Wilkes-Barre resident Brian Ferry stands near the spot on South Washington Street where he said was threatened by a gunman Monday night. Ferry had just started his nightly run when he saw a man litter and brought it to the man’s attention, only to have the man point a handgun at him. No shots were fired and no one was injured.
Jerry Lynott | Times Leader
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WILKES-BARRE — After being threatened with a gun the other night, Brian Ferry said he’ll still talk about trash when he sees someone litter.
Unassuming and non-confrontational, Ferry, 33, Wednesday admitted he speaks up when he sees something he considers wrong.
“For me it’s instinct,” said Ferry, a member of the Wilkes-Barre Citizens Blight Committee. He has a background in landscape architecture and urban planning and formerly worked in the Wilkes-Barre Planning and Zoning Office.
The encounter Monday night left Ferry shaken for a bit, but undeterred from going back out at night and unwavering in his support of his hometown.
“I’ve never felt unsafe in Wilkes-Barre. And I don’t think I do now,” Ferry said.
Police told him they are investigating the threat, Ferry said.
No shots were fired and no one was injured, but Ferry said if he didn’t report the threat, he worried the suspect would do it again and the next time could be worse.
“I would feel I wasn’t responsible,” Ferry said if he kept it to himself.
No one else but the two unidentified men and Ferry were in the area at the time, he said and he provided an account of the incident.
Ferry said he was heading north on the sidewalk in the second block of South Washington Street near St. Mary’s Church of the Immaculate Conception around 9 p.m. when he saw two men approaching in the opposite direction.
To give them room, Ferry stepped onto the street and saw one of the men crumple an empty cigarette pack and throw it down. He said he stopped and turned to the man, saying, “Excuse me. Do you mind not throwing your trash on the ground?”
Ferry said the man faced him and responded, “Oh, do you have a problem?”
It didn’t end there. Ferry said he didn’t provoke the man by cursing or raising his voice.
“That’s when he pulled a gun,” Ferry said, adding he saw the man rack the slide and heard it click as the mechanism put a round in the chamber.
As Ferry backed up, he said, he saw the men, who were approximately 20 feet away, turn and walk toward South Street.
Ferry said he called 911 and within minutes a Wilkes-Barre police officer pulled up, got a description of the men and told him to wait for another officer en route. The second officer arrived and made a report, while a third also searched for the suspects who Ferry described as white males in the late 20s or early 30s.
Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott.