(no subject)

Dec 17, 2012 23:50

Sunday night was a pretty rough one here in Topeka. I posted about this at dreamwidth already, but I forgot to crosspost.

Just after 6 PM Sunday, three officers responded to a suspicious vehicle call relating to drugs. This was in the parking lot of a Dillons store. Based on a recent press conference and some witness reports, it appears that 2 officers initially approached the vechicle and ordered the occupants to get out of the car. There may have been four people total in the vehicle. Someone in the backseat, later identified as David Tiscareno by witnesses, opened fire. The two officers who approached the vehicle were shot in the head by the suspect. The third officer returned fire. The two injured officers were transported to a local hospital where they later died from their wounds.

These officers were Corporal David Gogian and Jeff Atherly. Gogian was a veteran officer, retired from military service, and has a son who also serves with the Topeka Police Department. He was 50 years old. He was a supervisor, and apparently the last of the three officers who responded to the initial call, to arrive. He had served full-time with the TPD for just over 8 years, and had served as a reserve officer for thirteen years prior to that. Atherly was 29 years old. He had only served with the TPD for about twenty months. I have no information on his family.

The Fraternal Order of Police held a candlelight vigil at the Law Enforcement Center tonight at 6 PM. My family would have gone, but we were celebrating an early Christmas, before most of them head off to Arizona for the holidays. There is a fund set up, accepting donations for the families. All funds will be equally split between the two families unless one is designated in the memo line of a check or money order. Donations can be dropped off at the Topeka Police Credit Union in the front lobby of the Law Enforcement Center, Monday-Friday, between 9AM and 2PM. Donations can be made by check or Money order made out to TPCU and mailed to:
Topeka Police Credit Union
320 S. Kansas Ave
Topeka, KS 66603

I would recommend including a note mentioning that it's for the memorial fund.

After the shooting, search warrants were executed in several locations in town. Early this morning, they located the suspect and a stand-off began. Ultimately three people exited the home. Two were unarmed. The third was the suspect. He fired a gun, and officers returned fire. They have confirmed that he was taken to the hospital and died from injuries sustained. Live video of the incident, shot by one of the news teams, seems to indicate that he may have shot himself.

Here's what we know about the shooter right now. David Edward Tiscareno was 22 years old. He had a very short prior criminal history. He was sentenced to 6 months in prison last September for criminal use of weapon (shotgun 18" or shorter, automatic), but the sentence was suspended.

Westboro Baptist Church proceeded to heckle and harass law enforcement. At least someone else was dealing with them. If you haven't heard, they've been hacked by anonymous. Check out the video.

image Click to view


topeka police department, real life

Previous post Next post
Up