(AK) Church pastor cheered for killing two burlgars 04-25-03

http://www.adn.com/front/story/3010533p-3034535c.html Big Lake
pastor
kills 2 men robbing chapel, troopers say INVESTIGATION: Area has
suffered winter’s worth of break-ins. By ZAZ HOLLANDER
Anchorage Daily News
(Published: April 25* 2003)

BIG LAKE — A church pastor shot and killed two men he caught
burglarizing his small chapel early Thursday morning, Alaska State
Troopers said.

The pastor, whom troopers identified as Phillip Mielke, shot the men
with a handgun, according to investigators still at the scene more than
12 hours later.

Troopers identified the two dead men as Christopher Lee Palmer, 31, of
Big Lake and Francis Marion Jones IV, 23, of Wasilla.

Troopers declined to say whether the two dead men were armed or whether
they were shot while inside or outside Big Lake Community Chapel.

A handful of locals interviewed Thursday cheered the shooting, saying it
capped off a winter of unsolved break-ins and vandalism around this
lakeside community of scattered residences.

A caller to 911 in Palmer around 5 a.m. Thursday told a dispatcher that
he “shot at two people, possibly hit them both during a B&E,” according
to troopers’ dispatch logs. The caller told dispatchers that a vehicle
left the scene.

Palmer died at the chapel, a humble structure with a small congregation.
Troopers and Mat-Su emergency responders found his body outside on the
lawn.

Thursday evening, several bright yellow evidence markers and a metal
detector were visible a few paces from the church’s front door and some
daffodils growing at the steps.

Jones apparently fled to a friend’s home on Beaver Lake Road, a few
miles away, troopers said. Investigators surmised Jones most likely
managed to leave immediately after the shooting in a small sedan before
officers arrived. Troopers found him dead shortly after noon after
responding to a 911 call from a woman who reported a male friend had
come to her house suffering from gunshot wounds.

Autopsies on both men are scheduled for today, said troopers Capt.
Dennis Casanovas.

Troopers will consult with the district attorney’s office during the
investigation, said Sgt. Dallas Massie. The district attorney generally
decides whether a shooting is justified and whether to file charges.

Mielke was not available for comment. A woman who answered the chapel’s
phone said she did not want to answer questions.

“We just want to keep this quiet right now,” she said.

Mielke lives across South Big Lake Road from the church and probably
rushed over when he saw headlights pull up, said Helme Blank, 69, a Big
Lake resident for the last 47 years who takes her granddaughter to
Friday game nights at the chapel.

Blank expressed bafflement as to why anyone would break into the chapel.

“That’s got to be the smallest church in the Valley. There’s maybe 50 of
them,” she said.
“That’s why they call ‘em poor as church mice.”
The red of an old schoolhouse, the chapel sits just down the road from
Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church and across Fish Creek from the Big
Lake Motel. Patrons inside the motel’s Hangar Lounge on Thursday evening
said the two men got what they deserved, an opinion shared by several
others who basically saw the shooting as God’s wrath.

A number of Big Lake residents described frayed nerves over the winter
break-ins that hit a number of homes across this unincorporated
community of about 3,000.

Bill O’Hara said he got a call Tuesday from one neighbor who thought a
bear got on her roof but instead found a man up there scoping out the
house.

“She grabbed a shotgun and racked a shell,” said O’Hara, the Big Lake
Community Council president. “This person hit the ground running.”

The burglars mostly struck weekend homes that were empty during the
week, he said. Burglars at one house kicked in the door and stole
$50,000 worth of items, even the trash compactor.

Blank said authorities know there are one or two gangs of vandals in the
area. Last week, somebody kicked holes in the sheetrock of a newly
finished home, she said. Wednesday night, somebody at the same site
stole tools from crews repairing the damage.

“If there was a burglary in progress, they had the right to shoot them,”
Blank said of what happened at the chapel. “We had so many break-ins and
vandalism out here this winter. They’re not going to stop until somebody
gets killed.”