Shots Fired In Warsaw; Suspect Held

A Warsaw man is being held in the Kosciusko County Jail after allegedly firing shots at teen-agers riding bicycles past his house.

John Paseka III, 45, of 706 N. Cook St., Warsaw, is being held on $100,000 bond on charges of criminal recklessness with a firearm and pointing a firearm.

According to Warsaw Police Department reports, a call was received at 10:22 p.m. Wednesday that shots were fired in the 700 block of North Cook Street and that a man also was swinging an axe at people.

Police first stopped at a residence where a man was reportedly seen on his porch holding a gun. However, it was determined that the resident of that house heard the gunshots and came outside with his weapon for protection while he checked to see what was happening.

A perimeter was then set up around Paseka's house and police made telephone contact with him, directing him to come outside through the front door. After several minutes passed and Paseka did not exit the home, police telephoned him again and learned that the front door of the residence was barricaded and that he would come out the back door. Paseka was then taken into custody and the SWAT team checked the house for other occupants. Nobody else was inside and police said there was refuse throughout the house, with only narrow paths leading from room to room, which is why the front door could not be opened.

Paseka reportedly told police that the kids killed his cat and he just wanted to scare them so he shot a cap pistol at them. When police challenged the fact that the weapon wasn't a cap pistol, Paseka allegedly admitted that he used a .22-caliber revolver. Police had no information as to whether accusations about a cat were true.

The victims of the incident, a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy, told police that they were riding their bicycles on Clark Street when Paseka allegedly began to yell at them, telling them that he would kill them and their dog. The teens said they then rode into the street and Paseka continued to yell threats at them. They returned to the residence to get the house number so they could call police when Paseka reportedly came out of the house with a handgun and began firing at them.

The 15-year-old said he thought he heard eight or nine shots and that at least three bullets whizzed by his head. One shot passed close enough to the 17-year-old's head that it may have touched his hair, the report noted.

Also assisting at the scene were officers from the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department and Winona Lake Police Department.