R.J. Tavel, J.D.
Manhunt ends; cops kill suspect in trooper death
Mon Jul 14 14:38:01 2003
208.152.73.241

Manhunt ends; cops kill suspect in trooper death
Woodring dies 4 miles from shoot-out
By Amy Lee, The Detroit News
Monday, July 14, 2003

FREMONT -- The manhunt for suspected cop killer Scott
A. Woodring ended early Sunday when state police shot
him to death as he turned on them with an assault
rifle in nearby Sheridan Township.

Woodring, 40, was wanted on a first-degree murder
warrant for killing 33-year-old state Trooper Kevin
Marshall during a raid on Woodring's Osborn Street
home a week ago today.

The fugitive escaped a police barricade of his home
after the shoot-out last Monday in which Marshall was
killed, but he lingered in the Fremont area of Newaygo
County.

Acting on a tip, state police at about 5 a.m. Sunday
found Woodring in a car parked behind a home on Maple
Island Road near 60th Street, about four miles
southwest of his home. Eight members of the state
police emergency support team surrounded the car and
ordered Woodring to remain inside, said state police
Inspector Barry Getzen.

Instead, Woodring stepped out of the car with an
assault rifle and, as he turned toward the officers
with the weapon, police opened fire, Getzen said.
Woodring died at the scene, about four miles from
where he allegedly killed Marshall.

"I think he was prepared to die, but he also was
prepared to fight it out," Getzen said.

Woodring's death ends an intensive five-day manhunt in
this small agricultural community about 30 miles
northeast of Muskegon.

Woodring toted weapons, ammunition and food and
possessed the survival skills needed to live in the
woods. Local, state and federal authorities blanketed
the small, tight-knit community while Woodring was on
the loose.

Tom Leiter, 69, knew Woodring was nearby when his
wife, Rene, woke him at about 5 a.m. Sunday to tell
him she heard five gunshots.

"My first thought was him," said Leiter, who lives on
Maple Island in Sheridan Township about a half-mile
from the home where Woodring was killed.

"I went to the kitchen to get some coffee, and I saw
probably 30 state police cars racing by from just
about every direction. I knew it was big."

The woman who answered the phone at the brown
two-story home that Woodring was discovered hiding
behind declined comment. Police said they do not know
if Woodring knew the homeowner.

Crime scene investigators collected evidence at the
scene into Sunday evening. The state police and the
Newaygo County prosecutor's office are conducting a
review of the death and the events leading up to the
shooting, state police Lt. Col. Robert Bertee said in
a statement.

The police presence on Maple Island Road on Sunday
morning alarmed Kathy Morrison, 42. Morrison and her
husband run Morrison Orchards, just a few houses away
from the home where police shot Woodring.

"My husband went down to talk to the police," who had
blocked off Maple Island Road after the shooting,
Morrison said. "We didn't know if it was safe. It's
just been a very weird series of events this week."

Woodring, who associates said harbored a deep hatred
of the government, barricaded himself in his home July
6 when police in the nearby village of Hesperia and
Newaygo County sheriff's deputies tried to serve him
with a warrant for soliciting sex from a teen-age girl
in Hesperia. The state police were called in.

Police said Woodring fired two shots at officers last
Monday afternoon, prompting state troopers to storm
the home to arrest him. Marshall was shot four times.

Marshall, a native of Sterling Heights, died during
surgery at Spectrum Butterworth Hospital in Grand
Rapids. He leaves a wife, Angela, and two small
children. The Marshall family in Sterling Heights
declined to comment on Woodring's death.

Woodring learned defensive tactics and survivalist
skills during his four-year stint in the Michigan
Militia. The group forced him out in 1998 when
Woodring began espousing the beliefs of the Christian
Identity movement, a radical religious group that
preaches racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism,
according to Tom Wayne, former chief of staff and
executive officer of the Michigan Militia
Corps/Wolverines.

Fremont resident Bobbie Palmer, 34, said she expected
Woodring to die when police caught up to him. Palmer
and her family live across the street from the Fremont
Police Station and said they would watch officers
loading their guns during the search for Woodring.

"I think the cops were antsy and that they wanted him
dead," she said. "They didn't want to take the chance
that they'd get shot themselves."

Officials on Sunday continued to scour the burned-out
hole where Woodring's home once stood. The home burned
July 7, shortly after police shot a percussion grenade
intended to stun Woodring in the home.

Officers have found a stockpile of weapons and
ammunition, canned food, more than 200 pounds of
silver coins and backpacks filled with food and
clothing.

Several guns registered to Woodring and Marshall's
gun, which he apparently dropped in Woodring's house
when he was fatally shot, have not been located.

http://www.detnews.com/2003/metro/0307/14/a01-216636.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/news/print_071303_NW_troopersuspect.html

A deadly end to the hunt for a Michigan fugitive
Police shot and killed Scott Woodring early Sunday


Newaygo County — (07/13/03)--Scott Woodring was
accused of killing a state trooper

Authorities say Woodring was spotted in a car around
five a-m just a few miles away from his home in rural
Newyago County.

A SWAT team surrounded the car and ordered Woodring to
stay inside.

But Woodring got out of the vehicle, and armed with a
rifle, he turned toward police.

He was then shot several times and died at the scene.

"We suspect that he's been in the area the entire
time. We had received some tips over the weekend,
placing him in several different areas slightly north
of where he was finally located, so we do suspect that
he's been here the entire week," said Michigan State
Police officer Barry Getzen.

The 40-year-old Woodring had been running from the law
since Monday. He had barricaded himself inside his
home after authorities tried to serve him with a
warrant for soliciting sex from an underage girl.
Authorities tried to rush the home to end the
standoff, but in an exchange of gunfire, Trooper Kevin
Marshall was shot and killed. Somehow, Woodring was
able to escape and had been on the loose until being
spotted today.


Last Updated: Jul 13, 2003




=====
"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority.
It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the
people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who
mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good
masters, but they mean to be masters." -- Daniel Webster

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." [Ayn Rand, The Nature of Government]

For Liberty in Our Lifetime,
R.J. Tavel, J.D., Founder

Liberty's Educational Advocacy Forum
http://freedomlaw.com