John Bohach was killed this morning by a barricaded man who had run from police after an accident.  Apparently, the suspect fired at police through a door striking John in the chest.  John was a 13 year veteran of the RPD and is survived by his wife and two children.  He was an outstanding husband, father, officer and a good friend.  I'll miss him.

CB

Hey Claybuster,

Man I am sorry for your loss and his family.  We had a number of assasinations/muurders of officers here in the valley last year.  It always reminds me of an expression: "Where the law ends, tyranny begins."

God bless him & his family.....

Sad to hear that.  

God bless him and his family.

I feel ill reading this, I am getting tired of reading about yet another police officer getting killed for doing his job. His wife,kids,family and friends have my sympathy. I only wish I could be on the jury of the son of a bitch that killed him. God Bless him.  May his killer get what is coming to him and fast.  

My condolences.

I hate LEO's getting killed.  My buddies said they used the word "Armor piercing" to describe the bullet he was hit with.  Any truth to that?  And what kind of firearm was he using?  

[):)]
NSF

Sorry for your loss, it is so sad for the family and friends

I am sorry for your loss and the family of the officer.

Sorry for the loss of this man to his family, his Mates, and the Reno Police Service.

Sorry for your loss Claybuster. I actually passed by there about 11a.m.(I was car shopping on Kietzke) and saw all the armored cars. Deputy Chief Weston said it was a "fully automatic .223 caliber rifle" on the Rusty Humphries show. They were saying he wasn't wearing a vest and that it wouldn't have mattered against a high powered rifle. SWAT made a forceable entry and grabbed him without further injuries. I will try to find out the details of the full auto claim, I doubt it. One caller to the Rusty show said he knew the shooter and that he was a white supremacist type. He should have done himself in because their is no saving himself now. We don't take kindly to that kind of crap. We might bash LEOs now and then but we don't shoot them over traffic stops.Again, I'm sorry for the loss of your friend, Claybuster, and to his family.

Did they put the perp out of our misery?

No, the POS is gonna take up space and $$$ sittin' on death row for the next 20 years.

[size=4][red]What else is new?[/red][/size=4]

Officer remembered as a top notch investigator

By Jeff DeLong
Reno Gazette-Journal
Thursday August 23rd, 2001

In his 13 years as a Reno police officer, John Bohach earned a reputation as a highly efficient investigator who excelled at putting sex offenders and child abusers behind bars, his friends and colleagues said Wednesday.

“He did a very good job,” Deputy Chief Jim Weston said. “He was very much liked by everyone — a good person.”

Bohach was fatally shot Wednesday just about a month after he was reassigned from Reno’s Child Sex Crimes Unit to patrol duty.

He previously was among a group of Reno detectives to move into the Washoe County Social Services Department as part of a new child abuse prevention team.
Bohach met his wife, department caseworker Linda Brouker, on the job and they were married in 1998.

“He was an absolutely incredible investigator,” said Mike Capello, director of Social Services, where about 70 employees gathered Wednesday to hear news of Bohach’s death.

“His instinct was incredible,” said Capello, adding that he often conferred with the investigator. “His interviewing skills, whether with a young child victim or a suspect, were second to none. I always heard if there was a really tough interview to be done, Bohach was the guy they went to.”

Capello said Bohach’s interviews with young victims were done with sensitivity and without leading questions, making for a strong case in court. “John mastered that.”

Jim Shewan, a Washoe County deputy district attorney, credited Bohach with putting a number of pedophiles and other sex offenders behind bars.

“I just talked to him yesterday about a case. He was a professional up to the last,” a tearful Shewan said.
“He was always a straight-shooter,” said Scott Freeman, a Reno defense lawyer who also credited Bohach’s skills in interviewing child victims.

“If it was a true case he went after those guys like nobody’s business. If it was a false accusation, he called it the way it was,” Freeman said. “He was a credit to the Reno Police Department.”

In a letter written to Child Protective Service workers last month, Bohach discussed his views on protecting the community’s children.

“I would like to think that together we have positively changed the lives of the children we have been put in charge to protect,” Bohach wrote. “…The bottom line is we have each done what we think is best for the victims.”

Bohach was first hired by the Reno Police Department in 1988 after a two-year stint as a Washoe County sheriff’s deputy.

In 1998, he was rehired and back pay was reinstated after an arbitrator decided he was unfairly fired in 1996 for a night of pranks that involved him and two deputy district attorneys. He was then assigned to the sex crimes unit.

“He was the kind of a guy that was a cop’s cop. He will be sorely missed,” Freeman said.

Reporters Susan Voyles and Steve Timko contributed to this report

BREAKING NEWS: Suspect in officer shooting in custody
1:50 P.M.UPDATE
Staff Reports
Reno Gazette-Journal
Wednesday August 22nd, 2001

A man suspected of fatally shooting a Reno police officer was taken into custody about 1 p.m. today after police stormed his house where had held officers at bay with a high-powered rifle for nearly five hours.

The suspect, whom police have identified as Larry Peck, apparently was not injured as some 20 officers entered the house at 964 Vassar St. amid clouds of tear gas, authorities said.

“He is handcuffed and walking,” said Reno Deputy police Chief Jim Weston. “We got the killer out of the house and in custody without hurting him.”

Police said the suspect fatally shot Officer John Bohach, 35, once in the chest with a high-powered rifle while helping fellow officers set up a perimeter around the house.

The incident began about 8 a.m. when a Reno police officer stopped a motorist on Sutro Street for driving erratically. The officer was writing a traffic ticket when the motorist suddenly drove off. Another officer came upon the vehicle and pursued it. The driver ran a red light, causing two other vehicles to collide. The driver then drove to the house on Vassar Street and went inside.

Bohach had been assigned to work patrol about a month and a half ago. A 13-year veteran with the Reno Police Department, Bohach previously had been working as a detective assigned to investigate crimes against children. He leaves a wife and two children.

After Bohach was hit, police unleashed a heavy round of gunfire to distract the gunman so officers could move Bohach away from the scene. He was taken to Washoe Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Earlier today armored vehicles were used to provide police protection from high-powered rifle fire. Veterans Elementary School and Bailey Charter Elementary School, both within blocks of the scene were locked down since children began arriving for classes, which started at 9 a.m.

“As kids were coming into school, they were moving them onto the side of the building away from the action,” Washoe County School District spokesman Steve Mulvenon said. “They’ll keep them inside until it’s clear.”

Instruction is being continued at both schools. To contact the schools, call Veterans Elementary at 333-5090 or Bailey Charter at 323-6767.

Children who had been walking to school in the neighborhood were taken into the schools as soon as they arrived and will not be allowed out until the suspect is apprehended.

Neighbors in the area said police officers went up to the house and entered through a street on the side.
After the officer was shot, police peppered the house with gunfire, neighbors said.

“It sounded like a war zone out there,” said Fred Wood, who lives in a house directly across the street from pink home that harbored Tack. “The ricochet of the sound was bouncing off the windows.”

Tina Preciado was arriving at the Vassar neighborhood home of her brother, Wood, and saw an officer chasing the man up the street and into the house.

Wood said he didn’t notice if the suspect had a rifle when he took off running from officers.

He ran up the lawn and into the house,” he said.
Four officers congregated on the front lawn, and then ventured around to the back, where two shots were fired, Woods said.

“They were back there five minutes and you heard, ‘Pow, pow,’ ” he said. “He was yelling that he didn’t want to hurt anybody, and the officers said, ‘We don’t want to hurt anybody and we don’t want anyone else to get hurt.’

“They unloaded. It was terrible.”
Wood said that he heard more than 30 shots fired from both rifles and pistols.

“It’s been pretty scary,” said Preciado, who was in the house with Wood. “I was really scared when I saw them pulling the cop out. It was then I just started praying right away for the family.”

Part of the neighborhood was evacuated, he said.
“They had people standing out here in their underclothes,” he said. “They evacuated everybody, they marched them down the street. There was one lady with her kids and she was still in her nightgown.”

Gunman kills Reno police officer in standoff at home

The man suspected of fatally shooting a Reno police officer Wednesday after getting a traffic ticket kept an arsenal of assault rifles, handguns and armor-piercing ammunition at his home to feed what police described as his survivalist philosophy.

Larry James Peck, 50, was captured about 1 p.m. after holding police at bay outside his house for more than five hours with a barrage of gunfire that killed Officer John C. Bohach, 35, authorities said.

The single shot from a 30.06 bolt-action rifle that killed the 13-year veteran was so powerful it pierced the hood of Bohach’s patrol car before hitting him in the chest, police said.

Police said they were unsure why Peck barricaded himself in his home on Vassar Street and began firing on officers. The shootout occurred as children walked to two schools just blocks away.

“It is a miracle that more people aren’t injured,” said Sparks Deputy Chief Bob Cowman, whose department is conducting the investigation with Washoe County sheriff’s detectives.

“Any time you have that many shots in a neighborhood, thank goodness no other officers or citizens were hurt.”

Details from Peck’s past began to emerge Wednesday as detectives outlined a lengthy history of minor arrests dating back 17 years.

Some family members described Peck as a survivalist who kept large metal canisters to store food and water, which police originally feared were filled with a dangerous chemical.

“In interviews with his mother and his girlfriend, they said he was kind of a militia-type survivalist,” said Reno Lt. Doug Cardwell.

Neighbors who witnessed the shootout said they did not know Peck.

A long rap sheet

Peck’s criminal history in Nevada started in 1984, when he registered as an ex-felon in Washoe County for a drug possession conviction. He was on parole for the felony drug offense until 1989, according to the Parole and Probation spokeswoman Kim Evans.

“At that time he had an honorable discharge and left our supervision,” Evans said.

Peck, who listed his occupation as a mechanic, then had a series of alcohol-related misdemeanor arrests in 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992. One year later, Peck was returned to the state’s control, this time on probation for attempting to leave the scene of a car accident in the Las Vegas area.

He violated the probation conditions in September 1995 and was locked up in Nevada State Prison until his release in December 1996, when the probation term expired.

Despite the lengthy arrest history, police said Peck had not acted violently in the past.

Incident began with a traffic ticket

Peck’s showdown with police began about 7:45 a.m., when an officer pulled him over for running a stop sign near Oddie Boulevard and Sutro Street. As the officer filled out the citation, he asked where Peck worked.

At that moment, Peck sped away, leaving the officer standing in the street, said Reno Deputy Chief Jim Weston.

Minutes later, Officer Don Daniel spotted Peck driving on Kietzke Lane and began a pursuit. But Peck ran a red light at Vassar Street, causing a four-car collision involving Daniel’s patrol car, police said.
Peck drove another several blocks to his house at 964 Vassar St. and disappeared inside with officers close behind.

Officers who chased Peck into his home quickly backed off when he fired at least two shots into the air from a shotgun. As backup officers arrived, they began surrounding the home and herding schoolchildren off the street.

‘Suspect took deliberate aim’

When Bohach arrived, he parked his patrol car to cover the southwest entrance to Peck’s small gray house. As he crouched behind his car, Peck apparently took aim with the high-powered rifle and fired one shot. The bullet passed through the hood of the car and the engine compartment before striking Bohach, Weston said.
“The suspect took deliberate aim and shot him in the chest,” Weston said.

Officers in the area returned fire on the house as the suspect fired several more times. Seconds later an officer shouted into the radio, “Officer down! Officer down!”

Special Weapons and Tactic officers surrounding the house opened fire as a distraction, allowing police to drag Bohach to safety.

Bohach was not wearing department-issued body armor, but Weston said it probably wouldn’t have stopped the bullet. Officers are not required to wear body armor.
“These bullets were going through cars,” Weston said.

Moments before Peck opened fire, officers repeatedly ordered him to come out of the house, said Tina Preciado, who lives across the street. Peck angrily shouted at them to leave and screamed, “I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Preciado said.

“They said ‘We don’t either,’” Preciado said.
Peck apparently stood in the center of his house and took aim through a window, Weston said.

The ensuing explosion of gunfire tore through Peck’s house and cars parked nearby, knocking limbs from trees. Peck’s cottage was left with more than 100 bullet holes. He escaped the volley unharmed.

Armored cars brought in

Police evacuated several homes surrounding Peck’s house and the 220 students at Bailey Charter Elementary School, which stood in range of Peck’s gunfire.

Children had to crawl along the school’s south-facing corridor to avoid the windows overlooking Peck’s house. They walked to nearby Libby Booth Elementary School, where teachers called their parents, Principal Ed Heywood said.

Students at Veterans Elementary School, several blocks away from Peck’s house, were kept indoors during the standoff.

After the initial burst of gunfire, Peck became silent. He stayed inside, not moving and refusing to talk to police.

Commanders of Reno and Washoe County SWAT teams then spent the next five hours devising a plan to coax Peck out of the house. They first cut the electricity, natural gas and water to the home. They spoke with relatives to diagram the interior of the house. The Washoe County sheriff’s Regional Aviation Enforcement helicopter took aerial photographs of the neighborhood’s layout.

Several armored transport vans, normally used to transport money, were brought in to protect officers from rifle fire.

Negotiations failed

Hostage negotiators were on the scene, but officers could not make verbal contact with the suspect.

About 12:55 p.m., officers crashed through a fence in an armored truck, drove up to the edge of the house and began launching tear gas and smoke grenades into the residence. A small fire started in the rear of the home, as officers shouted at Peck to exit. After several minutes, Peck walked out of the house and was taken into custody unharmed.

“It took quite a bit of screaming and yelling and coaxing to get him to come out,” Weston said.
Officers who later searched the house came upon a cache of weapons and ammunition, including a sawed-off shotgun, several handguns, the bolt-action rifle and ammunition for a different assault rifle.

While Sparks and county detectives investigate the homicide, Reno officers will begin working with Bohach’s family to arrange funeral services, Weston said.

“Almost everybody here knew Officer Bohach,” Weston said. “We will have to deal with the emotional load, too.”

Within hours of his death, Bohach’s fellow officers had erected a small cross bearing his name and badge number at the site.

A neighborhood under siege

Bob and Tina Fullmer, residents at 1000 Vassar St., live about a half-block from the suspect’s house. They said Peck had lived in the neighborhood for about two years. They occasionally saw him in his yard, but did not know him.

The Fullmers were in their front yard when police arrived on their block early Wednesday. They heard shouts followed by gunshots.

“It was like pop, pop, pop and then at least 20 shots all at once, like a battle zone,” Bob Fullmer said. “We went back inside fast. Then lots of cops and ambulances showed up.”

Sarah Ruiz, who was visiting her aunt’s house on Yori Street, said she also heard the shots and saw police swarm the area a short time later.

“There was a SWAT team and Reno police with rifles and Sparks police cars and the sheriff’s helicopter,” she said. “There were police in plain clothes who came in unmarked cars and put bullet-proof vests on.”
Cary Nelson, who lives on Yori three blocks away from the scene, said he heard the shots and attempted to get closer to see what was going on.

“Everybody was rushing out,” he said. “They were getting the school kids out and the people on the block while the standoff was going on.”

The Fullmers went to work and when they came home their house was inside the police perimeter. Bob Fullmer had to cut across neighbors’ yards to get to his house. His power was out until 3 p.m., he said.

“It’s a horrible thing when a police officer gets shot,” Tina Fullmer said. “It’s real scary for us in this neighborhood. This is a little too close to home.”
Reporters Mary Thompson and Frank Mullen contributed to this report.

A memorial fund to help Office John Bohach’s family has been established at Wells Fargo Bank. Donations can be made at any branch.

Los Angeles Times: Nev. Suspect Arrested After Standoff

http://latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-officer-killed0822aug22.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnation%2Dheadlines

Nev. Suspect Arrested After Standoff
By Associated Press

August 22 2001

RENO, Nev. -- Twenty SWAT officers stormed a cottage Wednesday and arrested a
man accused of killing a police officer.

Larry Peck, initially wanted for erratic driving, led police on a chase before
barricading himself in the bungalow behind his mother-in-law's house for 4 1/2
hours.

Police had surrounded the home when authorities say Peck fatally shot a
policeman in the chest with a high-powered rifle.

Officer John Bohach, 35, was pronounced dead in a hospital. The officer, a
13-year veteran, has a wife and two daughters.

Police said Bohach was not wearing a bulletproof vest, but that it wouldn't have
mattered because the shots fired from the rifle could penetrate vests or cars.

Peck was being held in the Washoe County prison.

A neighbor, Fred Wood, 35, said he was in his front yard when he heard the
initial gunshots.

"Then it was like Beirut out there," Wood said. "Massive gunfire."

During the assault on the cottage, tear gas and smoke grenades sparked a small
fire that firefighters extinguished.

Copyright 2001 Associated Press

Now, after all the facts are coming in, it's really disappointing to find that the Deputy Police Chief was spouting crap about a full auto. We are the wicked stepchildren of the firearms community, so surely it must be a full auto .223.

Was it the Dep. Cheif or some media hack?? Perhaps the initial report was something differnt, people under fire aren't always good observers. Maybe it was the way he was shot, they see a hole in the hood, hole in the fender, and the officer shot in the chest. Maybe they thought it was 3 holes from 3 rounds.

Please go easy the Dep. Chief just lost a co-worker, a person "under his command", and maybe a friend.

Deputy Chief Weston WILL be recieving a letter soon.  HE will be harshly reprimanded for the claims he made without checking his facts first.

{):)]
NSF

(Sigh) Now comes the call to ban the "high-powered .30-06 sniper rifle".  I expect a VPC position paper on it next week.

My condolences to the friends & family of the officer.

My condolences and heartfelt sympathies.  Has there been a fund established to help out the family of the officer?  Here in Houston we have a fund called the 100 Club, and I'm not sure if you have something similar there.  Regardless, if a fund is setup for the family, please let us know.  Times are tight, but I will contribute what I can.  I think the church will survive without my tithe this week.

God bless John Bonhach and his family.
--
Godb Bless Texas

They just had to get 'assault rifle' in there somewhere, even though no Sport Utility Rifle was used.

As for the hunters who critisize AR's and concealed carry and think that they are safe, get used to the new catch phrase 'high powered rifle'.  That and 'sniper rifle' are the terms they will use to ban hunting rifles.

Godspeed Officer John Bohach.

Thanks to all for your kind thoughts.  I've been away from here the last few days doing MUCH more important stuff.  John's wife and family are doing remarkly well considering.

Yes, it appears that Dep. Chief Weston may have been a little 'overzealous' in his reporting on the facts of this incident but, and I know him, consider that he's just lost someone he considered a brother.  It's hard on everyone.  I, too, have been a little upset with how this has been reported here.  The mutt that killed John has been represented as a supremecist, gun nut, 'ready to go to war', afraid that his guns would be taken away (sound familiar?) moron with an 'arsenal' at his home and enough ammo to 'have a long shootout' with whomever tried to 'get his guns'.  Much of which, I'm sure, is probably true.  It's sad that Weston had to make the 'fully automatic' statement.  It does him a disservice but is understanable.

When things cool down a little there will be a public discussion on how it was reported.  Started by yours truly.  I'll keep you updated with how THAT goes.  

Again, thanks for your thoughts.

CB

As an convicted felon, he shouldn't have had any guns in the first place. I hope that they bring him up on federal charges for illegal possession as well.
But all of us LEGAL gun owners will still suffer because of some POS.

CB, sorry to hear about the loss of  a friend. I know what it is like. I had a fiend stabbed 38 times and shot in the head with his .32. But he took one of the bastards with him.