Wheelersburg, OH – July 23, 2012 – The Scioto County Sheriff’s Office has released the 911 call from the shooting that occurred over the attempted repossession of a lawnmower on July 12, which took the life of 33-year-old Steve Holsinger.
According to the sheriff’s department release, Tyler Staker, 22, of Portsmouth, and his father had gone to Holsinger’s residence to repossess a lawnmower that Holsinger bought from their store, Staker’s Sales and Service.
According to earlier Police records, the father and son were at the residence for about an hour, knocking on doors in an effort to get Holsinger to return the lawnmower when at approximately 10:20 p.m., Holsinger came out of his house with a gun in his hand and was acting very upset.
Witnesses had reported that Holsinger had put the gun in his pocket for a time, then pulled the gun out and told Staker and his father they had three seconds to get off of his property until finally Holsinger allegedly raised the gun and pointed it at Staker’s face.
It was then that Staker reportedly drew his own gun and shot Holsinger several times.
The transcript of the 911 call, which was received at 10:21 p.m. on Thursday, July 12 ,illustrates the chaos and confusion following the shooting.
(call opens with yelling on the originating end of the line)
(911 dispatcher) “911”
(woman screaming in background)
(Robert Staker) “We’ve got a gunshot up here.”
(911 dispatcher) “Where?”
(Robert Staker) “Uh, what’s the address here?” (yelling louder) “What’s the address?”
(woman continues to cry in the background)
(911 dispatcher) “What’s the address sir?”
(Robert Staker) “I don’t know what it is.” (yelling) “What’s the address here?”
(911 dispatcher) “Are you in town? Are you in the county, or what?”
(Robert Staker) “Wheelersburg, out on Hayport Road, out here on (pause)
(man’s voice) “Nine five five zero.”
(Robert Staker) “Nine five five zero. What’s the road?”
(woman’s voice) “Gallia Pike.”
(Robert Staker) “Gallia Pike.”
(911 dispatcher) “Okay, what happened?”
(Robert Staker) “Uh, Steve, uh, Holsinger, we’re at his house to do a repossession, and he come out and threatened us with a gun, and pulled it up on my son and said, ‘you’ve got three seconds to get out of here or I’m going to shoot you.’ And he pointed it at my son and he shot him.”
(911 dispatcher) “Shot him? He shot your son?”
(Robert Staker) “He pulled the gun up on my son and my son pulled the gun on him. We’ve got a concealed carry.”
(911 dispatcher) “Okay, so has somebody been shot or …”
(Robert Staker) (interrupting) “Yeah, there’s a man shot here.”
(911 dispatcher) “Who? Him, the other guy, or your son?”
(Robert Staker) “Steve Holsinger’s shot.”
(911 dispatcher) “Okay. Where is he shot? Is he down on the ground?”
(Robert Staker) “Yeah he’s down on the ground.”
(911 dispatcher) “Okay, what’s your name?”
(Robert Staker) “Uh, Bob Staker.”
(911 dispatcher) “Okay, 9550 Gallia Pike, all right, we’ll get somebody down there.”
(Robert Staker) “Thank you.”
(911 dispatcher) “Seventy-three seventy.”
Scioto County Prosecutor Mark Kuhn has began the investigative process to put together a case to take to the Scioto County grand jury.
According to Kuhn, as in most homicide cases, he prefers to wait on the full autopsy to make sure he is able to take all evidence to grand jury if the case goes before the grand jury.
“There’s some things, even though we’re going to know what the cause of death is in this kind of case, there are some things that are going to tell us things as far as distance of the gun from the body, and orientation of the entry wound, the direction that the bullet was traveling,” Kuhn said. “Some of that is open to interpretation too.”
Where they both wrong? Should they have left it to the professionals? Should they have seeked court intervention? Should they have left? Should they have shoot him like they did?