# Police shoot suspect



## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

_*Knife-wielding man charges at officers in standoff *_
*By ROB MARGETTA , Standard-Times staff writers 
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*ANDREW T. GALLAGHER/Standard-Times specialNew Bedford emergency workers carry John Hjorth on a stretcher after he was shot in a confrontation with New Bedford police officers yesterday*

NEW BEDFORD - Police shot a man armed with a large knife during a standoff in an Earle Street apartment building last night, department spokesman Capt. Richard M. Spirlet said. 
The shooting was the second by New Bedford police in less than a month. 
"The investigating officers found a man who was barricaded in the third-floor apartment," Capt. Spirlet said. 
He was "basically out of control" and charged through a door at officers, the captain said. The man - identified by a family member as John Hjorth, although police would not confirm the name - was taken to St. Luke's Hospital, then by helicopter to Boston Medical Center. 
Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. said the man had a single, life-threatening bullet wound to the abdomen. 
According to The Standard-Times archives, Mr. Hjorth was a fisherman in 2000. He was one of five crew members aboard the 70-foot scalloping vessel Michelle & Joyce, which had to be rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter in January 2000, when it caught fire about 10 miles off Cape Cod. 
Last night, police received a 911 call from a member of Mr. Hjorth's family at about 6:30 reporting he was drunk, screaming, breaking things and threatening his wife with the knife at their apartment at 80 Earle St. At some point, the suspect set a fire in the apartment, Capt. Spirlet said. 
Four fire trucks, two ambulances and several police cruisers and SUVs responded to the scene, blocking Earle Street. 
The first officers who responded heard a commotion in the apartment, but found its front door locked, Capt. Spirlet said. 
They eventually entered through a rear door, stationed themselves in a front hallway and tried to reason with the suspect, to no avail, the captain said. The officers could smell smoke in the apartment, she said. 
Maria Andre, a home nurse who cares for a 92-year-old woman who lives next door to Mr. Hjorth's building, said she looked out one of her patient's windows shortly after police arrived and saw him kick out one of his apartment's front window panes. He was carrying a knife, she said. 
"It was a big knife," she said, using her hands to indicate that it was about 8 inches long and resembled a fishing knife. 
Ms. Andre said she ducked from the window the moment she saw him. 
"I said to myself, 'Let me get out of here before something happens,'" she said. 
She and neighbors around 80 Earle St. said that, after police entered the apartment house, they heard two bangs that sounded like gunshots, although Capt. Spirlet said he couldn't comment on how many shots police fired or how many officers discharged their weapons. 
He said the only shots fired came from police. Judging from the time police responded and the time the call went out that the suspect was shot, Capt. Spirlet said the incident happened "fairly fast." 
More than two dozen curious neighbors - some in T-shirts - gathered on the sidewalks outside of the apartment house as police kept a spotlight trained on the window the suspect allegedly had kicked out. Fire officials at the scene said the blaze the suspect started was small, but Capt. Spirlet said he could not comment on its magnitude. 
Mr. Hjorth's wife, her children and her mother spoke frantically with police. When the wife found out that Mr. Hjorth was wounded, she clapped her hands to her mouth and cried, "They shot him!" 
Shortly before 7 p.m., EMTs carried Mr. Hjorth out on a stretcher, motionless and covered in blankets. His wife later began crying. She was helped into a cruiser and escorted to the police station for questioning, along with other witnesses. 
Police closed off the scene for investigation. One officer could be seen briefly in a second-floor stairwell window, examining what appeared to be a handgun. 
Capt. Spirlet said state police assigned to the Bristol County District Attorney's Office, along with the New Bedford Police Department's own Department of Professional Standards, would investigate the shooting. Mr. Walsh said a state police investigator and assistant district attorney have been assigned to the incident. 
Police Chief Ronald E. Teachman would not comment on the shooting last night. 
"It's still fresh and ongoing," he said. "Maybe tomorrow." 
According to department procedures, the officer or officers who shot the suspect will be put on administrative duty until the investigation concludes, Capt. Spirlet said. 
The incident was the second police shooting in about a month. 
On Oct. 26, police shot and killed Lamont S. Cruz, a 38-year-old man, during a confrontation at 60 Thomas St., an apartment house, after he pulled a "replica handgun" - which fires pellets, not bullets - from the waistband of his pants. 
Chief Teachman said the officers involved in the shooting - Arthur Hegarty, the son of New Bedford Deputy Chief Kevin Hegarty, and Justin Kagan - had been making a routine check at a "problem property" known for drug use and disturbances. They had made several previous checks there, the chief said. 
The shooting remains under investigation, and few details have been released. The District Attorney's Office has said it expects to have a report on the incident ready in early December.

Contact Rob Margetta at [email protected] and Curt Brown at [email protected]

Video: http://ww2.wpri.com/global/video/po...i.com/Global/story.asp?S=5716815&rnd=90873093

Police: Suspect fired at officers

Pellet gun and knives recovered at scene

By ROB MARGETTA, Standard-Times staff writer

NEW BEDFORD - John B. Hjorth, who was shot by police during a standoff Tuesday night, fired at officers with a pellet gun, used a fog machine to fill his apartment with smoke and lit firecrackers before charging two officers with a large knife, Police Chief Ronald E. Teachman said yesterday. 
Mayor Scott W. Lang said the shooting is under investigation, but added, "From what I have seen, I don't have any qualms about police defending themselves" in Tuesday's incident or another that occurred in late October when officers shot and killed a man. 
"I don't want a police officer thinking twice before defending himself or the community," the mayor later added. 
After he was shot, Mr. Hjorth, 39, was taken to St. Luke's Hospital, then transported by helicopter to Boston University Medical Center. He underwent surgery last night, Chief Teachman said, although he did not know Mr. Hjorth's condition. 
At a press conference yesterday, police needed two tables to hold all of the bladed weapons and fireworks confiscated from Mr. Hjorth's apartment. 
Investigators found four large samurai-style swords and about 65 smaller blades, including throwing knives and darts, hunting knives and elaborate "fantasy" daggers with metal dragons and skeletons for handles. 
Next to a particularly nasty-looking, four-bladed piece sat a tin box lid covered in blood. Police weren't sure whose it was. 
"I can't imagine that any individual for any reason would have this many knives designed for violence, mayhem and murder," Mayor Lang said, adding that they were "fighting knives" with no apparent sporting purpose. 
On the pyrotechnics side, police found scores of sparklers, firecrackers and larger fireworks, along with carbon-dioxide cartridges for the three pellet guns taken. 
Chief Teachman said police responded to Mr. Hjorth's 80 Earle St. apartment at about 6:30 p.m., after someone who lived there called to report that the suspect was "severely intoxicated," had threatened someone with a sword and was "chopping doors down." 
About seven to 10 officers entered the third-floor dwelling through the unlocked back door and found that Mr. Hjorth was barricaded in part of a living room that he had closed off with sliding doors into a makeshift bedroom. 
Smoke from the fog machine poured through a 6-inch hole cut into one of the doors, and conditions were "very dark," the chief said. 
"Visibility was very limited," he said. 
Officers tried unsuccessfully to reason with Mr. Hjorth, then took down a panel of his improvised barrier, causing more smoke to flood the room, the chief said. 
Mr. Hjorth then fired the pellet gun at the police. 
"At least three rounds were embedded in a wall just inches from where the officers were standing," Chief Teachman said. 
Despite orders from police, Mr. Hjorth again refused to stand down, turning up his radio, kicking out his apartment's front window, setting off fireworks and lighting a mattress on fire, the chief said. 
The suspect dashed out of his bedroom, though a hallway to the front door, which had been locked. But he ducked back into the apartment, slamming the door, when he saw Officers Timothy Gibney and Megan Toromino, who had come up the front stairs and were standing on a landing. 
Chief Teachman said Mr. Hjorth then lunged out the front door toward the two officers with an 8- to 10-inch knife. 
"They responded to this deadly threat" and fired, the chief said. 
In all, the standoff lasted just 12 minutes, police said. Just before 7 p.m., emergency workers carried Mr. Hjorth out of his apartment house in a stretcher. His wife, Kristen Hjorth, cried as he passed by. She had already herded their children into a minivan parked near the property. 
District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. said Tuesday that Mr. Hjorth was struck once in the abdomen, although Chief Teachman would not confirm that. 
Officials expect that Mr. Hjorth will be arraigned at the hospital on three counts of armed assault with intent to murder, three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon and one count each of assaulting a household member, threatening to commit a crime and disturbing the peace while armed. 
The state police assigned to the DA's Office, along with the New Bedford Police detectives unit and Department of Professional Standards, are investigating the shooting. 
According to department policy, Officers Gibney and Toromino have been placed on administrative duty until the investigation is concluded, and have turned in their weapons. 
Chief Teachman said he is sensitive to the fact that the incident occurred within a month of the last police shooting. 
"I'm aware of the timetable," he said. "I'm always concerned for the safety of the officers and the public." 
He later added, "Every day, our officers put themselves in harm's way." 
The October case also involved a pellet gun. Lamont S. Cruz, 38, allegedly drew one that looked almost exactly like a real handgun. Police shot him. 
"No one can tell if these are real guns," Mayor Lang said. 
According to New Bedford District Court files, Mr. Hjorth has a record of run-ins with police involving fire. In 1989 he was convicted of arson of a dwelling. 
In 2002 police arrested him after his mother-in-law reported that he threatened to burn down her apartment with her and three grandchildren she had custody of inside. 
He denied making the threat and the charge of threatening to commit a crime was dismissed due to the court's failure to properly schedule a show-cause hearing. 
In January of 2006 he was charged with attempted arson of a dwelling. Kristen Hjorth told police her husband lit a cardboard box on fire after an argument at 80 Earle St., then fled as he heard fire sirens. Two of their children were home at the time. 
He reportedly called her cell phone as she was talking to firefighters and told her, "You'll never catch me." 
That case was dismissed after Mrs. Hjorth invoked spousal privilege, refusing to testify and asking for her husband to be released, records said.

Contact Rob Margetta at [email protected] 
Date of Publication: November 23, 2006 on Page A13


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