A 52-year-old mentally ill Philadelphia man who had posted rambling threats against police was shot and killed by officers on Tuesday.
Officers from three police departments came head to head with Joseph A. Pacini of Clifton Heights when they ordered him to get out of his Nissan sedan. Not only did Pacini refuse, but he put his car in reverse, accelerated and rammed into a police vehicle, Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood stated, according to Philly.com, narrowly missing Clifton Heights Police Chief Tim Rockenbach.
Five officers began to shoot.
"The officers were in fear of their lives and did what they had to do," Chitwood told Philly.com. "He threatened to kill police, threatened to kill FBI agents."
"Clearly these guys want me dead or in prison, and there's no way in hell I'm going back in prison. No [expletive] way. So to the police, to the FBI, to the CIA agents, I'm not taking a fall for my family anymore, OK? This time, the Sicilian code is now busted. I'm opening my mouth, right here, right now, at 5:37 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 29, 2014, this is my coming-out party.
"So you're going to try to bring me down? I will [expletive] kill you and your whole [expletive] family, all right? So go ahead and [expletive] with me, all right? Try it."
Pacini also stated that he would most likely be dead within 12 hours.
Pacini posted a second reply to Detective Hufnal on YouTube:
"Here are your options: My instructions to you are to think about these options carefully before replying.
1. Win - win scenario.
You back off 100 percent and compensate me materially for my losses over the past 15 years. Otherwise, no deal. This is on you.
2. Lose - Lose: you try to arrest me.
Consequently, there will be serious and irreversible catastrophic consequences that no one wants, and that will be your fault completely. There is no way that I am going to allow anyone to take my freedom away again. So - I will immediately take out whomever attempts this on the spot. That means you will have to kill me on the spot. This is the worst of all the options.
3. You win - I lose.
Kill me. Have your people kill me. Put a gun to my head, look in my eye like a man, before you murder me, and then pull the trigger. There is honor in death."
The final video posted by Pacini is a voicemail he left for Detective Hufnal minutes before his confrontation with police:
"Listen, man, I'm heading out, so you're not going to be able to get back to me. I'll be in the gymnasium, but before you decide to load up your police wagon and come to the gym and arrest me, I highly recommend that you view the two messages, video, voice mail messages, that I uploaded to my YouTube account. So check out both those videos, and before you do anything, respond to me, OK? I'm just going to the gym to work out. And, hopefully, there will be no problems."
