Idiot for the day

Delco guy picks a fight at a police station
By Kenneth Stewart of the Philadelphia Inquirer
A man walked into the Upper Darby police station early Saturday morning, demanding that his girlfriend be released from custody. This sparked a wrestling match with officers in the lobby and served as a frightening reminder of a fatal 2004 shooting in the same place. In that encounter, a local man was killed and a police officer wounded.
No shots were fired in Saturday's incident, which occurred around 12:30 a.m., but the gunman and two police officers suffered minor injuries, Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said.
On Sunday, Chitwood was reassessing security at the police station on West Chester Pike. "This is a police station, and we want to have an open environment for the community," he said during a news conference. "We're going to have to reevaluate the security. A guy like this guy could walk around with a gun. It's a dangerous situation."
According to Chitwood, Kenneth Stewart, 22, of Glenolden, and his girlfriend, Denise Pepe, 27, of Drexel Hill, had been drinking Friday night at Playhouse Lanes in Upper Darby. Pepe had been taken into custody on charges of public drunkenness and disorderly conduct, Chitwood said. At the police station, Stewart scuffled with Officer William Sides and insisted on Pepe's release and was told she would stay in custody until she was sober, Chitwood said.
When Sides tried to arrest Stewart, he resisted and both men fell to the floor and continued to struggle, according to Chitwood. Officer Michael Begany then entered the lobby and saw Stewart pull a 9mm pistol from the waistband of his pants, Chitwood said. Begany wrenched the gun from Stewart's grasp before it could be fired. A bullet was ejected from the chamber but was not fired, Chitwood said.
"These two officers were fighting for their lives," he said. "It was kind of like a mortal-combat situation."
After Sides and Begany managed to subdue Stewart, they had to Taser him because he continued struggling. He spit blood at them once he was put in a holding cell, Chitwood said.
Stewart was arraigned on charges of attempted murder of two police officers, aggravated assault, and weapons violations after his release from Delaware County Memorial Hospital, where he underwent treatment for minor injuries. The injuries to Sides and Begany did not require medical attention, Chitwood said. Sides returned to duty, and Begany, a military reservist, resumed training with his unit.
Stewart was being held on $250,000 cash bail. At the time of his arrest, he was also wanted by Upper Darby police on an outstanding warrant for allegedly threatening a man with a gun on 30 December.
"It's kind of concerning when the lobby of a police station can be a battleground," Chitwood said. "We probably get thousands of people that go through that lobby in the course of a week."
In the 2004 shooting, Fundador Torres, 22, of Upper Darby, entered the station with a .357 Magnum and 75 rounds of ammunition. After brandishing the weapon, he was killed by police gunfire. Police said Torres, who was drunk and reportedly had recently lost his job, never fired his weapon.
Then-Lieutenant Anthony Paparo, now a captain in charge of the patrol division, was struck in the shoulder by a bullet fired from another police officer's weapon.