Community Corner

Bucks DA: Marino Had Prior 'Violent' Record

"Zombies were coming to kill" Marino, he told Hilltown Township Police during a 2011 incident where he had to be Tasered

In his 10-page , who lived in Perkasie and Quakertown, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler wrote that the victim had prior violent police contact last year.

On March 9, 2011, at 3:07 a.m., Hilltown Police were dispatched to 602 South Perkasie Road, located in Hilltown Township, which was Marino's residence at the time, Heckler said.

Calls to police radio indicated Marino was breaking windows and damaging property because "zombies were coming to kill him," according to Heckler.

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When Hilltown Township Police arrived in the area, Marino was found running down South Perkasie Road, police said.

"Marino was perceived by the officers to be in an intoxicated and agitated state," Heckler wrote in his findings.

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Marino became "angry" when approached by police, and numerous officers were required to assist medics who came to the scene to subdue Marino and tie him down to a stretcher for transport to Grand View Hospital, according to Heckler.

"During the course of the incident, Marino was tastered repeatedly with limited effect," Heckler wrote.

In the Grand View Hospital emergency room, six police officers and emergency room staff had to physically restrain Marino until medical personnel were able to sedate him, Heckler wrote in the findings.

Heckler referenced Marino's prior interaction with Hilltown Township Police in his conclusion:

It is often said that in moments of emergency, one reacts at the level of training. It is unclear how quickly and easily a taser device could have been deployed in this situation or that Mumbauer even considered this option.

As the prior reported incident involving Mr. Marino and the Hilltown Police demonstrates, it is also uncertain that a taser would have been immediately debilitating.

The question under the law is whether Mumbauer was unreasonable in that moment in concluding that he could not safely take some alternative action, but rather that he needed to draw and fire his weapon.

The interaction between the officers and Marino should not have reached this point. That it did reach this point was not the product of any criminal act by Officer Mumbauer or by either of his fellow officers. Rather, it was the product of Michael Marino's continued violent aggression.

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