Posted on 07/18/2008 10:53:27 AM PDT by Born Conservative
“I had fun,” the man accused of a triple homicide in Scranton said when asked whether he had killed three people.
Ten hours after a grizzly discovery at his residence on South Irving Avenue — three people so badly bludgeoned that the manner of death was difficult to determine — Rushing, 25, was taken into custody just after 4 p.m. in a dramatic scene at a Wilkes-Barre apartment.
The bodies of two young men and a teenage male were discovered by authorities after a 911 call was made just before 7 a.m. Thursday from within 1604 S. Irving Ave.
Dead are Justin Berrios, 21, Dustin Hintz, 22, and Leslie Collier, 16.
Four other people were found bound, but uninjured when police arrived. They are: Berrios’ 2-year-old son, Tristan Hintz-Berrios; Samantha Hintz, 19, the child’s mother; Matthew Collier, 21; and Cynthia Collier, 43, who is the mother of Dustin and Samantha Hintz and Leslie and Matthew Collier. Autopsies were under way late Thursday at Moses Taylor Hospital, Scranton Public Safety Director Ray Hayes said.
Lackawanna County Coroner Joseph Brennan was scheduled to perform the postmortem. Forensic pathologist Dr. Gary Ross is expect to assist in pinpointing the time along with the manner and cause of their deaths.
“We are not in a position to categorize how they met their demise. It’s still under investigation and can’t definitely tell you the cause of death,” Hayes said, pending the results of the autopsies, which were not available at press time.
“Based on interviews of people, who we characterized as being spared, we were able to determine the name of the suspect,” Hayes said. “We were able to determine … a familial relation, perhaps that is at the genesis of the issues that occurred today.”
The quiet, working-class South Scranton neighborhood became the scene of Scranton’s first multiple-homicide case since 1999.
“It’s frightening,” said neighbor Jeanne White of 1621 S. Irving Ave. “They kept to themselves and didn’t bother anyone.”
Just after noon, Jose Barrios, Justin Barrios’ father, crossed a police line and headed toward the house before a cadre of officials ushered him away while trying to comfort him.
“I want to know,” a distraught Jose Barrios shouted, seeking details of his son’s murder.
Suspect flees
Police believe Rushing used a gray Mercury Sable to flee the murder scene. The vehicle turned up in Wilkes-Barre early Thursday afternoon.
The search led investigators to a double-block home at 268-270 High St., Wilkes-Barre.
Wilkes-Barre police, state police, the FBI and U.S. Marshals set up a command center about a half-mile away, monitoring the apartment from several unmarked vehicles positioned on High Street and a back alley. A state police helicopter was on standby, periodically conducting fly overs.
From late morning until just after 4 p.m. law enforcement watched and waited. And then they pounced.
The Wilkes-Barre Police Department’s Emergency Response Team, in full ballistics gear and with automatic machine guns, stormed the apartment as scores of marked and unmarked police vehicles closed in from all directions.
After police took Rushing into custody, three more people were removed from the building. Their names were not immediately released.
Wilkes-Barre code enforcement officials posted the property, which building permits indicate is owned by Tom and Carolyn Dunbar, unfit for human habitation. Officials boarded up windows broken during the struggle.
Rushing, meanwhile, was expected to be arraigned before Magisterial District Judge James Gibbons on three counts of general homicide, said Lackawanna County District Attorney Andrew Jarbola. He had not been arraigned at press time.
“Within nine and a half hours, we had him in custody … We had a well organized inter-agency plan,” Scranton police Chief David Elliott said. “This investigation is far from over. Once you take him in, the investigation does not stop.”
Police are expected to gather more evidence from the house today and conduct follow-up interviews, Elliott said.
That is true of most cities in America.
Since the Government subsidized black brood mares birthing a new bastard every year or so by absent sperm donors — and those brood mares released their feral brood into the streets for their entertainment and education — in every city with a black ghetto populated with fatherless and uneducated, undisciplined and unemployable youth turning to professional gangs financed by robbery and drug dealing, crime becomes a lifestyle and “career path”...
To deny the observable - has become politically correct..
With that pretty smile I imagine his fun is just beginning.
Political correctness- The death of truth!
Yeah. I mean, bludgeon murderers might turn out to be normal people but it probably isn't the way to bet.
Dunno, three hots and a flop, plenty of bro's to kick it with, appeals lasting 20 years. Wish you were right but he will be in hog heaven (for a creature like himself) and we will be footing the bill.
Not to mention cable TV, a prison library with computer/internet access, weightroom, etc.
Behind Bars, Pricey 'Public' Artwork In PrisonsChris Halsne
KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Investigative ReporterHigh-dollar, high-flying birds gracing the ceiling of a state penitentiary -- Is this "public art" or a waste of money?
Despite tough economic times for the state of Washington, you'll see no cutbacks in artwork for prisons.
If you know a felon housed at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center near Aberdeen, you can see a $200,000 flock of acrylic birds. They just went up, paid for with your tax dollars.
You can't exactly take your family to see this public arts project. Amber and blue birds, 17 indigenous species in various stages of flight, soar along inside our state's newest prisoner visiting room.
Prison chief Doug Wadington helped choose the sculptures, entitled "Migration."
Halsne: "What benefit are the birds to this institution?" Wadington: "What benefit are the birds? Uh, it's a public arts project in terms of, we, uh, what's the benefit of public art?" Michelle Zahrly represents the Washington Arts Commission, which oversaw the $200,000 project. "The piece is a directionally accurate compass point. It' s a consideration of life beyond the Stafford Creek Correction Center," Zahrly said.
"That's nice," say most taxpayers we talked with. But the problem is lawmakers were just forced to save prison money by releasing inmates and cutting prison guards. $200,000 for birds that few citizens can view seems at best unnecessary...
More: http://www.kirotv.com/investigations/2325141
““grizzly” and “grisly”?”
One, the animal before the attack, 2 the result of the attack!
Animal/result BFD!
i dk why everyone thinks this is a joke.
2 of the 3 victims were my friends. not cool.
rst in peace leslie + justin <3
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