Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Bensalem, Pennsylvania

From the March 28, 2005 Bucks County Courier-Times:
A Philadelphia man shot and killed one man and seriously injured another after at least six others began fighting with him at a Bensalem Wawa early Easter morning, police said.

No charges have been filed and police declined to release the names of anyone involved until their investigation is completed.

Bucks County District Attorney Diane Gibbons said a group of 17- to 20-year-old Philadelphia residents were drinking and partying late Saturday night into Sunday morning in a room at the Neshaminy Motor Inn on Route 1 in Bensalem. The motel is about 100 yards from the Philadelphia line.

When they got noisy and were kicked out of the motel, they crossed the highway to the Wawa gas station and convenience store, according to Gibbons. Shortly before 2 a.m. the crowd of young men got into a fight in the parking lot of the store with a 24-year-old man they didn't know, police said. It was unclear how the fight started, but Gibbons said the 24-year-old was beaten before he pulled a gun and shot Matt Taylor, 19, of Mayfair and another Philadelphian, 18.

The 24-year-old had not been involved in the earlier drinking party and did not appear to have been drinking, according to Gibbons.

...

Police also photographed the 24-year-old man's injuries from the fight. According to Gibbons, her office and the Bensalem police are continuing to look into the incident.
This March 28, 2005 report from NBC10 calls it a murder, and claims that the men who were shot were trying to help the 24-year-old:
Wawa Murder Shocks Bucks Community

Teen Killed, Another Critical After Shooting


...

Taylor's family said that the two were trying to help a man who was being attacked. Police said that a 24 year-old man has admitted to firing the shots. Police said that the man had a permit to carry a firearm.

No arrests or charged have been filed.
From Philadelphia’s KYW1060.com of June 2, 2006
Buxco Grand Jury Says Wawa Shootings Were Self-Defense

A Bucks County grand jury has cleared a Philadelphia man in connection with a deadly shooting last year in the parking lot of a Bensalem, Pa. convenience store.

The grand jury report finds that 25-year-old Randy Dillon was clearly defending himself when he was attacked by eight teens outside the Wawa store on Route 1, in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday, 2005.

District attorney Diane Gibbons says the teens had been drinking at a hotel across the street before assaulting Dillon, who was legally allowed to carry the gun he used. She outlines the grand jury's additional findings:

"That the eight individuals in the parking lot -- including Matthew Taylor, the deceased; including Alex Ryzinski, who was shot in the parking lot -- are not the victims of any crime. That members of that group were the physical aggressors.”

The grand jury found that Dillon fired three warning shots and the attackers still didn’t back off. The report finds that the shot that killed Taylor was fired while Dillon was on the ground being punched and kicked.

DA Gibbons adds that she intends to pursue charges in connection with the underage drinking.

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