Adams County residents seeking answers after boy reportedly shot in doorbell-ringing prank
After police said adolescents ringing doorbells early Friday morning in a small borough provoked an Adams County man to shoot a 14-year-old boy, nearby residents are concerned about what prompted such a reaction.
According to State Police, Eric Lee Steinour, 28, of Biglerville, shot the boy around 2:30 a.m. Friday after the teen rang the doorbell of a home in Arendtsville.
The boy was hit in the leg and foot.
Steinour is charged with two counts of aggravated assault, plus counts of simple assault and reckless endangerment.
One neighbor believes car break-ins and home invasions have nearby residents on edge.
Others don’t understand why an adult would shoot a child playing a doorbell-ringing prank and wonder if there’s more to the story.
They also asked why a boy that age was out so late.
At a restaurant on a windy stretch of Route 234 outside Arendtsville, two Menallen Township teens who attend Biglerville High School with the boy expressed concern as they talked about media reports and information they’d heard anecdotally.
As she worked at the Apple Bin Grill & Bakery Saturday, Brooke Thomas, 17, said she was surprised someone would be so careless with a firearm.
The prank, Thomas said, “was just something innocent and fun that just went bad.” Though she added the kids shouldn’t have been doing the prank in the first place.
Rachel Reisinger, 16, also a waitress, added, “you don’t shoot at someone for ringing your doorbell - I don’t think that’s right.”
Reisinger said, “He knew they were kids and he shot at them anyway.”
According to police, Steinour confronted the boy and another juvenile in an alley and shot at them with a 9mm handgun as they ran away. The teens hid, and the boy realized he had been hit by a bullet in the right foot and left leg.
The boy’s mother took him to Gettysburg Hospital, and he was later taken to the York Trauma Center for treatment, police said.
Two state police troopers searching the area found Steinour outside an acquaintance's residence. Steinour admitted to shooting, and police arrested him and recovered a 9mm Glock pistol.
The Evening Sun in Hanover quoted an affidavit of probable cause saying Steinour admitted shooting at the kids to scare them.
The newspaper reported the boy told police he and a friend had knocked on a door on Main Street, hid, and later were confronted by a man on Hale Avenue, an alley parallel to Main Street.
The newspaper cited charging documents saying the boy told police that after he realized he was shot, a man named Eric helped him call his mother and carried him to his mother’s car.
Gary Weikert, who lives on Conewago Street about 300 yards “as the crow flies” from where police said Steinour shot the boy, said he knows the boy’s family, and said it was sad that the boy was shot after a simple prank. The whole thing shouldn’t have happened, he said.
But people in the close-knit, small town have been “on the lookout and on the edge” after more and more homes and cars have been broken into over the last couple of years, Weikert said.
Cars have been damaged along the main street and things have been stolen, he said.
That also happens in other areas, but Arendtsville’s residents have had more than their share, Weikert said.
“When that happens people, you know, are a little edgy,” Weikert said. “When something like that, like the doorbell incident happens, maybe things happen that shouldn’t have happened, you know, like the shooting. Maybe he shouldn’t have shot him.”
“I can understand why someone would come out and be skeptical of who’s there, you know, at that time of the morning because of these situations that we’ve had in town here over the last two years,” Weikert said.
However, others who live on Main Street with homes near Hale Avenue said they either couldn’t point to or didn’t blame car break-ins or home invasions for such an apparent overreaction.
Lisa Ramirez, who lives on Main Street near Conewago Street, said she wasn’t “on edge” about alleged car break-ins or home invasions. She doesn’t believe there’s been an increase in either.
Since moving to her home on Main Street about four years ago, she’s heard of three car break-ins occurring nearby.
“Of course it’s an overreaction,” Ramirez said. “Why would you do anything to a child?”
“People like that shouldn’t own a gun,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez also was concerned the boy was out so late at night. She said she makes sure her children are in the house when it’s dark outside.
“It’s just not safe,” Ramirez said.
Jim Marion, 68, who lives on Main Street near Ramirez, said he was not aware of any increase in home invasions or car break-ins.
Marion said both sides seemed to be at fault in Friday’s incident. The child shouldn’t have been out at 2 a.m. ringing doorbells, but the man also overreacted in shooting the boy.
As a child, Marion said he used to do the same prank, albeit at about 7 p.m. at night - not 2 o’clock in the morning.
Everyone knew everyone else in his neighborhood and it was a harmless joke, he said.
If someone did the same prank to him, even at 2 a.m., he’d let it go. Marion said he didn’t think “gun play should be involved.”
Another borough resident, Terry Herman, who lives a couple houses down from the boy’s family on High Street said it didn’t “fit” that the boy’s mother would allow her young son out so late.
Herman, 69, said he knows the boy’s mother and her parents even more so.
From what he knew about her, he said she took good care of her kids.
“It just doesn’t fit that she would have … known that her kid was out running at 2 o’clock in the morning,” Herman said.
Herman also mentioned the boy’s father died two years ago in a car accident.
Reisinger said the family hasn’t been the same since then. She said the boy’s father was a big influence in the community and very supportive of his children.
“They’ve been hurting,” Reisinger said. “And that might have had something to do with it.”
Some, like Herman, also said there had to be more to the story.
Herman - who keeps a loaded gun in his house - said it was hard to believe someone would shoot down another person for ringing a doorbell.
“I don’t think I would shoot anyone for knocking on my door or ringing my doorbell,” he said. “If they tried to break into my house, that’s a different story.”
Attempts to contact the boy’s family were unsuccessful Saturday.
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Source
Of course the comments are mess of "WELL THEY'RE BOTH AT FAULT/SEND THE KID TO JUVIE" bs. I will also never understand how shooting with a gun doesn't count as an automatic "attempted murder" charge.
According to State Police, Eric Lee Steinour, 28, of Biglerville, shot the boy around 2:30 a.m. Friday after the teen rang the doorbell of a home in Arendtsville.
The boy was hit in the leg and foot.
Steinour is charged with two counts of aggravated assault, plus counts of simple assault and reckless endangerment.
One neighbor believes car break-ins and home invasions have nearby residents on edge.
Others don’t understand why an adult would shoot a child playing a doorbell-ringing prank and wonder if there’s more to the story.
They also asked why a boy that age was out so late.
At a restaurant on a windy stretch of Route 234 outside Arendtsville, two Menallen Township teens who attend Biglerville High School with the boy expressed concern as they talked about media reports and information they’d heard anecdotally.
As she worked at the Apple Bin Grill & Bakery Saturday, Brooke Thomas, 17, said she was surprised someone would be so careless with a firearm.
The prank, Thomas said, “was just something innocent and fun that just went bad.” Though she added the kids shouldn’t have been doing the prank in the first place.
Rachel Reisinger, 16, also a waitress, added, “you don’t shoot at someone for ringing your doorbell - I don’t think that’s right.”
Reisinger said, “He knew they were kids and he shot at them anyway.”
According to police, Steinour confronted the boy and another juvenile in an alley and shot at them with a 9mm handgun as they ran away. The teens hid, and the boy realized he had been hit by a bullet in the right foot and left leg.
The boy’s mother took him to Gettysburg Hospital, and he was later taken to the York Trauma Center for treatment, police said.
Two state police troopers searching the area found Steinour outside an acquaintance's residence. Steinour admitted to shooting, and police arrested him and recovered a 9mm Glock pistol.
The Evening Sun in Hanover quoted an affidavit of probable cause saying Steinour admitted shooting at the kids to scare them.
The newspaper reported the boy told police he and a friend had knocked on a door on Main Street, hid, and later were confronted by a man on Hale Avenue, an alley parallel to Main Street.
The newspaper cited charging documents saying the boy told police that after he realized he was shot, a man named Eric helped him call his mother and carried him to his mother’s car.
Gary Weikert, who lives on Conewago Street about 300 yards “as the crow flies” from where police said Steinour shot the boy, said he knows the boy’s family, and said it was sad that the boy was shot after a simple prank. The whole thing shouldn’t have happened, he said.
But people in the close-knit, small town have been “on the lookout and on the edge” after more and more homes and cars have been broken into over the last couple of years, Weikert said.
Cars have been damaged along the main street and things have been stolen, he said.
That also happens in other areas, but Arendtsville’s residents have had more than their share, Weikert said.
“When that happens people, you know, are a little edgy,” Weikert said. “When something like that, like the doorbell incident happens, maybe things happen that shouldn’t have happened, you know, like the shooting. Maybe he shouldn’t have shot him.”
“I can understand why someone would come out and be skeptical of who’s there, you know, at that time of the morning because of these situations that we’ve had in town here over the last two years,” Weikert said.
However, others who live on Main Street with homes near Hale Avenue said they either couldn’t point to or didn’t blame car break-ins or home invasions for such an apparent overreaction.
Lisa Ramirez, who lives on Main Street near Conewago Street, said she wasn’t “on edge” about alleged car break-ins or home invasions. She doesn’t believe there’s been an increase in either.
Since moving to her home on Main Street about four years ago, she’s heard of three car break-ins occurring nearby.
“Of course it’s an overreaction,” Ramirez said. “Why would you do anything to a child?”
“People like that shouldn’t own a gun,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez also was concerned the boy was out so late at night. She said she makes sure her children are in the house when it’s dark outside.
“It’s just not safe,” Ramirez said.
Jim Marion, 68, who lives on Main Street near Ramirez, said he was not aware of any increase in home invasions or car break-ins.
Marion said both sides seemed to be at fault in Friday’s incident. The child shouldn’t have been out at 2 a.m. ringing doorbells, but the man also overreacted in shooting the boy.
As a child, Marion said he used to do the same prank, albeit at about 7 p.m. at night - not 2 o’clock in the morning.
Everyone knew everyone else in his neighborhood and it was a harmless joke, he said.
If someone did the same prank to him, even at 2 a.m., he’d let it go. Marion said he didn’t think “gun play should be involved.”
Another borough resident, Terry Herman, who lives a couple houses down from the boy’s family on High Street said it didn’t “fit” that the boy’s mother would allow her young son out so late.
Herman, 69, said he knows the boy’s mother and her parents even more so.
From what he knew about her, he said she took good care of her kids.
“It just doesn’t fit that she would have … known that her kid was out running at 2 o’clock in the morning,” Herman said.
Herman also mentioned the boy’s father died two years ago in a car accident.
Reisinger said the family hasn’t been the same since then. She said the boy’s father was a big influence in the community and very supportive of his children.
“They’ve been hurting,” Reisinger said. “And that might have had something to do with it.”
Some, like Herman, also said there had to be more to the story.
Herman - who keeps a loaded gun in his house - said it was hard to believe someone would shoot down another person for ringing a doorbell.
“I don’t think I would shoot anyone for knocking on my door or ringing my doorbell,” he said. “If they tried to break into my house, that’s a different story.”
Attempts to contact the boy’s family were unsuccessful Saturday.
-----
Source
Of course the comments are mess of "WELL THEY'RE BOTH AT FAULT/SEND THE KID TO JUVIE" bs. I will also never understand how shooting with a gun doesn't count as an automatic "attempted murder" charge.