HIS LAWYER SAID HIS CLIIENT WAS 'NOT HANDLING THE PANDEMIC WELL'

Pa. man charged in shootout with at least 7 cops

 

By Rudy Miller

 

The Patriot-News

August 4, 2020

 

BETHLEHEM TOWNSHIP, Pa. — In the time leading up to his shootout with police, Adam Zaborowski lost his job, lost a custody battle for his child and was “just not handling the pandemic well,” his lawyer said Sunday.

The 35-year-old Slatington man was charged Saturday with attempting to kill seven police officers near his home at 801 Main St. That shootout followed an incident Friday where Zaborowski allegedly shot at a clerk at Cigars International in Bethlehem Township. He allegedly refused to wear a face mask in the cigar store despite the threat of COVID-19.

Defense attorney John Waldron said a conversation with Zaborowski’s father offers some insight into the motivation for both shootings. Waldron is out of the area and has been unable to speak with Zaborowski, he said. Zaborowski is in a hospital recovering from gunshot wounds to his leg and buttocks, Waldron said.

Waldron said he learned that Zaborowski lost his job due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also recently lost custody of his child. These factors don’t justify Zabrowski’s behavior but do lend insight to his motives, Waldron said.

“He just wasn’t dealing well with the loss of his job, the loss of his child, just not handling the pandemic well,” Waldron said. “I think he was getting stretched too tight.”

“It doesn’t excuse his conduct,” Lehigh County District Attorney James Martin said.

Martin confirmed that at least seven officers were put in harm’s way during the Saturday shootout. Zaborowski shot an AK-47 assault rifle and a semi-automatic handgun at police, Waldron said. One officer from Slatington was injured during the gunbattle, police said.

Waldron said Zaborowski’s father told him Zaborowski is expected to recover and be released from the hospital in two to three days. That’s incredible given the amount of danger he put himself in, Waldron admits. Police are trained to shoot at suspects only when deadly force is justified, Waldron confirmed.

“They’re not shooting at your foot. They’re not shooting at your buttocks,” Waldron said. “It’s kill or be killed. So the fact that he got shot twice with non-life-threatening injures when he had an AK-47 and another handgun, Adam is very fortunate he ended up the way he did.”

Asked whether Zaborowski is lucky to have survived the incident, Martin said, “He opened fire on the police officers. He opened fire with an AK-47 and an automatic pistol. Do you think he’s lucky?”

Waldron said he wants to learn more about Zaborowski through mental health evaluations and tests “to see what exactly was going on in his life to have him react this way.”

Zaborowski was arraigned Saturday from his hospital bed on 22 related charges for the Slatington incident, according to online records. Bail was set at $1 million.

Zaborowski is charged with seven counts of attempted homicide, seven counts of attempted first-degree murder of a police officer, seven counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and a single count of possession of a gun despite a felony. He can’t own a handgun due to a previous aggravated assault conviction, police said.

Waldron said he’s represented Zaborowski in the past.

“I know his dad. I know his mom. I know Adam,” Waldron said. “From what I hear with these allegations, this is not his typical behavior pattern.”

The dispute at Cigars International started Friday morning when Zaborowski allegedly refused to wear a face mask in the store in the 4000 block of Nazareth Pike in Bethlehem Township. When the clerk insisted, Zaborowski allegedly grabbed two cigars and left without paying for them. The clerk followed him outside to retrieve the cigars, police said.

Then Zaborowski pulled out a semiautomatic handgun and fired one shot in the air then two shots at the clerk, according to Bethlehem Township Police Chief Daniel Pancoast said. Several store patrons were sitting outside smoking cigars as the shots were fired but none was hit, Pancoast said.

Police were outside Zaborowski’s home at 9:35 p.m. Saturday, waiting for an arrest warrant to arrive when Zaborowski got in his truck and left, police said. Police stopped him at Second and East Washington streets, where he got out and opened fire on police with a high-capacity semiautomatic rifle, police said. Police administered first aid to Zaborowski after the shooting.

When Zaborowski is well enough to leave the hospital he’s expected to head for Lehigh County Prison. He’ll be arraigned on the Northampton County charges at a later date. He’s charged with attempted homicide, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of robbery, two counts of reckless endangerment and two gun offenses in Northampton County.