woman disarmed by police, then killed
Jeffrey Adam Johnson
I thought folks would find this informative.
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Jeffrey Adam Johnson Internet: jajo...@ingr.com
("I speak only for myself.")
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Date: Wed, 26 Oct 94 16:54:11 -0400
From: w...@ll.mit.edu (Bill Chiarchiaro)
Subject: Woman Disarmed by Police and Then Killed
For those of you who haven't heard of this disgusting case, I've
reproduced an article about Polly Przybyl. Two months ago, Polly's
legally owned handguns were confiscated by police when she sought
protection from her abusive husband. Eight days later, that husband
fatally stabbed Polly and fatally shot her mother.
Bill Chiarchiaro
w...@ll.mit.edu
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Copied by William J. Chiarchiaro II with permission from
_Women & Guns_, Volume 6, Number 10, November 1994,
pages 10, 11, and 55.
HUSBAND MURDERS WIFE DISARMED BY POLICE
by Marshall J. Brown
On Aug. 14, police in Cheektowaga, N.Y., confiscated Polly S.
Przybyl's legally-owned handguns after she pleaded, unsuccessfully,
that she needed the guns to protect herself from her estranged husband.
On Aug. 22 Lee S. Przybyl, 40, the husband, fatally stabbed her,
shot her in the head and then shot her mother to death.
Eleven hours later Lee Przybyl took his own life with a shotgun
blast to the head. The couple's two children, a boy, 10, and a girl,
11, were orphaned by the domestic tragedy.
A police official said later he was "very comfortable" with the
officers' decision to disarm Polly, 36.
Her sister, Mindy L. O'Leary, 40, was outraged at the police
conduct. "I resent that the police disarmed my sister," she told
_Women & Guns_. "Even though I personally don't believe in guns my
sister knew how to protect herself with a gun. I believe she could
have saved herself and our mother had she been armed."
The chronology of events, as outlined by Mindy, is as follows:
After 17 years of a marriage that had turned increasingly sour as a
result of alleged mental and physical abuse by Lee, Polly decided to
take the children and leave her husband on Aug. 12. She left their
Niagara County home and stayed two nights at motels in neighboring
Erie County.
Lee traced her to an Amherst, N.Y., motel early on Sunday, Aug. 14,
and later phoned Mindy, saying he was carrying one of Polly's licensed
handguns (unlawfully --- he had no permit). He said he was
unsuccessful in attempting to get Polly to return home with the
children and he left the motel, taking Polly's cherished red pickup
truck. He left his Ford Explorer which Polly later drove to nearby
Cheektowaga, seeking refuge in the home of her widowed mother, Gloria
C. Mason, 63.
Polly told her mother and Mindy, who lives there, too, that her
husband was "stalking" her. Not long after, there were noises at the
front door and the women saw Lee's face through the glass and the
doorknob turned, but the door was locked.
"We thought Lee had a gun and we were terrified ... the children
began screaming and Polly drew her gun and cocked it and I told her to
call 911," Mindy recalled.
"Polly yelled into the phone, 'I left my husband Friday and he's
found out where I am and he's trying to break into the house. I'm
almost positive he is armed but I have a licensed pistol --- send
someone right away.'"
Mindy said several police cars responded within five minutes and
officers grabbed Lee, put him against a car and searched him, finding
no weapon. Then they told him to leave the area and went into the
house to check with the women.
"An officer spoke to Polly and told her the situation was a domestic
disturbance with a potential for violence, and, what with children
involved, it would be better for all concerned if she would surrender
her firearms," Mindy said.
She added that her sister became "frantic" at the request, stamped
her foot and yelled, "I can't believe you want to take away my guns
when he (Lee) has a house full of guns. I have a pistol permit and a
legal right to protect myself and my children ... my husband doesn't
even have a pistol permit."
Polly explained further that she had a federal firearms license,
too, and that three of her handguns were still at the Niagara County
home occupied by her husband who owned two rifles and a shotgun as well.
Mindy said a policeman assured Polly that Niagara County authorities
would be alerted to pick up her handguns and the longarms from the
Przybyl home in that county, and insisted that she surrender her guns.
"But I've had to protect myself and my children," Polly countered,
according to Mindy, who added, "The policeman said, `I'm sorry, ma'am,
we need to take your firearms.[']"
Mindy said Polly surrendered two .380 semi-automatics, a Beretta
and a Walther. "After the police left she said, `I can't believe they
took away my guns ... my protection.'"
Polly was a "calm, level-headed" woman who practiced with her
handguns and had carried one daily over the past three years, fearing
her husband's temper, according to Mindy. "He murdered her and my
mother only after knowing that she (Polly) had been disarmed."
Mindy added that Lee had become "insanely jealous" and believed,
erroneously, that Polly had a boyfriend. Lee, a field engineer for a
utility company, ordered Polly, a machinest's [sic] apprentice at
a medical appliance company, to keep a cellular phone with her at all
times so he could check up on her whereabouts, Mindy said. She added
her sister claimed she had been beaten from time to time by Lee but
had told no one.
Two days after Polly was disarmed she obtained a court order of
protection requiring Lee to stay at least 500 yards away from her and
the children.
But three days later, she responded to Lee's request for visitation
by dropping the children off at the Niagara County home.
"Later, when she went to pick them up, Lee locked her in a bedroom
and told her that if she didn't return home with the kids he'd kill
himself in front of her and the children," Mindy said.
She added that this convinced her sister more than ever to go ahead
with divorce proceedings.
Polly proceeded to the house on a Monday evening (Aug. 22). She got
out of her vehicle and Lee seemed friendly enough, greeting her and
asking her to go to the rear of the home to show him how to work the
pool's vacuum system, according to Chief Investigator John W. Cole of
the Sheriff Department. He related that a week before a deputy had
gone to the house to pick up from Lee Polly's other registered guns, a
.357 Colt revolver, a 9mm semi-auto and a .22 semi-auto, both Smith &
Wessons.
But Lee refused to surrender his rifles and a shotgun, insisting he
had committed no crime, had menaced no one and there were no legal
grounds for taking the guns. Polly, on the other hand, had been
coerced by Cheektowaga Police into surrendering her guns when there
was no legal basis for their confiscation, according to Mindy.
Polly followed Lee to the pool area while the others remained in
front of the house. There was a sound of scuffling and some yelling
in the pool area a few seconds later and the young boy ran behind the
house and saw his mother on the ground, Cole said. The boy's sister
ran behind the house and saw her father pick her brother up by the
throat and then fling him to the ground. Both children then ran to a
neighbor's house while Polly's mother ran to the pool area. Neighbors
then heard several gunshots and saw Lee leave in his Ford Explorer.
Piecing together what had happened, Cole said Lee probably had a
knife and a 9mm Marlin carbine secreted in the pool area. When Polly
went behind the house with him he attacked her with the knife. She
had defensive wounds on her arms and hands and another thrust
penetrated her abdomen, cutting the aorta --- a fatal wound according
to Cole.
In other words, she was first attacked with a knife, fending off
blows with her hands and arms before the fatal thrust was accomplished
--- a perfect scenario for self-defense with a handgun. Upon seeing
the knife, she could have stepped back, drawn her gun and defended
herself.
Cole admitted that could have been the case but, on the other hand,
he said, Polly could have been surprised and would have had to have
had the gun drawn and in her hand to successfully fend off the knife
attack.
"If she had had a gun at least she and my mother would have had a
chance," Mindy countered.
In any event, when the mother came on the scene Lee grabbed the
rifle and shot her twice in the abdomen, killing her. He also fired
two shots into the head of his wife's prostrate form.
After fleeing in his vehicle he drove around the area all night, and
eleven hours after the murders, took his own life in a suburban
parking lot not far from his home. Lee had a cellular phone in his
vehicle and Cole and Lee's attorney had been negotiating with him for
hours to surrender and were [a] few feet away from his vehicle
when Lee shot himself.
Cheektowaga police had told the media that Polly had voluntarily
surrendered her guns to them for "safekeeping," although a
departmental report indicated the firearms had been "confiscated."
The report stated that Polly was "very unstable" after Lee tried to
get into her mother's home on Aug. 14 but Mindy insisted if there was
an "unstability" it came after police insisted that she surrender her
guns... "That's when she stamped her foot and got real agitated."
Cheektowaga Police Chief Bruce D. Chamberlin declined to comment
on specifics of the case (Polly's family is contemplating a lawsuit
against the police) but he said:
"As a matter of course officers are advised to attempt to defuse
volatile domestic situations by removing firearms from the scene."
The department's written policy on domestic violence tells officers
to "check for weapons and secure same..."
Investigative Chief Thomas Rowan was asked what the word "secure"
meant in the policy and he responded, "It means seize the weapons."
He added he was "comfortable, very comfortable" with the decision of
the officers to seize Polly's handguns. "Officers are trained to
attempt to remove firearms from potentially violent situations," he
said.
Apparently overlooked was the fact that in most violent domestics
it is the woman who is beaten, maimed or murdered. Unless police are
required to provide 24-hour protection for these women it would seem
in a rational society that they would be allowed to retain the means
to lawfully defend themselves.
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AlBonilla
Adam Johnson) writes:
>>>Subject: woman disarmed by police, then killed
From: jajo...@ingr.com (Jeffrey Adam Johnson)
Date: 27 Oct 1994 17:16:44 GMT
Message-ID: <38on9s$8...@b30news.b30.ingr.com> <<<
It goes to prove the point that many americans have unsuccessfully tried
to make: "It's not gun control, it's criminal control, stupid!" Most
violent crimes are commited by criminals released early from prison. We
don't need gun control, criminals need REAL sentences that are not
reduced because of "good behavior" or parole. Too late for Polly Przybyl,
Polly Class, and so many others which have been killed by "early released"
criminals.