Neighbors describe suspect as friendly

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Sadie Gurman and Moriah Balingit

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The last time Lois Watson spoke with Errol Parker Sr. she was headed for a cruise and asked him to look after her house.

"He said, 'Sure, I'd be glad to,' " Ms. Watson said Wednesday, stunned that the man who had been so neighborly was charged in a gunfight with police, just outside her door. Police said he punched a neighbor who asked him to move his car, then swapped gunfire with police officers who responded to the call.

They said Mr. Parker, 61, hid in his house on Ewart Drive in the Hill District, shot at officers who demanded he surrender and was finally subdued with a jolt from a Taser in a struggle that drew neighbors to their porches Tuesday night.

Mr. Parker, an automotive mechanic for Port Authority working in Manchester, was charged with assault on a police officer, attempted homicide and assault. He was placed on leave from his job with pay pending further investigation.

It was not the kind of behavior Ms. Watson said she would expect from Mr. Parker, whom she didn't know well but who never caused her trouble.

"I was shocked," she said. "It's ridiculous. I'm surprised this happened over a parking space."

Police said they had not been called to Mr. Parker's home before, and Allegheny County court records shows he does not have a criminal past.

There is parking on just one side of the 3100 block of Ewart Drive, and it was lined with cars Tuesday night. About 7:30 p.m., Mr. Parker's upstairs neighbor, Lee Allen Smith, asked him to move his vehicle. Mr. Smith told police he had dug snow out of the space so his girlfriend could park there, and Mr. Parker had moved his car when he asked the night before.

"On this particular evening, he became enraged," police Assistant Chief Maurita Bryant said.

The two argued before Mr. Parker punched him in the jaw, police wrote in a criminal complaint. Mr. Parker then pulled a pistol from behind his back and told Mr. Smith, "I will lay you out," according to the complaint.

Officers Bill Kelsch and Thomas Gorecki arrived about 7:45, and knocked on Mr. Parker's door, announcing themselves as police when he wouldn't respond. Officer Gorecki said he could hear walking in the house, and the officers began calling for him to come out over a loudspeaker, the complaint said.

Officer Kelsch discovered the door was unlocked and opened it, to find Mr. Parker walking toward them from a hallway with a drawn gun. The officers yelled at him to drop the gun, but Officer Kelsch could see him standing in the hallway, pointing the gun at him, the complaint said.

"In fear of being shot, I immediately fired one round from my pistol," the officer wrote. Mr. Parker ducked out of sight but did not drop the gun.

Instead, the complaint said, he "charged forward in the hallway" and fired a shot at Officer Kelsch, who returned two shots at Mr. Parker. Mr. Parker's bullet missed the officer, striking the wall he was using to take cover.

Mr. Parker then retreated to a back room, "yelling unintelligible" statements at the officers, police said, then announced that he had put the gun down and wanted to surrender. Officers ordered him out of the room and onto the ground. They stunned him with a Taser when he did not comply, and he struggled against them as they tried to put him in handcuffs.

Officers recovered two pistols and shell casings in a dining room doorway, the complaint said. Police said Mr. Parker fired at the officers with one of the guns and that it may have jammed, preventing him from firing more shots.

Officer Kelsch will not be placed on administrative leave because no one was injured, Chief Bryant said. Mr. Parker remained in the Allegheny County Jail Wednesday night.

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