December 19, 2006

Pa. man wanted for assault; dropped flowerpot on officer's head

P-1 Tip: When searching for suspects remember to keep your eyes open and look everywhere, including up.

We all know to check behind doors, furniture and under the beds to mention a few hiding places. What we often forget is the obvious. ... Full Tip

By Brett Hambright
Intelligencer Journal

York city police are looking for a man who allegedly dropped a large flowerpot from a second-floor balcony onto an officer's head over the weekend.

Zebulun Sweeney, a 2005 Columbia High School graduate who since moved to York, is wanted on charges of attempt to commit criminal homicide and aggravated assault.

Police said Sweeney, 19, and his 23-year-old brother, Aziijah, were running a speakeasy from their home at 487 Salem Ave. when officers responded to the residence Sunday morning just before 1 a.m. for a noise complaint.

When no one answered at the front door of the home, Officer Michael Ebersole went to the back door, police said. As Ebersole spoke with several people exiting the rear of the building, police said, he was struck in the head by a "large ceramic flowerpot."

Police believe Zebulun Sweeney dropped the pot from a second-floor balcony.

The Sweeney brothers fled the scene following the incident, police said.

Ebersole sustained a serious head injury, police said, and was in stable condition Sunday at York Hospital.

The Sweeney brothers testified against Micah Stewart earlier this year in a Lancaster courtroom. They claimed Stewart - who was convicted last week of first-degree murder for killing girlfriend Cortney Fry - shot at them last year in an alley behind his Columbia home.

According to testimony, the shooting was in retaliation for a beating Stewart sustained months earlier at the hands of the Sweeney brothers.

Stewart was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison for the crime. He received an automatic life sentence for Fry's murder.

York city police said Aziijah Sweeney is wanted for questioning, but no charges are pending against him.

Police said they interviewed more than 40 people about the weekend incident. Underage partygoers were charged a fee to drink alcohol at the Sweeney home, police said.