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Gunmen break in, attack 2 residents in their Chesapeake home

By STEVE STONE
© 2000, The Virginian-Pilot

CHESAPEAKE, VA 10/24/2000 -- Kenneth Liskey was in bed when, early Thursday, he heard a noise at the front door of his home. He thought it might be one of his sons. Seconds later, he said, he was confronted by three armed, masked men shouting "FBI! FBI!"

These were not federal agents on a mission, however. They were more like urban terrorists.

For nearly an hour, Liskey said, they beat him and a fellow resident of the home in the 1100 block of Fontana Ave. in the Indian River section.

They told Liskey, a 46-year-old concrete worker, it would cost him $50,000 to live, though the price came down with time.

"They just kept asking me, `Where's the money?' " Liskey said. "First he said, `Give me $50,000 or I'm going to kill you.' Then it was $20,000 and $10,000."

When Liskey repeatedly insisted that he had little more than the money in his wallet, a few rolls of the new golden dollar and a bottle full of pennies, he said, his captors became furious.

They began torturing him, he said, burning his body with a fork repeatedly heated on a stove burner.

"They burned my rear end, my back and arms and they did some other stuff I don't want to describe," Liskey said as he tried to put his wrecked home back together and tended his wounds. Not only are there multiple burns and the bruises where he was hit and beaten, but also the 48 stitches on his head from where he was struck numerous times with the butt of a handgun. "I'm in pretty bad shape."

And what's worse, he still doesn't know why he was targeted.

The three men broke through the front door about 1:45 a.m., police spokeswoman Cheryl Sitler said. One of the invaders was dressed in a camouflage jacket.

Liskey said he jumped out of bed and ran into the men in a hallway. They pushed him back into his bedroom, where they tied his hands behind his back and lashed his feet.

One of the men asked by name for one of Liskey's sons. He told them his son had not lived there for six years.

That's when the demands for money began. One of the men stayed with Liskey, while the others ransacked the house.

Liskey managed to work one of his hands free and leaped at his assailant. They struggled for control of the gun and one shot was fired. "I heard it click again, but it was a misfire," Liskey said.

"Then someone came up behind me and wailed me real good on my head," Liskey said. He remained conscious, but the fight was out of him.

About the same time, Liskey said, the men found the other man who lives in the house. He had heard the commotion and realized what was happening. But because there wasn't a telephone in his room to call police, Liskey said, the man hid in a closet. The gunmen found him and beat him, too. He required 20 stitches.

After a while, the gunmen began to worry about how long they had been there. "One of them was saying, `We've been here too long; we should be gone,' " Liskey said.

Before fleeing, however, the men threw Liskey and the other resident into a bathtub after again beating them in the head with their guns.

The three took off with about $350 in cash and credit cards and two rifles they took from Liskey's gun rack, he said.

After a short time, Liskey ran to a neighbor's home to call for help.

"It looks like a hurricane went through here," Liskey said Thursday night.

He hopes his assailants will be caught, but he's not optimistic.

"I've had the house broken into a couple times," he said, "but this is the first time I've ever been whipped."

Interesting. I suppose the cry "FBI" was designed to slow the residents' reaction time [ whatever they might have had] _ and to insure great hesitation even if the owner might have been holding a gun in his hands.

But under such stunning surprise invasion what can someone do awakening from a deep sleep even with a gun nearby, unless a good perimeter defense mechanism buys reaction and "thinking" time?

And what if the gun is kept locked even in one of those quick open boxes requiring finger manipulation under the chemical cocktail?

A friend of mine was awakened in the middle of the night by drunken shouts and slamming on his front door. He said that he was unable to manipulate the safe open for what seemed like an eternity.

What is your experience and views on those boxes?



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Van Canna

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Van Canna:

But under such stunning surprise invasion what can someone do awakening from a deep sleep even with a gun nearby, unless a good perimeter defense mechanism buys reaction and "thinking" time?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Make sure the perimeter and other defensive setups do buy additional time.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote

If someone has a problem waking up in a fog or has small children in the house, I suggest buying the extra time needed to get control of their faculties before they get control of their firearm. OTOH, if you have no kids, can go from 0-100% in a nanosecond, and have predetermined (with your spouse or other house residents) plan, then I think these "lock up your safety" devices are a bunch of bull.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote

Therein lies the problem... If he has kids and takes this much time to get fully awake, then he's probably better off making the home perimeter more secure and doing some impromtu "training" at being waken up and going from 0-100% more quickly. Just like anything else, it's something that is trained... When I was a kid, I took an eternity to wake up no matter what. Now, I can make the concious decision before actually waking up whether it will be a leasurely rising or 0-100% in an instant. I don't really know how to explain that, but it's true. If my subconcious feels a threat, I'm 110% period... if there isn't a threat or once the threat is over, everything shuts down... click! I have the same reaction in altercations or other emergencies. During the situation, I don't get the shaking knees and other "chemical cocktail" reactions, I go to 110% ultra-alert, ultra-crisis-mode, but when everything is over and I feel everything is safe, that chemical cocktail goes away and I get weak. It's been so bad before (in a really bad situation) that after the situation was over and I had made sure everyone was safe, authorities/EMTs/etc on hand, I literally shut off like a light switch... click! At least I was revived by my lovely wife and a cute young female EMT... (But it was embarassing as all heck after what had just gone down...)

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote

It's just me and the missus... Under MGL, if a firearm is not in use, it must be safely stored. (locked in a safe and/or trigger-locked) When we're in bed at night, those firearms are in use for personal defense. The only time I lock one up is when I leave the house and don't happen to take that particular one. I have friends who have and use those boxes. All because they have children in the house. Some think they take too long, but need the extra time to wake up anyway... others think they're fine. If you can wake up quickly and handle the cocktail anyway, you probably won't have a problem using one of the "gun vaults" (tm). If not 100% on both of those (as I suspect was the case with your friend), then your fumbling will seem like forever. Sometimes (like with kids in the house) these are the trade-offs that people feel they must make. (And that are to a certain degree mandated by MGL.) I have one friend who doesn't use any box like this and he and his wife keep their pistols near the bed. they have a young daughter, both of them have extensive training (and can go from 0-100% in an instant), AND the 9 year old daughter can field strip either pistol and reassemble in a few minutes. (IOW, the kid knows gun safety, knows the guns, knows what a gun can do, and at 7 was winning junior competitions. It's just a matter of training.)



[This message has been edited by Panther (edited January 25, 2001).]