Gerald Sykes is 76. He still has three bullets in him from when a state trooper – who responded to his home two weeks ago after a 911 call was mistakenly traced there – shot him. And he’s pretty sore.
But he likes to get out and move around. So what’s the first thing Sykes did when he returned to his rural home this week, following stays at Cooper University Hospital and his stepdaughter’s home?
Mow the lawn.
When Sykes and his wife, Margot, 80, saw shadowy figures on their back porch just after 11:30 p.m. on July 29, they thought there were prowlers, as Sykes described them to 911 dispatchers.
So he grabbed a shotgun and walked into the living room, which connects to the porch through the glass door.
Then, the family and his attorney have said, three bullets from one trooper’s 9mm service handgun came through the glass and struck him. Sykes fired one shot and fell backward before retreating to the bedroom. He spoke to the 911 dispatchers – calmly – as he lay in bed next to his gun.
“I don’t know why, but the entire incident left me very calm,” he said Friday. “I don’t generally fall to pieces.”
Sykes, who maintains radio systems for police departments through the communications company he owns, said he had gotten to know chiefs and other officers well, and supports police “100 percent.”
“I always was on the police’s side,” he said. “Where would we be without them?”
At the same time, he said, recalling the July 29 encounter, “incidents like this really shouldn’t happen.”
Sykes said he could not discuss the incident in more detail, on the request of his attorney, Rich Kaser.