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http://www.adn.com/front/story/3243696p-3273485c.html
By ZAZ HOLLANDER
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: June 6, 2003)
After six weeks of silence, the Big Lake pastor who shot and killed two men he caught burglarizing his chapel is finally telling his story.
The pastor, Phillip Mielke, shot Chris Palmer and Frank Jones in the pre-dawn darkness of April 24 as they rushed toward him on the chapel's stairway -- even after he shouted at them to stop, according to a public statement Mielke's attorneys sent Thursday to the Daily News, the Frontiersman newspaper and Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak.
The statement, by Anchorage attorney Jerry Wade, emphasizes that the shooting was justified and provides several details that until now had remained a mystery:
Mielke discovered the break-in at the Big Lake Community Chapel when an alarm system woke him. The alarm is actually a baby monitor installed in the chapel and in the bedroom of Mielke's home, across the road from the chapel, Wade explained Thursday.
Mielke grabbed his pistol and rushed to the chapel in the dark, Wade wrote. The pastor noticed the back door forced open and realized the intruders were in the basement, a storage area for the food bank operated by the church, the statement says.
As he paused at the top of the stairs, the stair lights flickered on and off, the statement says. Then, the statement says, Mielke "heard the intruders rush toward him on the stairway. He called out an order, something like 'Stop, halt, freeze.'
"Simultaneously, he backed away, and, in the darkness it appeared to him that, as the intruders reached the top of the stairs, they moved toward him.
"At that moment he fired because he felt threatened and thought that he had no safe alternative."
Mielke used a .44 Magnum in the shooting, Wade said Thursday.
The two men were apparently filling a box in the basement with food, a few appliances and some old hand tools, Wade said. "Nothing of any great value," he added.
Mielke called 911 and gave Alaska State Troopers a statement the morning of the shooting, troopers have said. Wade said Mielke would agree to additional questioning by troopers only if investigators provided a transcript of the first interview and allowed his lawyers to participate. Troopers declined those conditions, he said.
The pastor and his wife, Helen, "are both deeply saddened by the senseless deaths of two young men whom they did not know," the statement says. They expressed sympathy for the families of Palmer and Jones.
"Certainly they would not have begrudged them the property which they apparently sought," the statement says.
The new information comes as the troopers expected to hand over the case to the district attorney today. Kalytiak told Wade's co-counsel, Pam Sullivan, that he expected the case to go before a grand jury in Palmer on Tuesday, Wade said.
Kalytiak did not return calls to his office Wednesday and Thursday.
Mielke's attorneys are pressing Kalytiak to hold a public inquest before a six-member jury instead of putting the case to a grand jury, Wade said. Historically called a "coroner's jury," the inquest establishes the cause of death and whether the death came through criminal means.
While a grand jury hearing takes place behind closed doors, the inquest is public and Mielke's attorneys can provide assistance, Wade said.
Kalytiak "seems uninterested in the idea," Wade said, explaining that the DA has not followed up on Sullivan's requests.
Rachael Pigott, mother of Frank Jones, said in telephone interviews this week that she hopes the pastor does time in prison on charges of manslaugher, if not murder.
"This pastor cannot get away with this. This is crazy," Pigott said. "There's just no words for it. A pastor is supposed to say 'Take what you need if you need it.' If you ask them for a shirt, they're supposed to offer you a coat.
"Why didn't he just call the police?"
A teacher's aide who is currently unemployed, Pigott traveled from her home in Sacramento, Calif., to Alaska last month to see the place where her son died. In mid-May, a friend drove her to the chapel, she said.
Pigott walked inside and saw a man standing there.
"I asked him if he was the man who shot my son," she said. "He said, yes, he was."
Then, Pigott said, Mielke ushered her to the stairs and told her that's where he shot the men.
"He said they were stealing food out of the food bank downstairs," Pigott said. "I said, 'You shot them for taking food?'
"He said he was scared for his life."
Pigott said she asked whether the two men had guns. Mielke said he didn't see any, she said.
Wade on Thursday also said that Mielke never saw any weapons.
Palmer, 31, was found dead in a ditch near the church. Troopers responding to a 911 call at a nearby home found 23-year-old Jones dead around noon the same day.
Jones died of multiple gunshot wounds suffered at 5:30 a.m., according to a death certificate signed by deputy medical examiner Susan Klingler and provided to the Daily News by Pigott.
Mielke's statement stresses that the shooting was justified and hints at what kind of arguments might play out in court, should the case go to trial.
He didn't have time for "detailed analysis or carefully studied judgement" in the minutes between his waking and the shooting, it says.
Mielke rushed to safeguard not the contents of the chapel so much as the chapel itself, it says. "Phillip's uncle preceded him as pastor. The care and safety of the chapel is a deeply felt responsibility -- virtually the touchstone of Pastor Mielke's life."
By ZAZ HOLLANDER
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: June 6, 2003)
After six weeks of silence, the Big Lake pastor who shot and killed two men he caught burglarizing his chapel is finally telling his story.
The pastor, Phillip Mielke, shot Chris Palmer and Frank Jones in the pre-dawn darkness of April 24 as they rushed toward him on the chapel's stairway -- even after he shouted at them to stop, according to a public statement Mielke's attorneys sent Thursday to the Daily News, the Frontiersman newspaper and Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak.
The statement, by Anchorage attorney Jerry Wade, emphasizes that the shooting was justified and provides several details that until now had remained a mystery:
Mielke discovered the break-in at the Big Lake Community Chapel when an alarm system woke him. The alarm is actually a baby monitor installed in the chapel and in the bedroom of Mielke's home, across the road from the chapel, Wade explained Thursday.
Mielke grabbed his pistol and rushed to the chapel in the dark, Wade wrote. The pastor noticed the back door forced open and realized the intruders were in the basement, a storage area for the food bank operated by the church, the statement says.
As he paused at the top of the stairs, the stair lights flickered on and off, the statement says. Then, the statement says, Mielke "heard the intruders rush toward him on the stairway. He called out an order, something like 'Stop, halt, freeze.'
"Simultaneously, he backed away, and, in the darkness it appeared to him that, as the intruders reached the top of the stairs, they moved toward him.
"At that moment he fired because he felt threatened and thought that he had no safe alternative."
Mielke used a .44 Magnum in the shooting, Wade said Thursday.
The two men were apparently filling a box in the basement with food, a few appliances and some old hand tools, Wade said. "Nothing of any great value," he added.
Mielke called 911 and gave Alaska State Troopers a statement the morning of the shooting, troopers have said. Wade said Mielke would agree to additional questioning by troopers only if investigators provided a transcript of the first interview and allowed his lawyers to participate. Troopers declined those conditions, he said.
The pastor and his wife, Helen, "are both deeply saddened by the senseless deaths of two young men whom they did not know," the statement says. They expressed sympathy for the families of Palmer and Jones.
"Certainly they would not have begrudged them the property which they apparently sought," the statement says.
The new information comes as the troopers expected to hand over the case to the district attorney today. Kalytiak told Wade's co-counsel, Pam Sullivan, that he expected the case to go before a grand jury in Palmer on Tuesday, Wade said.
Kalytiak did not return calls to his office Wednesday and Thursday.
Mielke's attorneys are pressing Kalytiak to hold a public inquest before a six-member jury instead of putting the case to a grand jury, Wade said. Historically called a "coroner's jury," the inquest establishes the cause of death and whether the death came through criminal means.
While a grand jury hearing takes place behind closed doors, the inquest is public and Mielke's attorneys can provide assistance, Wade said.
Kalytiak "seems uninterested in the idea," Wade said, explaining that the DA has not followed up on Sullivan's requests.
Rachael Pigott, mother of Frank Jones, said in telephone interviews this week that she hopes the pastor does time in prison on charges of manslaugher, if not murder.
"This pastor cannot get away with this. This is crazy," Pigott said. "There's just no words for it. A pastor is supposed to say 'Take what you need if you need it.' If you ask them for a shirt, they're supposed to offer you a coat.
"Why didn't he just call the police?"
A teacher's aide who is currently unemployed, Pigott traveled from her home in Sacramento, Calif., to Alaska last month to see the place where her son died. In mid-May, a friend drove her to the chapel, she said.
Pigott walked inside and saw a man standing there.
"I asked him if he was the man who shot my son," she said. "He said, yes, he was."
Then, Pigott said, Mielke ushered her to the stairs and told her that's where he shot the men.
"He said they were stealing food out of the food bank downstairs," Pigott said. "I said, 'You shot them for taking food?'
"He said he was scared for his life."
Pigott said she asked whether the two men had guns. Mielke said he didn't see any, she said.
Wade on Thursday also said that Mielke never saw any weapons.
Palmer, 31, was found dead in a ditch near the church. Troopers responding to a 911 call at a nearby home found 23-year-old Jones dead around noon the same day.
Jones died of multiple gunshot wounds suffered at 5:30 a.m., according to a death certificate signed by deputy medical examiner Susan Klingler and provided to the Daily News by Pigott.
Mielke's statement stresses that the shooting was justified and hints at what kind of arguments might play out in court, should the case go to trial.
He didn't have time for "detailed analysis or carefully studied judgement" in the minutes between his waking and the shooting, it says.
Mielke rushed to safeguard not the contents of the chapel so much as the chapel itself, it says. "Phillip's uncle preceded him as pastor. The care and safety of the chapel is a deeply felt responsibility -- virtually the touchstone of Pastor Mielke's life."
