lives when Boyer aimed a rifle at them as they arrived to put out a brush fire “railroaded” him, Boyer said outside the courtroom.
“They all stuck together,” he said. “No one is going to take my word over a firefighter’s.”
During a lunch break Tuesday in the two-day trial, Judge Charles M. Miller dismissed 21 counts of various categories of aggravated assault and a charge of simple assault.
Earlier, prosecutors dropped a charge of arson and causing a catastrophe.
That left seven felony counts of aggravated assault/attempt by physical menace, seven misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering others and one misdemeanor count of terroristic threats.
After deliberating for about an hour, the jury found Boyer guilty of four of the seven counts of aggravated assault, all of the reckless endangerment counts and not guilty of the terroristic threat.
Assistant West Penn Fire Company No. 1 Chief Dennis Fritzinger Jr., who drove the firetruck that Boyer confronted with the rifle, was satisfied with the verdict, reached after about six hours of testimony over two days.
“It was better than nothing,” he said. “I didn’t want him to walk away with nothing.”
Miller expects to sentence Boyer at 9:30 a.m. July 24.
On Tuesday, Boyer took the stand at the behest of defense lawyer Nicholas Quinn, and denied shooting at or even seeing a firetruck or firefighters that evening.
In his closing arguments, Quinn said he was “somewhat surprised” by Boyer’s statement.
Boyer also denied standing in the middle of a field road near the house on Rabbit Run Road where he lived with Colleen Hoppes and confronting firefighters with a rifle when they arrived around 7:30 p.m.
The firefighters said they heard two shots and some saw Boyer aiming the rifle at the truck and a pickup truck belonging to another firefighter.
Boyer testified that the shots were from shooting the last two bullets in the rifle into a tree to unload it.
“I do get hot-headed, but I would never point a gun at anybody,” he said.
West Penn Township Patrolman Jason Lorah said he retrieved two bullet casings from the field road and from the driveway.
The locations supported firefighters’ testimony.
Boyer also said he chased an SUV he claimed was speeding up the field road, raising clouds of dust because he feared it would hit the beagle puppies that were running around.
“It really ticked me off,” Boyer said.
The SUV belonged to fire policeman Larry Zeigler, who testified on Monday that he stopped and backed up when he saw Boyer standing with a rifle, cursing and shouting at him to get off the property.
Hoppes, Boyer’s then-girlfriend, testified that Boyer came home from work on Sept. 13 angry and smelling of alcohol, argued with a friend over the phone, threw the phone, argued with her, threatened to burn down her garage, then grabbed a rifle and five bullets and went outside.
Boyer, who was described as an expert marksman who would have hit any target at which he aimed, denied drinking, except for one beer after he got home.
A short while later, he came in and said the brush behind the house was on fire, Hoppes said. They doused it with a garden hose, and shortly after that firefighters arrived.
Fritzinger Jr. testified that he drove the truck up the field road next to the house and was confronted by Boyer, who he said aimed the rifle at the truck. He immediately backed up and left, he said.
There were five firefighters in the truck — Fritzinger Jr., Josh Holmberg, Marie Snyder, Tim Kistler and Lamont Schock riding on the back.
Firefighter Dennis Fritzinger Sr. had arrived in his pickup, and Zeigler in his SUV.
Firefighters testified that tracer bullets — ammunition that burns hot and creates a colorful trail — fired by Boyer arced in front of the truck and over Fritzinger’s pickup.