LITTLE ROCK — The 16-year-old involved in the murder of two West Memphis police officers considered shooting law enforcement personnel in the past, according to a statement his sister gave Ohio police.
Jessica Gutierrez, Joseph Kane’s sister, said in a statement to the Troy, Ohio, Police Department in 2007 that she heard her brother ask his mother whether he should shoot police officers arresting his dad, Jerry Kane.
“Mom, should I go get the guns out of the van?” Gutierrez recounted Joseph Kane saying. “Mom, let me go out, check on the dogs, and grab a gun. Then, if dad comes out, I’ll start shooting.”
At the time, Joseph Kane could have been no older than 13. His mother has since died.
Police say Jerry and Joseph Kane killed West Memphis Police Department Sgt. Brandon Paudert, 39, and officer Bill Evans, 38, during a traffic stop May 20.
Arkansas State Police investigators have not said why Jerry Kane, 45, was pulled over in the first place. State police spokesman Bill Sadler said Wednesday that it would be several weeks before the investigation is complete and all the details are made public.
Jerry and Joseph Kane died about 90 minutes after the traffic stop during a shootout with police outside a nearby Wal-Mart.
During the gunbattle, Crittenden County Sheriff Dick Busby and Chief Deputy W.A. Wren were shot and injured.
Wren, hit multiple times in the stomach, is still recovering in a hospital.
Busby, shot in the shoulder, said from his home Wednesday that he and Wren spotted a white minivan in the Wal-Mart parking lot and pulled in front of it. Unsure whether it was the shooting suspects, Busby and Wren got out of their car and approached the minivan.
Busby said Jerry Kane then got out of the minivan with what looked like an AK-47.
State police have said only that they found a “long rifle” and a handgun inside Kane’s car.
Busby and Wren ran back to their car as Jerry Kane began shooting, Busby said.
Busby did not have a weapon, and Wren had a handgun.
Outgunned, they hunkered down in the car as Jerry Kane sprayed it with bullets, Busby said. Busby said he was shot once from behind, in the shoulder. He said he thinks Wren was also hit while hiding inside the car.
Busby said he expected Jerry Kane to pull the minivan next to their vehicle and spray the interior with gunfire. Instead, Arkansas Game and Fish officer Michael Neal saved the pair by ramming the minivan with his pickup and disabling it, Busby said.
Soon, more help arrived. Jerry and Joseph Kane were shot to death inside the minivan.
“I think [Neal] saved a lot of lives, I really do,” Busby said.
Jerry Kane, who expressed anti government and anti-bank views in online videos, had been traveling from Las Vegas to Florida with his son.
Kane delivered seminars across the country on how to evade mortgages and forestall foreclosures.
Public records show that the elder Kane had a criminal record and history of confrontation with authority. He had been arrested on charges including forgery and concealing his identity.
On Wednesday, the Troy Police Department released the report detailing a March 12, 2007, encounter with the Kane family. Jerry Kane’s last known residence was in Forest, Ohio, about 80 miles from Troy.
In 2007, Anthony Welker, of Troy, called police after, he said, he saw a handgun in Jerry Kane’s minivan, according to the report.
Kane’s daughter, Gutierrez, had driven the minivan to her friend Welker’s house after police had arrested her father and brother at a China Garden Buffet restaurant earlier in the day, according to the report.
Jerry Kane had two active warrants out for his arrest at the time, according to the report.
At Welker’s house, police found a loaded Smith and Wesson .38-caliber revolver in the console next to the driver’s seat in Kane’s minivan, the report said. Next to it were two “speed loaders” full of ammunition.
Police also found a loaded New England Firearms .32-caliber revolver next to the back seat on the passenger side, according to the report.
Investigators called Gutierrez to the scene.
She told police she couldn’t identify the guns but knew that her father carried weapons in his vehicle and on his person. Then she told them what Joseph Kane said to his mother while police arrested his father earlier in the day, the report said.
Police charged Kane with two counts of carrying a concealed weapon and a count of carrying a weapon under disability. Public records show Kane later pleaded guilty to a charge of carrying a concealed weapon.
On Monday, at least 1,000 people attended funerals for Paudert and Evans in West Memphis.
Brandon Paudert was the son of West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert. Many of Evans’ family members have worked in law enforcement, as well.
Busby, whose term as sheriff ends in December, said he hopes to return to work Tuesday.
He said last week was the first time he’d been shot at during his 22 years as sheriff.
Busby said he’s trying not to think about what happened.
“You hope and pray this never happens, but you know there’s a chance it may. And it did,” Busby said. “It’s something you have to live with and cope with. You just tighten your belt, and go on.” Information for this article was contributed by Amy Upshaw of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 05/27/2010