Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By BILL PEACE and ANTHONY COLAROSSI; Times Leader Staff
Writers
Wednesday, December 06, 1995 Page: 1A
Beryle Dee Williams, on his way to Florida Monday to take care of his
80-year-old mother, was depressed and possibly suicidal when he was pulled
over by a state trooper for driving erratically, a close friend said.
Despondent about a bitter divorce and failing business, Williams, 51,
predicted his death before leaving New England, a close friend said.
“He said before left that if he were stopped by the police he’d make them
shoot at him. He was right on the edge; he didn’t want to live anymore,” said
Rosaire Poginy, 50, of Barton, Vt., whom Williams stayed with for the last
eight years.
“One thing that crossed my mind when I heard he died was that he had lived
out what we talked about,” Poginy said.
Matthew Hunter, a state trooper at Troop N, Hazleton, for nearly five
years, pulled behind Williams on Interstate 81 in Hazle Township shortly
before 4 p.m. It was supposed to be a routine stop for possible drunken
driving, police said.
Hunter was a Montoursville resident when he enlisted as a police cadet in
January 1991. After six months of training, he was assigned to the Hazleton
barracks, said Charles Tocci, public information officer for the state police.
Williams exited his car brandishing a .45-caliber handgun, even after
Hunter yelled at Williams to stay in his car. Williams bought the handgun at a
local gun shop in Vermont, but said he wanted to empty the gun while driving
through New York so police wouldn’t arrest him for it, Poginy said.
But Williams’ gun was loaded when he began firing at the trooper. Hunter
dived between the two cars and fired back.
Hunter’s police cruiser was shot five times as he crawled to the rear of
the patrol car, firing back at Williams first with his service revolver, then
with a shotgun, police said.
Williams was shot once in the back and twice in his legs, police said.
The cause of death was a single gunshot wound to the back, Luzerne County
Coroner George E. Hudock Jr. said. Hunter was not injured.
A stray bullet shattered the rear window of a passing car. Police impounded
the car owned by Florence Paisley, 57, of Hometown. On Tuesday, Paisley said
state police did not find any bullets in her car. She was not injured.
Capt. Wesley R. Waugh, commander of Troop N, Hazleton, said Hunter has been
assigned administrative duties while the shooting is under investigation.
“We conduct this review whenever a police officer discharges a gun while on
duty; it’s standard,” Waugh said. “In this case, there is clearly no evidence
of wrongdoing.”
Tocci said there are about 30 incidents every year during which a weapon is
discharged and a state police trooper is present.
Troopers are shot at about five times a year. And, statewide, they use
deadly force only once or twice a year, Tocci said.
A Dallas Township police officer shot at and injured on duty empathizes
with Hunter’s life-threatening experience. Wayman Miers recalled his own
confrontation with a man who shot at him and then-police officer James Tupper
in June 1986.
“It’ll play on his mind for a long time,” Miers said. “If he’s human he’ll
be waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares.”
Miers said Hunter should attend counseling to talk about what happened
Monday. Counseling is something Miers regrets not seeking himself.
“He’s thinking: Did he do right?” said Wayman Miers. “Is there something
else he could have done?”
District Attorney Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. said he plans to meet with
investigators and members of the county coroner’s office by Thursday to
determine whether the homicide was justified.
“To date, clearly the trooper acted in an appropriate manner,” Olszewski
said.
He said investigators are conducting a background check on Williams who was
driving with a suspended driver’s license.
According to a Vermont District Court deputy clerk in Orleans County,
Williams had previous drunken driving arrests, the most recent one was on
Sept. 8.
Williams was expected to pay a $377.50 fine this week, said the clerk, who
asked not to be identified.
Hudock said results of Williams’ blood-alcohol content test won’t be known
for at least a week.
In Florida Tuesday, Williams’ mother, Drucilla, said Pennsylvania State
Police called her Monday night to tell her about the shooting.
“I never known him to have a gun. He was afraid of guns,” Drucilla Williams
said. “He didn’t seem upset when he called here Sunday night to say he’d be
down here by Wednesday. He was going through some rough times, though.”
Poginy said Williams, a Vietnam veteran, started a successful dry wall
business in the Burlington, Vt., area after the two men returned from
meat-cutting school in Ohio in 1968. Williams moved to Florida 12 years ago
with his two sons, Lonnie and Beryle Jr., and wife, Karen.
But the marriage ended eight years ago and Williams split his time between
his mother’s trailer park house in Naples, Fla., and Poginy’s house.
“He got progressively worse,” Poginy said. “He started drinking heavily. He
was in and out of rehabilitation hospitals. Nothing seemed to work.”
As of Tuesday night, Williams’ family had not decided where to take his
body for funeral and burial, said Deputy County Coroner Harry Hyman.