Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, and firefighter Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, who worked as a 911 dispatcher, were killed in an apparent trap setup by a deranged ex-convict. The New York firefighters were responding to an early Christmas Eve call of a fire that had engulfed a home in the suburban Rochester area. The killer, who was had been imprisoned in 1980 for killing his grandmother with a hammer, torched his home and waited for the firefighters to arrive. At that point he shot at the first responders. Chiapperini and Kaczowka were killed, while two others are in critical condition in the nearby hospital.
The sniper left a note stating that he wanted to do what he likes best: to kill. The deranged coward killed himself during an ensuing gun battle between police officers and the assailant. In the burning building authorities found what are believed to be his sister’s remains. The building was the house he shared with his sister.
Police say the killer possessed a pump-action shotgun, a .38-caliber revolver and a .223-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the same make and caliber weapon used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., that killed 26 people. The police do not yet know how the killer obtained the weapons since as a convicted killer he wasn’t legally allowed to possess a weapon of any kind.
This person was obviously deranged beyond words. He is yet another case of a mentally ill person. If you follow this blog then you know my feelings towards semi-automatic weapons.
The one thing I want to discuss in this post is this simple question:
How is a convicted killer not imprisoned for life?
This man killed his grandmother with a hammer and served only 17 years! Are you kidding me? Sometimes I don’t understand how our judicial system comes up with prison sentence terms. When it comes to murder and even child molesters, I do not understand why they aren’t imprisoned for life.
I wanted to end this post by thanking our firefighters as well as other first responders. These men and women risk their lives every day. I salute those who continue to do their jobs even with the threat of crazed individuals seeking their deaths.
