Retired Oklahoma Firefighter Killed; Shot After Intruding into Police Officer's Home

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ROBERT MEDLEY AND MICHAEL KIMBAL
The Oklahoman

YUKON - The retired firefighter who was shot and killed Tuesday as he barged into a Piedmont police officer's home may have been hallucinating and confused, his son said.


Devin Nemecek, 47, was killed about 8 a.m. as he pushed into the Yukon home of Jack Neumann, 37, and attacked him, Yukon police spokeswoman Klare Ly said. Neumann lives at 317 Sunrise Drive, and Nemecek lived a few houses down at 409 Sunrise Drive.

Neumann returned home from work as a Piedmont police officer to find Nemecek banging on his back door and trying to get inside, Ly said. Neumann told him to leave several times as the man barged into the house, and Neumann shot him.

Nemecek was holding a piece of metal and struck Neumann several times, Ly said.

Nemecek used an oxygen tank because of lung and heart damage from injuries suffered while fighting a fire two years ago, his son said.

Garrett Nemecek, 23, of Oklahoma City, said his father sometimes had hallucinations when his oxygen levels were low, and likely thought he was trying to enter his own home when the incident occurred.

"Last night he was having some trouble with his breathing treatments," Garrett Nemecek said. "Once his oxygen gets down to a certain level, he just doesn't know where he's at. He doesn't know his name. ... He would not be himself at all."

Nemecek said his father would never harm anyone under normal circumstances and was an upstanding member of the community who will be missed by his family and friends.

The family is working to set up a memorial of some kind to remember Devin Nemecek.

Garrett Nemecek said he didn't know why his father was outside Tuesday morning, but he had been doing yard work Monday evening and could have been doing more yard work Tuesday.

Neumann told investigators his wife and children, ages 3 and 4, were inside the home at the time of the shooting, Ly said. She said Neumann did not know Nemecek.

"As you can imagine, someone banging on the door trying to get in who is incoherent, you can understand they would be scared," Ly said.

Police release frantic 911 call

A frantic woman's voice can be heard on a 911 call released Tuesday by police. The woman was crying as she told a 911 operator a man with a crowbar was trying to break into her house.

"Shoot him," the woman yelled during the call, apparently to Neumann. A man's voice can be heard shortly thereafter yelling, "Get back!" before a gunshot rang out.

Piedmont Police Chief Jerry Koester said Neumann will be on paid administrative leave until the district attorney rules on the shooting. He described him as an "exemplary" officer who feared for the safety of his wife and two small children.

None of the officer's family members were injured.

"They are obviously shaken up and scared," Ly said.

Copyright 2011 The Oklahoman, All Rights Reserved
April 20, 2011

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Actually, calling someone "dumb" or stating "he is dumb" is a logical fallacy known as an Ad Hominem attack. Ad hominem attacks do not speak well for the logical abilities or ability to debate the facts of the one who posts them.
Paul Rambo,

Even if the shooter was not a police officer, this is a justified, self-defense shooting all the way.

Anyone who is the victim of a violent home invasion and who is in fear for his life or the life of anyone else in his home has the legal - and moral - right to use deadly force to defend himself and others.

This is a tragedy, but without the shooting, it had the potential to be a much worse tragedy. It's a good thing that it ended as well as it did.

On a related topic, if you're the one who is deleting your other posts on the topic, that doesn't speak very highly of the contend of those posts, or your ability to stand by what you say here.
Paul Rambo, this is not a one-sided discussion at all. You just have a different opinion than most of the other posters. If you want more people to agree with you, you could start by posting legible, rational, and well-thought-out ideas, based upon the facts of the case.
Paul Rambo,

I'm not sure that theology has any place in this debate, but since you brought it up, in the Old Testament, God directed the Israelites to attack and slay their enemies under some circumstances.

That tells me that He won't have any problem with someone who was forced to use deadly force in self-defense at Pearly Gates time.
Ok, I didn't know that US police officers are required to carry firearms at all times. You see I've lived in a different world, one where gun ownership is highly restricted, police are unarmed and so are criminals. Shootings of any sort are almost unheard of and people rarely get attacked by home-invaders or burglars. People feel safe in their homes and on the streets and would never consider it necessary to have a firearm for protection.
If incidents like this are your reality then I feel for you guys who have to live with it.
Ok so you have a different viewpoint to me but I object to being called an idiot just because I hold a different view to you.
State your opinion but lay off the personal judgements.

Just for your information, no I bet the guns laws wouldn't seem pretty stupid. Up here we can sleep safe in our beds BECAUSE of the gun laws and in Britain, where I grew up, the laws are even tighter than in Canada and there is even less violence. Maybe there is a correlation here?
The gun culture in most of North America including the U.S. and Mexico is much different than in Europe.

The police are almost always armed here, and the criminals usually are armed, too.

Recently, a police officer acquantaince of mine was killed in a shootout with an armed robber and another police officer was wounded in the same shootout. Here is the story. That shooting was at a business and in the car park area adjacent to the business being robbed.
i support people's right to remove their comments when they have calmed down or changed their view or realized they went over board and /or may have said something which is not permitted on ffn

and especially in an attempt to rebuild and move on and change the direction of the discussion towards a more productive vein
They have the right, but it doesn't make them look good.

A better choice is to leave the posts up and apologize for them.

If they violate the user agreement, the WebChief will take care of it.
well - in a perfect world it would work that way ;-)
But then the New Testament tells us: Do unto others as you would be done by. The Bible doesn't seem to be a good sorce of clear advice!
Andy, disregard the ad hominem attacks. Your questions are valid. Some people need to learn about the different cultural backgrounds that generate the kinds of questions you asked, that's all.

On the other hand, gun control laws in the U.S. would do nothing to reduce gun crime. The criminals have essentially and endless source of weapons. U.S. gun control would simply disarm non-criminal citizens and instantly artificially create a new class of otherwise law-abiding "Criminals".

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