‘Suicide by cop’ testimony heard
Officers recount ‘worst nightmare’ during standoff
The Easton man threw Molotov cocktails at police during a harrowing standoff last year. Three times he lobbed the firebombs, which narrowly missed officers and set a neighboring business on fire.
For two hours, police tried to take Jeffrey S. Folkner into custody, knowing he had a gun that he’d fired twice while holed up in his West Ward home. When Folkner finally came outside, he was armed with a machete as he walked toward officers, giving them the middle finger as he came ever closer.
Those facts weren’t in dispute Tuesday as Folkner went to trial in Northampton County Court on charges he tried to kill police officers during what started as a domestic violence call.
Folkner’s defense attorney, James Connell, told a jury that his client did throw the bombs at police. But Connell cast the 28-year-old Folkner as a suicidal man who was trying to hurt no one but himself early that morning.
“His intent in all of this was not to harm police,” Connell said. “His intent in all of this was to get them so angry they would kill him.”
Assistant District Attorney Edward Penetar agreed that Folkner attempted “suicide by cop” when he left his Pearl Street home at the end of the standoff and walked toward authorities with the machete. Penetar praised officers’ restraint, saying they used a stun gun to subdue Folkner when they could easily have killed him.
“It is every police officer’s worst nightmare, that he may be killed in the line of duty,” Penetar said of the July 18, 2018, scare. “That they may be harmed while serving and protecting the community.”
Penetar told jurors that Folkner hoped to go out in a “blaze of glory” to escape the consequences of his actions. Folkner’s ill-will toward police was evident not only in his deeds, but also in his profanityfilled words afterward, Penetar said.
Police say they were called to the 600 block of Pearl Street after Folkner hit his sister’s boyfriend with a baseball bat during an argument. As officers surrounded the home, they said Folkner refused to leave, throwing gas-filled beer bottles stuffed with flaming rags.
Police Sgt. Ryan Celia was positioned across the street when Folkner tossed the first one. Celia said he didn’t see it coming.
“Out of nowhere, a firebomb basically exploded in my face,” remembered Celia, who escaped injury. He testified he was “scared to death,” and turned and ran down the street.
“I’ve never run from anything,” Celia said.
The explosion also narrowly missed Officer Eric Siegfried. Siegfried said Folkner had come onto the porch and looked directly at him before throwing the bomb, which landed within a foot of him.
“I could feel how hot it was and honestly [I’m] still surprised that it didn’t catch me on fire,” Siegfried said.
Siegfried told the jury that in his career, he has never been as worried for his life.
“There are still days that this incident scares me; this incident occurred three days after my wife told me she was pregnant,” said Siegfried, now the father of a son.
Police said Folkner fired one of the gunshots from a window on the second floor, where he had removed an air conditioning unit, dropping it onto the ground below. The second was apparently fired inside the house, according to testimony.
Officer Brian Connaughton was among the officers who took Folkner into custody as he ignored commands to drop his machete and get onto the ground. Connaughton, who was armed with an AR-15, described the tension before police were able to subdue Folkner, who walked to within feet of them.
“How close were you to shooting him?” Penetar asked.
“I was extremely close, going back and forth inside my head, ‘How close can I let him get?’” Connaughton recalled.
The trial before Judge Craig Dally is expected to conclude this week.