Tribute to Life

I wonder why you died?
We know you were no Jesus Christ so why kill you?
To others you may seem an ugly duckling but to we who knew you,
could see the magnificent swan bound within you . . .
Guess that is one of the reasons we wonder why you needed to die?

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Tailgate & box indicate shots fired from low flat angle with bed, indicating (pistols?) from behind car or baricade in (kneeling position)

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Strange as it may seem to lose life so heedlessly?
Why did it end this way? So many unanswered questions, Why?

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Note the truck was impounded (moved) so it's position is relative to the gate (as it had no bullet hoes) was either open or protected by the truck.
The rear window was broken by shot (probably 9mm.) transversing the side & existing the top rear of box lodging in the window frame. The front wind screen is intack.

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The incident began about 5:52 p.m. as St. Petersburg police responded to a call of two men fighting in the man's yard. Moments later, additional callers reported gunshots.
Profit said the man fired a shotgun into the air. As officers arrived, the man ran inside the house.
Soon after, he came back out with a pistol, fired twice at a sergeant and ran back inside. At that point, the tactical unit was called in.
Profit said the man appeared to have been drinking beer, but did not know why the man was upset. The man talked to a police sergeant early on in the standoff and then cut off contact, Profit said.
"It could have been suicide by cop," Profit said. "We really don't know right now."
None of the officers were shot or seriously hurt, Profit said.

Looking upon the ground, the stain of your bloodstill remains.
They have made sure to leave little to show what transpired.
So why do you call it "suicide by cop"?
When he fired at you where did his bullets go? I mean did he shoot across the top of the fence or did he come out into the drive? You see details have been far & few,almost obtuse you might say?

When I got the message that he had been killed, I couldn't believe it was true, even after I called her I still wasn't convinced. Did I hear his voice in the background? Turn out to be her ex., he had taken the time to be with her as well as friends from work. Strange it was only when I look upon his face, the body laid upon a slab, did it truly sink in.

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the outer door must of been open, as was the door at the top of the stairs. [hole in door indicates entry thru at angle such that it was open too]

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The police said he had written a brief note, she wonders if they were watching himas he sat at the table to write it.

This is the story as I pieced it together . . .
She had been at work or was getting off work at about 6P.M.,
when she received his call?
He told her not to come home.
I guess he knew it in his heart, even then?
Some how she ended up sitting in a police car to take her home but sat there till about 9 P.M.
When they take her to the station until 3 A.M. when they took her home.
I guess they had a lot of work to do?
Of course, they had many questions for her. [at the station & in the car]
I think she blames herself for not coming home.
She wonders 'why the police hadn't allowed her to try to talk him out?'

Good story - You might want to start a blog?

There is an evil in this world. I do not know why, what it is exactly or how it works. But this, and hundreds of stories like it from the beginning of time are proof positive of something evil at work in our world.

Ski & I had met while taking a photographic course at the local vocational tech. I had some experience with photo finishing and we both wanted to learn more about photography. I guess you could say I was looking to be another Ansel Adam & he wanted to do portrait work of people. This was strange to me, as he was a better photographer than a people person. While I do not remember how we became close friends, I know it was a gradual process
The course included both developing the basic skills with camera & enlarger. We used b&w bulk film having to hand load 35mm film which was loaded into a bulk loader in small dark rooms for color & large format film. One day he came out of the dark room, laughing & excitedly called to me. Saying **** you are not going to believe this sh*t, come on & let me show you. We had discussed many things but Ski was a fanatic perfectionist when it came to his photography. He didn't like using the schools darkroom for printing because variations in chemistry by high volume use & replenishment.
So I wasn't sure what to expect as he lead the way into one of the small rooms used for film loading. I wondered what it was he wanted to show me. Minutes passed & he said close your eyes & wait. Finally he said open them & asked what did I see? Standing in a dark room, I looked around but didn't see anything so I said so. Then he said look up. The vent piping (air) cap was lose or lost and light shown through the vent into the darkroom, not much but to fog film, an intense light is not needed.
Yet it was a long time before he invited me to his house, a very closed individual with an attitude about who entered his domain, his home. The windows of the front porch were covered with foil as I walked through the gate to the side door.
When I entered the living room I understood why, he used the room as his photo studio. A bar stool (tall) stood in the middle of the room, a styrofoam head sat on it with a scarf draped around to detail. From such humble beginnings; barebulb lights with metal reflectors, meter & camera but above all the desire to improvise & improve his art.
One day we sat at his house talking about enlargers, he wanted to set up a dark room at home. So I told him that a color enlarger was the ticket, if he bought a condenser unit, he would regret it. He said he was going to do color work & didn't need it. Classes ended & we went our separate ways but remained friends, someone to talk shop with as well as shoot the bull.
The next time I came around, Ski showed me in, to gloat on his latest procurements; he had replaced bulbs with flash units, acquired umbrellas,etc to direct lighting & hair lights, kickers. He even had backdrop rolls mounted to the ceiling!
He had run on to a good deal on a color enlarger & he gave me his thanks for directing to it. He soon had found he wanted to do his own lab work including color. For years he had spent his time meticulously setting up & measuring aspects or lighting ratios, photgraphing then proceessing the film and developing prints. His office (small bedroom) stood several filing cabinets of negatives in sleeves to form folders which filled the drawers of these cabinets.
A monument of the monumental effort required to learn
the Art of Painting with Light !

Wierd - He must have wanted to die.

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Wierd - He must have wanted to die.
The officers & news story would tend to think this was so?

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But I noted that gate which remained locked & unused, had a board broken in it. Just a small thing but I think it may have had sever consequence in what happened that night

I had thought long & hard about it and came to the conclusion that the gate to the drive had to be shut. But then the question of how ski came out to the gate became mute as I realized that it was after dark at the time of the shooting. But I still questioned why he opened the gate?
If he had come out to shoot at the Police, why would he turn to flee leaving the gate open?
He had called Mercie earlier but had not had any contact with her since that time. After dark the Policed moved in trying to access the property via the locked gate. Either they made some sound or when they tried to pry the gate open, it made a loud crack
He may have opened it just to check on it, the snap of the board was mistaken for gun fire so as he moved for cover all Hell broke loose.

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Ski's wife is a nurse so her works as an 'angel of mercy'

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As ski was a fairly good shot, I don't see him firing off a bunch of rounds and not hitting anything. Although the Police told her, he had shot out a spotlight they had turned on.
I tend to believe he had opened the gate for Mercies sake, think that she might have come home and parked on the side by the locked gate.

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Mercie says that there are other [better] ways of doing these things.

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I wonder what if someday those who had done this thing should find them in Her hospital? What should she do, here is one, who killed her husband delivered into her hands. An air bubble, the wrong medication; I mean, she would be justified by the LAW.

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Eye for an Eye -- A Tooth for a Tooth

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Then again, she really may have to do anything . . . just sit & do nothing as they suffer in their pain?

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But then she would be worthy of her name sake, would she?

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As it is written what Will profit a man if he gains the world to Lose his Soul?

Strange isn't it with all those bullet holes through fence, walls etc. coming from the back. Here we see one from the side, coming from the neighbor's yard?

Once while we were talking, Ski was going on about, how hard he would work to get flat even lighting. I had showed him the trick of using hair spray on a filter to produce a soft vocus.
"I go out and buy expensive lenses that produce true reproductions of the imaage then go out and spend more money to buy filters to defocus those lenses"
Go figure portrait photography. People want to look good in the photograph, it needs to be becoming to them or they are not going to like it.

Clay - I hope you get this worked out in your mind. Never lost anyone like this, I can only imagine it would be difficult. Have to know every thing to understand why.

It's possibe the neighbor felt he had to help the police and fire a shot, or it could have somehow rickashayed.

I recently took a security course when I was a security guard a couple years back. They say a lot of shots can be fired in a short amount of time.