Man shot dead after posting on Facebook: 'im about to get shot'

1-18-2013 Michigan:

It appears that one of the last things Eric L. Ramsey did before he was shot and killed by police Thursday was to let his friends and family know on Facebook that he was about to die.

"Well folks im about to get shot. Peace" Ramsey posted on the social network at 3:15 a.m. Jan. 17 using his mobile phone.

How Ramsey had the presence of mind — or the time — to make such a statement isn't known. The 30-year-old man from Mt. Pleasant, Mich., had just come off a crime spree that included kidnapping and raping a woman, setting a house on fire and stealing a sanitation truck, then ramming the car of a Michigan state trooper, according to police.

"A short while later, a Crawford County Deputy located the sanitation truck and the suspect ended up hitting the deputy’s car head on. The deputy then got out of the patrol car, ran up to the cab of the pickup and fired shots, fatally wounding the suspect," Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said in a press release.

Ramsey's Facebook post, which remained publicly available as of Friday morning, was an eerie if jarring good-bye, with comments from friends who thought he was joking at first.

Suspects pursued by police have, in some cases, used Facebook to share what was happening to them.

In 2011, in Utah, a 16-hour standoff with police ended with a suspect who was holed up in a motel room allegedly shooting himself, but not before posting updates about the tense situation on Facebook.

Last fall, in Pittsburgh, a suspect went on the social network during a five-hour hostage siege, and authorities said they feared that responses from friends, family and others might goad him into violence. That incident did end peacefully.



In 2011, in Utah, a 16-hour standoff with police ended with a suspect who was holed up in a motel room allegedly shooting himself, but not before communicating via Facebook during that time. ..Source.. by Suzanne Choney

---

Woman protected from rapist by boy, 14, with hunting knife after she leaps from car

1-18-2013 Michigan:

It was a night of mayhem and bravery that central Michigan will not soon forget.

A young woman who was abducted at gunpoint made a daring escape Wednesday night from her rapist into a house full of kids that was later set on fire by her attacker, police said.

The suspect, identified as Eric Lee Ramsey, 30, of Mt. Pleasant, Mich., was later fatally shot by police after he got into a series of hit and runs with police vehicles in a sanitation truck he had stolen. But before he died, he apparently tweeted that he was going to be shot.

The incident began Wednesday when Ramsey allegedly kidnapped the woman from Central Michigan University's campus, and brought her to a home where he bound and sexually assaulted her, according to a statement from Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski.

Ramsey then put the woman in the back of a car, retrieved two gas cans and began driving. He purportedly told the woman “he was going to take her life,” Mioduszewski said. After hearing that, the woman jumped out of the car and ran to a nearby home, she told police.

Alone inside that Lincoln Township home were a 14-year-old boy and his 11-year-old sister and 2-year-old brother. The teenager, James Persyn III, told Mlive.com that he let the woman in, locked the door and grabbed his hunting knife.

While the woman called 911 from inside the home, the suspect “ended up pouring gasoline on the house and then lit it on fire,” and fled the scene, Mioduszewski said. One of the homeowners arrived soon after and was able to extinguish the fire.

Mioduszewski said police were given a description of the suspect’s vehicle and obtained a search warrant for the house where the sexual assault occurred.

Several hours later, a vehicle matching the description rammed a Michigan state trooper's car. The suspect fled the scene, stole a sanitation truck and then rammed another state police trooper’s car.

A short time later, a Crawford County deputy located the sanitation truck and his vehicle also was rammed by the suspect. The deputy got out of the car, ran up to the cab of the pickup and fired shots, fatally wounding Ramsey.

On Thursday, CMU Campus Police Chief Bill Yeagley told The Associated Press that the suspect told the woman that he chose her at random outside the Student Activity Center on campus. The chief said the woman saved her own life by fleeing from the car.

“I believe she made all the right choices,” Yeagley said. “She’s the true hero in this.”

In a statement on the CMU website, President George Ross said students, faculty and staff received texts and emails of the "horrible but isolated incident" shortly after midnight Thursday, and that the university would bolster campus security.

"Each of us needs to be prepared, to be wise, to look out for each other," Ross said. "Not only do we want you to be safe, we want you to feel safe and we will continue to work hard to maintain a safe environment."

Ramsey had been on parole since last summer after serving the minimum five-year prison sentence for assault with the intent to do great bodily harm, according to the Michigan State Department of Corrections.

“The parole board generally doesn’t give a rationale for why or why they don’t parole (an inmate),” Russ Marlan, a Corrections Department spokesman told the AP. “I looked at his behavior in prison. He was pretty good. He had six misconducts over five years. That’s a small amount. He was in minimum security the entire time.”

Ramsey had a job, regularly met with his parole officer and had tested negative for drugs, Marlan said.

His record also included convictions for destruction of police or fire property, resisting police and assault with a dangerous weapon.

The case remains under investigation by the Isabella County Sheriff’s Department and the Central Michigan University Police Department and the Michigan State Police. ..Source.. by Andrew Mach