Laughing Nigger Butchers 3 To Death!

July 18
Wilkes Barre raid caps Scranton slaying
Randall Rushing is suspected in triple homicide Thursday morning on S. Irving Avenue.
EDWARD LEWIS, JEN MARCKINI and TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER Times Leader staff writers

WILKES-BARRE – Armed with shotguns and assault rifles, authorities on Thursday raided a High Street home, where they captured a man they say killed three people hours earlier in Scranton.

A large group of officers stage off of Wilkes-Barre Boulevard near the Jewelcor Building on Thursday before capturing triple-homicide suspect Randall Rushing at 268 High St.

Randall Rushing, 25, was apprehended at about 4:45 p.m. when a team of state police troopers, FBI agents and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force stormed into 268 High St. during a thunderstorm.

Luzerne County District Attorney Jacqueline Musto Carroll said Rushing was captured without incident and turned over to Lackawanna County authorities.

Rushing was laughing when he was brought out of the house. He will be charged with three counts of homicide, according to Lackawanna County District Attorney Andy Jarbola.

“We’re still investigating the relationships of who was down there with him,” said Scranton police Chief David Elliott. “There were several individuals in the home with him at that location.”

Police did not say how the victims died. Autopsies are scheduled for this morning.

Meanwhile, in Scranton, homicide detectives remained at 1604 S. Irvine Ave., where three people, including a teenage boy, were found dead inside the home earlier that morning. At 6:53 a.m., Lackawanna County 911 was notified of a shooting at the home, Elliott said.

Two of the three victims lived at the South Side residence. They were Dustin Hintz, 22, and Leslie Collier, 16. The other victim, 21-year-old Justin Berrios, lived in the same neighborhood, at 515 Maple St., Elliott said.

Elliott said police found four others in the house where the deaths occurred, including a 2-year-old child and a handicapped man. All four were bound and tied, but not harmed.

Authorities identified them as Samantha Hintz, 19, and her 2-year-old son, Tristan Berrios, along with her mother, Cynthia Collier, 43, and her brother, Matthew Collier, 21. Justin Berrios had a relationship with Hintz and was Tristan’s father, officials said.

According to Director of Public Safety Ray Hayes, none required hospitalization.

Investigators are still probing a motive in the triple homicide. One on which they are focusing is whether Rushing was a jealous boyfriend, Hayes said.

Samantha Hintz did have a relationship in the past with Rushing, Elliott said.

John Hunt, 19, of Scranton, who said he was a friend of Justin Berrios, said the suspect and Berrios did not get along because Rushing was jealous about Berrios’ relationship with Samantha Hintz.

Hunt said he last saw Berrios on Wednesday night when they were hanging out on a Scranton corner near the homicide scene.

“I tried calling this morning (Thursday) when I woke up because we were supposed to chill, but he (Berrios) didn’t answer his cell phone,” Hunt said.

Two hours after the deaths were reported, Luzerne County 911 alerted area police agencies that Rushing was driving a silver Mercury Sable. Wilkes-Barre police and state police searched the city, initially concentrating in the areas of the Sherman Hills Apartment Complex on Parkview Circle and South Wilkes-Barre.

Several officers were seen on Carlisle Street in South Wilkes-Barre where a Mercury Sable had been seen. Several state troopers were parked along North Sherman Street near Sherman Hills and at the Home Depot on Business Route 309.

Just after 10 a.m., a Wilkes-Barre officer located the car parked on High Street, about 40 yards from the residence where Rushing was later captured.

Several undercover agents and state troopers in unmarked cruisers maintained surveillance of the vehicle for much of the day.

Authorities wouldn’t disclose how they learned Rushing was inside the High Street residence, but Musto Carroll said the vehicle played a role in indicating that Rushing was in the area.

“His car was found in the area, and we took it from there,” Musto Carroll said.

Authorities set up a command post in a parking lot at Wilkes-Barre Boulevard and Coal Street, near the Jewelcor Office Building late Thursday morning. A state police helicopter landed at about 11 a.m. and was used prior to the raid.

Shortly after 4 p.m., authorities obtained a search warrant for the High Street residence that allowed them to lawfully search the residence.

A parade of police vehicles, including a utility-type truck containing eight armed officers, left the command post at about 4:20 p.m. and drove on Wilkes-Barre Boulevard toward High Street.

As the vehicles approached the intersection with Stanton Street across from the Valley View Terrance Apartments on High Street, officers emerged from the truck and stormed the house where Rushing was captured.

“We had everyone we could possibly have together in an effort to bring this person to justice,” Musto Carroll said.

Larry Barclay, 32, who had lived at the South Irving Avenue house, said he knew Rushing and was surprised to learn he’s a homicide suspect.

Standing across the street from the scene, Barclay described Rushing as a “loner” and “he seemed to me a little slow, that he really didn’t have the brains to do something like this.

“It’s hard to know. You talk to the guy over time, and he’s suspected of killing three people in the house I grew up in,” said Barclay. “It’s just sad, it’s hard to believe.”

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