Ex-police chief held in wife's death (caught at Canadian border)

Pennlive.com ^ | 8/25/2005 | DEB KINER AND MATT MILLER

[Born Conservative]

NEWPORT - A former Millerstown police chief was arrested at the Canadian border last night about 10 hours after he shot and killed his estranged wife at her job, according to police in Northumberland County.

Richard C. Curran, 31, of Shamokin, was arrested about 9 p.m. when he failed to declare firearms that were inside his vehicle at a Niagara Falls border crossing, Coal Twp. police said.

Around 11 a.m. yesterday, Curran confronted his estranged wife at her job at Shamokin Area Community Hospital, police said. He is accused of shooting Tina Curran, 31, of Mount Carmel, several times and fleeing in his vehicle.

Tina Curran was flown to Geisinger Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead by Montour County Coroner Scott Lynn, police said.

No one else was injured, and the hospital was not closed after the shooting, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Police at first suspected Curran was heading to Florida, but about 10 hours after the shooting, he was arrested at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, Canada, police said. Extradition proceedings are expected to begin within a couple of days, police said. They did not report where Curran was being held.

While Millerstown police chief, Curran issued so many speeding tickets that he was known as a "hammerer."

A former boss said Curran also had a temper. Curran had several run-ins with Perry County court officials and once reprimanded another police officer for not calling him "Chief" Curran.

Curran was Millerstown's police chief and only officer until last year. He was recently hired as a police officer in Bernville, Berks County.

He was hired in Millerstown in March 2003 and was named chief two months later. Some residents complained that he was overzealous in his pursuit of speeders.

[Gay State Conservative]

Geeze...he should have headed to Mexico rather than Canada.
If he had,not only would prosecutors have been required
to promise not to seek the death penalty but also to
promise not to seek a life sentence.

[Rakkasan1]

only police should have guns ping.
wonder if he used a "cheap Saturday Night Special"

[ozzymandus]

Sounds like a swell guy.

[sandydipper]

Jealous - no doubt - the old "if I can't have her - no one will" mentality.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

Around 11 a.m. yesterday, Curran confronted his estranged wife at her job at Shamokin Area Community Hospital, police said... Tina Curran was flown to Geisinger Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead by Montour County Coroner Scott Lynn, police said.

She's shot outside one hospital and flown to another? If I'm a patient at Shamokin, I'm not feeling too confident about the quality of care I'm getting right now...

"Dear God! She's been shot! Quick, take her inside."
"Are you crazy?! We've got to get her to a real hospital!"

[Oztrich Boy]

Another "workplace shooting" reasom why CCW is a bad idea

[Born Conservative]

Shamokin Hospital is a small community hospital that is not equipped to take care of a major trauma such as this. Geisinger is a regional trauma center/tertiary care center, and receives cases such as this.

It was a little tense at Geisinger that day (I work there). The hospital went under a partial "lock down" after the shooting, because they were concerned that the husband would come in to the hospital looking for the wife while she was being treated. Back in the 80's, there was a death at Geisinger after a prisoner from the nearby federal penitentiary at Lewisburg tried to escape from his guards while being brought to the Emergency Department. I can't remember the details, but there was actually a shootout in the hospital.

[HitmanLV]

Jealousy is one thing. Now he goes up the river for a long, long time. Nobody is worth that.

Besides if you really want to screw someone over, there are much more creative ways than killing them. In fact, with a little imagination a person can do all sorts of stuff that would make their mark pray for the sweet release of death.

Not that my mind works that way, or anything.

[kcvl]

BERNVILLE — Richard C. Curran, 31, of Shamokin, had been hired as a police chief in Bernville, and began work there just three weeks ago, the mayor of the small Berks County borough said.

"I never in a thousand years thought I’d be going through this," Bernville Mayor Robert Lyon said Wednesday afternoon as he fielded inquiries in response to allegations that the community’s new police chief had killed his ex-wife, Tina, earlier that day.

The mayor said that he’d only spoken to Mr. Curran once since he was hired as police chief. The last time Mr. Curran was at work was Monday.

snip

Prior to taking the job in Berks County, Mr. Curran had been the chief of the police department in the borough of Millerstown, Perry County. His tenure there was marked by a stormy relationship with other borough officials.

snip

Mr. Curran sued Millerstown for wrongful termination, the mayor said. That dispute is still pending, the Millerstown mayor said. "I really shouldn’t be talking about this (because of the pending lawsuit)," Mr. Kerns said. As police chief, Mr. Curran had also filed a civil lawsuit alleging that borough officials misappropriated funds, Mr. Kerns said.

snip

Both mayors said that they thought Mr. Curran has two daughters. Mr. Lyon said he believes the girls are 9 and 6. Mr. Kerns, the Millerstown mayor, said he knows very little about Mr. Curran’s personal life and that while serving as the Perry County community’s police chief, he commuted to work from Shamokin. The mayor said he knew that the borough’s ex-police chief was estranged from his wife because a portion of his paycheck was getting docked for child support.

[kcvl]

Police said the suspect, Richard C. Curran, 31, of Shamokin, fired several shots at her after confronting her near a loading dock and in the area of the emergency department.

She worked as a licensed practical nurse at the hospital, officials said.

Mrs. Curran died at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, after being flown there by a helicopter. An autopy is scheduled today at the Lehigh Valley Medical Center.

snip

Coal Township Police Chief Richard Higgins described Mr. Curran, a part-time police chief with the Bernville Police Department in Berks County.

snip

Mr. Higgins said he did not know what motive may have been involved in the slaying.

Northumberland County Court records show the couple, who were married in 1996, were divorced in January 2004.

Mr. Higgins didn’t know if Mrs. Curran had a protection from abuse order involving her estranged husband.

In Sunbury, officers were called to provide additional security at the Northumberland County Children and Youth Services agency based on court appearances Mr. Curran had made in the past regarding child custody issues.

snip

Curran had formerly served as the police chief and only officer in Millerstown, Perry County, and had filed a lawsuit, pending in federal court in Harrisburg, that claimed he was unjustly fired, The Patriot-News reported.

Curran claimed in the lawsuit that his hours were cut to nothing in retaliation when he complained that grant money intended for furnishing the police station went instead for town square improvements and sewage plant equipment.

In court documents, Millerstown officials denied Curran was fired. The borough said his hours were cut to 25 a week in January 2004 due to lack of money and job performance concerns, and he was furloughed in August 2004 when sewer-system repair costs left the borough with no money to pay him.

Curran had also worked part-time as a Mifflin police officer. He was hired in Bernville about three weeks ago, borough Mayor Robert Lyon said.

[kcvl]

Police officer, slain ex-wife argued over child custody

August 25, 2005, 5:40 PM EDT

SHAMOKIN, Pa. -- A police officer accused of shooting his ex-wife to death at the hospital where she worked had argued with her an hour earlier over the custody of their two daughters, according to police and a neighbor.

Tina Curran, 31, of Mount Carmel, was shot several times at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Shamokin Area Community Hospital, where she had worked for about a year as a nurse. She was later pronounced dead at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.

An hour earlier, she had called Mount Carmel police about a confrontation with her husband at her home, Coal Township Police Chief Richard Higgins said.

Tina Curran's next-door neighbor, Molly Duquette, said she had gone out to sit on her front porch when she saw Richard Curran standing outside and his ex-wife telling him to leave. After Tina Curran shut the door, he remained outside and began telling Duquette about the dispute, Duquette said.

"He told me they were having problems, and he wanted custody of the children," Duquette said. "He said that he was hiring a better lawyer. I said, 'Well, just let it rest and things will work out."'

Curran later departed after a police officer drove by and told him to leave, said Duquette, who added that although he was upset, he never threatened to harm his former wife.

"I never thought he would freak out like that," she said. "He seemed like a real nice man."

Duquette, 73, who has lived in the neighborhood for nearly two years, said she didn't know the couple very well, but had seen Richard Curran visiting periodically to spend time with the children.

The Currans were married in 1996 and divorced in January 2004, according to county court records. Tina Curran moved into her mother's house in Mount Carmel after separating from her husband, then moved to another neighborhood in the borough, said Mary Ann Malick, a family friend.

"She was well-liked in the neighborhood ... she'd talk to anybody," Malick said.

Richard Curran, recently hired as a police officer in Bernville, Berks County, had formerly served as the police chief and only officer in Millerstown, Perry County. He had filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that he was unjustly fired, The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported Thursday.

Curran alleged that his hours were cut to nothing in retaliation after he complained that grant money intended for furnishing the police station went instead for town square improvements and sewage plant equipment.

[Charles H. (The_r0nin)]

Shamokin Hospital is a small community hospital that is not equipped to take care of a major trauma such as this.

I figured as much. But you have to admit, the concept is humorous (ignore the hospital you are in front of and fly to another...).

[School of Rational Thought]

"No one else was injured, and the hospital was not closed after the shooting, a hospital spokeswoman "

This is why only trained police should carry a weapon. A kill without collateral damage. (sarcasm)