post #1
04 April 2005, 18:28 UTC#1
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QUOTE
MAN WITHOUT HANDS ALLEGEDLY SHOOTS COP
A police officer was shot in a confrontation with a gunman who did not have hands but used prosthetic metal hooks to fire at officers with a rifle, police said.
The gunman, Robert McMullen Jr., 33, of Barberton, was shot by police and was pronounced dead at the scene Sunday night, police said.
McMullen's parents told police he had threatened to kill his mother, and was trying to attack her with his hooks. McMullen's father tried to fend off his son by hitting him with a board, then locked him outside the house after calling 911, police Lt. Sylvia Trundle said.
McMullen fired at two officers as they stepped out of their cruisers to respond to the disturbance call.
Police identified the wounded officer as a 36-year-old male who had been on the force for nine years. He was struck in the torso just below his bulletproof vest.
The officer was in serious but stable condition Monday at Akron City Hospital after surgery, Trundle said. The other officer was not hurt.
Both officers returned fire, and it was not known which one shot McMullen, Trundle said.
A search of McMullen's car turned up a 12-inch pipe bomb filled with gunpowder and connected to matches as an ignition source, Trundle said Monday. A BB gun and additional gunpowder also were found in the car, she said.
McMullen's parents told police their son lost his hands and arms up to his elbows in 1996. After being stopped for a traffic violation by West Virginia state troopers and leading authorities on a five-mile chase, McMullen eventually got out of his car in and detonated a grenade he was holding in his hands.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
