cousin of skiing star Bode Miller fatally shot and ran over a police officer

[voivod]

• Suspect shoots, runs over officer after traffic stop
• Passing motorist stops, kills suspect with officer's gun
• Dead suspect was cousin of Olympic skier Bode Miller
• Officer and suspect had tangled previously during an arrest


FRANCONIA, New Hampshire (AP) -- A cousin of skiing star Bode Miller fatally shot and ran over a police officer, then was killed by a passer-by who grabbed the officer's gun.

Liko Kenney shot Cpl. Bruce McKay four times and ran over him after a traffic stop Friday evening, state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said. Gregory Floyd, who was driving by with his son, grabbed McKay's gun and shot Kenney when he refused to put his gun down, Ayotte said.

Kenney, 24, was convicted of assaulting McKay and resisting arrest in 2003. Ayotte had no other details of that previous incident between the men, and rejected suggestions the officer should have let someone else handle the traffic stop given his history with the driver.

Officials said McKay pulled Kenney over for speeding on Route 116. Kenney took off, and McKay pursued him for about 1½ miles before pulling in front of Kenney's car and pushing it off the road.

The officer used pepper spray on Kenney and his passenger and then turned around and was shot, Ayotte said Saturday at a news conference in Concord. Soon after, Floyd arrived and confronted Kenney while his son called for help using the officer's radio.

Authorities said Floyd was justified in shooting Kenney.

The McKay, 48, was a 12-year veteran of the Franconia Police Department.

"It really tears at the fabric of the community and the fabric of the state," said Gov. John Lynch, who visited the town of about 900 residents Saturday as people paid their respects and brought flowers to a police station.

Bode Miller's father, Woody Miller, said there was a history of animosity between the officer and his nephew.

"They had a long relationship," said Miller, who operates an international tennis camp in nearby Easton. "There's been physical altercations between them before in the course of being arrested."

Miller said Kenney, who lived next door to him, didn't have a steady job, but often took work cutting firewood and picking fiddlehead ferns, a wild green that grows in the region and is considered a delicacy.

Bode Miller, who once bailed his cousin out of jail, was on his way home to Franconia, his father said. Miller was in Park City, Utah, this week, meeting with officials of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. At that meeting, the former Olympic medalist told officials he was cutting his ties with the U.S. team.

[Little Dreamer]

I went to the Miller/Kenney family tennis camps several times in the 80s and got to hang out with Bode and the family. They're good people. Yeah, they're a bit on the hippie side of things (Bode grew up in a house in the woods without any modern equipment), but ask anyone who went to Tamarack, that place rocked.

[ZeoBandit]

Wow.

[voivod]

FRANCONIA, N.H. -- New Hampshire authorities said yesterday that they will not press charges against a former Marine who stepped into a deadly shooting and killed a 24-year-old high school dropout who had moments earlier fatally shot a police officer.

The former Marine, Gregory W. Floyd, 49, was driving with his son along Route 116 in Franconia on Friday night when he saw Liko Kenney, 24, shoot Franconia Police Corporal Bruce McKay, 48, four times in the torso. After Kenney drove his Toyota Celica over McKay as the officer lay on the ground, Floyd grabbed the officer's service weapon and shot and killed Kenney.

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Liko's Uncle, Bill Kenney described Liko as troubled, but not violent.

"He was definitely part of the family, but we all had a little bit of a tenuous relationship with Liko," Bill Kenney said. "I consider him a loose cannon, volatile."

Liko Kenney and Bode Miller grew up together near the grounds of the Tamarack Tennis Camp in Easton, which their grandparents started in 1962.

Bill Kenney said his nephew had a tough upbringing. His parents, Dave and Michelle Kenney, run a coffee plantation in Hawaii, and for years the family spent their time split between Hawaii and New Hampshire. Liko was often in trouble at school and dropped out of Profile High School in Bethlehem by the time he was in 10th grade, his uncle said.

"He had a lot of anger," Kenney said.

He spent several years living in Las Vegas and Washington state before moving back to New Hampshire about three years ago, according to his uncle. He loved the outdoors, his ATV and hanging out with his friends in the small house he lived in on Easton Valley Road across from the tennis camp. He had recently found a steady job at Agway in Littleton.

Connie McKenzie, a longtime family friend who lives down the road, said Liko Kenney was a handsome, smart, good kid. McKenzie said she was driving into town Friday evening when she saw McKay and Kenney by the side of the road about a mile from her house. At the time, McKenzie said she told her husband, "We're going to be reading about that in the paper next week."

"I was really sorry I didn't stop and say, 'Oh, can we help out or something,' " she added. McKenzie said she knew Kenney and McKay "hate one another," and that Kenney had some emotional problems.

When she saw police lights as she approached her house, she said she knew something had happened between Kenney and McKay. The routine traffic stop had turned into a chase that ended across the street from her house, where Kenney shot McKay, who stumbled across the street and collapsed on her front lawn.

"This was an accident waiting to happen," McKenzie said.

She wondered yesterday why Liko Kenney felt he needed a gun to protect himself. Another family friend, Rob Hayward, said Kenney was afraid of McKay, and Bill Kenney said he thinks that is why his nephew carried the weapon.

[voivod]

Official New Hampshire police video of the murder of Cpl. Bruce McKay by Liko Kenney. Warning: the end of this 7-minute video shows the fatal shots.

[track 5]

FRANCONIA, N.H. -- New Hampshire authorities said yesterday that they will not press charges against a former Marine who stepped into a deadly shooting and killed a 24-year-old high school dropout who had moments earlier fatally shot a police officer.

Well that worked out well. Another dipshit of the streets. Out.