By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff | May 20, 2007
FRANCONIA, N.H. -- Judging from his history of gunplay and boasting about violence, detailed in court records, Gregory W. Floyd was a tinderbox waiting for a spark.
The moment came last Friday, when the 49-year-old former Marine jumped into the middle of a deadly shooting, grabbed the gun from a dying policeman, and killed the man , Liko Kenney, 24, who had shot the officer.
Now Floyd is being hailed as a hero. But police reports, neighbors, and acquaintances paint a more complex portrait of a man who lived by his own code, and whose past, as much as his fast thinking in a critical situation on country road in Franconia, led him to such a bloody juncture.
When Floyd picked up the service weapon of Officer Bruce McKay, 48, and aimed it at Kenney, Floyd knew what he was doing.
In 1997, soon after Floyd moved from Townsend, Mass. , to Easton, N.H. , a residential community of about 300 next to Franconia, state troopers went to his house after neighbors complained of gunfire near his property. According to court docu ments, he told police he was trying to scare off bears that were keeping his son awake.
"I am an ex-Marine and expert shot," Floyd said when police searched the home and found six firearms, according to the police report. "I don't miss what I shoot."
Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/20/ex_marine_in_nh_lived_by_his_own_code/
FRANCONIA, N.H. -- Judging from his history of gunplay and boasting about violence, detailed in court records, Gregory W. Floyd was a tinderbox waiting for a spark.
The moment came last Friday, when the 49-year-old former Marine jumped into the middle of a deadly shooting, grabbed the gun from a dying policeman, and killed the man , Liko Kenney, 24, who had shot the officer.
Now Floyd is being hailed as a hero. But police reports, neighbors, and acquaintances paint a more complex portrait of a man who lived by his own code, and whose past, as much as his fast thinking in a critical situation on country road in Franconia, led him to such a bloody juncture.
When Floyd picked up the service weapon of Officer Bruce McKay, 48, and aimed it at Kenney, Floyd knew what he was doing.
In 1997, soon after Floyd moved from Townsend, Mass. , to Easton, N.H. , a residential community of about 300 next to Franconia, state troopers went to his house after neighbors complained of gunfire near his property. According to court docu ments, he told police he was trying to scare off bears that were keeping his son awake.
"I am an ex-Marine and expert shot," Floyd said when police searched the home and found six firearms, according to the police report. "I don't miss what I shoot."
Full Story: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/20/ex_marine_in_nh_lived_by_his_own_code/