I’ll get as many of the questions and answers by Wayne Bennett as possible…
What was his mood like when he was taken into custody? “…the game was up and he knew it…”
What did the officers say to him? “Get on the ground”
Was he armed? “No.”
What does this say about brotherhood…? “you are not going to shoot one of our people and get away with it…we do get our people, they don’t get away…you can’t be shooting at the people who protect society…”
Can you talk about a sense of relief? “There’s a certain gratification in being able to communicate with the families of the troopers that we have shut the door on this”
Can you talk about the police perimeter…? “It’s a pincer movement, we’re going to trap you…you aren’t going to be able to go anywhere without someone seeing you…game’s up”
Do you feel now that you are able to grieve trooper Longabardo? “We have been grieving since we lost him…but this was a very important thing to us to take up the cause here and take the person who did this out of the freedom that he had and he shouldn’t have”
How satisfying is it that he was taken alive? “Our job is to apprehend him, if we had to kill him we would have…”
Did you find anything in the fields or the cars this morning ” we haven’t had a chance to search the fields yet…one firearm was recovered from the first stolen car this morning”
425,000 is a lot of money, where will it go…? “I don’t think anyone is entitled to that money…”
If you had an opportunity to sit accross the table from this guy, is there anything you would say to Ralph Phillips? “Nothing I could say here.”
How relieved are you that it did not end in more bloodshed? “The only sympathy I have is for the people behind me, I don’t have any sympathy for Phillips…if it had gone the other way, so be it.”
Did you think he’d give up so easily without a fight? “My suspicion was when you’re so overwhelmed, yes…”
He’s eluded police for 5 plus months…where did he screw up? “He stayed here…his comfort zone became his distruction point…he was cocky”
How critical was it that you captured him before nightfall…? “Absolutely…once darkness falls we are at a disadvantage…that’s when he intended to move is during the nighttime, we know that for a fact.”
Can you tell us about the picture taken in Niagara County? “i’m still not going to talk about it…that involves two witnesses I don’t want to identify at this point…”
oh my gosh…he just said the people of Chautauqua County are “good people” they are “law abiding people.” I’m pleasantly in shock.
Will he be interviewed? “not tonight…tomorrow when he’s in custody there may or may not be an interview, that will be up to him”
This was in a cornfield, right? “No, it was in a lightly wooded area…”
What about the helicopter, was it a New York helicopter? “There was more than 1 there, ours had to be one of them?”
When you get home to your family, what’s the first thing you’re going to do? “Well, I did talk to my wife earlier…of course she’s been glued to this since day one…I think I’d just like to be able to hold her and hug her and give her a kiss…this is not an easy occupation for any of these people here…”
Once the full news conference is up somewhere else, I’ll link to it here, as my fingers didn’t move fast enough to get everything.
