SHE FEARED DEATH, PLEADED FOR MERCY
Woman Tells of Kidnapping by O'Kasicks

By PEG JOHNSON
Minneapolis Tribune
Staff writer


A Bloomington w o in a n Wednesday described h e r Aug. 17 kidnapping by the O'Kasick brothers, one of whom held a gun at her temple go nervously "he kept hitting my head with it," she said.
Mrs. Velma Anderson, 9448 Clinton Avenue, testified in the first degree murder trial of James O'Kasick, 20, charged in the shooting death of Patrolman Robert Fossum Aug, 17.
Mrs. Anderson said, she pleaded with the trio not to harm her.
"I HAVE two. Children please don't do me any harm," she said she told them after they sent her husband away at gunpoint and took her with them in the Anderson's' car.
Mrs. Anderson identified James as the driver. He couldn't find the car's starter, so she showed him how it worked, she said.
She also volunteered to cover her own eyes when "the blond one" (presumably Roger O'Kasick, now dead, along with his brother, Ronald) was unable to get a blindfold tied, she testified. Later her head was pushed below the dashboard, she said.
Several times during the ride, Mrs. Anderson said, she feared she would be killed. �When the brothers abandoned the Anderson car to continue their flight in their own, she nearly was run over as her car rolled backwards down an incline, she said.
I FIGURED they were trying to do away with me," but one of the brothers snatched her out of the car's path when it was so near it touched the hem of her dress she testified.
Finally she was let out of the car and marched to a garage, told to keep her mouth shut and stand there for 15 minutes or "we'll kill you," Mrs. Anderson said.
She thanked the armed trio for letting her go unharmed, she said.
Another woman, Marilyn Langford, 3920 Pleasant Avenue, also described how the fleeing trio stole her car from her at a service station at W, Thirty-ninth street and Nicollet avenue immediately following the shooting.
SHE IDENTIFIED James as the one who pulled her out of the car and drove it off. All three were wearing gloves, she said.
Witnesses called by George M. Scott, Hennepin county attorney, testified they witnessed the shooting of Fossum and his partner, Patrolman Ward Canfield.
Sixteen - year - old David Stearns, 3937 Eleventh avenue S., a Central high school junior, said the O'Kasicks' white automobile careened around a corner and smashed into his car as he sat in it outside Benson's grocery at Thirty-ninth and Blaisdell.
Stearns said he jumped Out of his car as the O'Kasicks "hit the gas" and pushed his car about 30 feet down the street before the two policemen arrived. Stearns said he ducked behind a tree and watched the gun fight.
Fossum fell first, then Canfield, who was "moaning and rolling around," Stearns said. The brothers ran for their car, but one stopped "right over Fossum and fired straight down" before they drove off, Stearns testified.
HE SAID the gunmen drove their car, with his auto still hooked to it, over Canfield's body.
Canfield was still conscious and tried to roll out of the way, said another eyewitness, Philip J. Moore, 3912 Van Nest avenue' But the car picked him up and dragged him about 20 feet before he rolled free, Moore said.
"I heard an awful scream as he was dragged along," Moore said.
Moore testified he saw James O'Kasick shoot Canfield, but said a car was between James and Fossum when Fossum fell to the street.
Canfield, 36, still is in critical condition in General hospital. His wife, Laura, was in the courtroom as an observer during yesterday's testimony.
Mrs. Dorothy Fossum, 28, widow of the slain policeman, took the witness stand briefly during the trial in District Judge Rolf Fosseen's courtroom.
THE SLIM, brown-haired mother of four spoke in a low voice, twisted her white, gloves in her hands nervously and fought back tears as, she identified a picture of her husband and described an identification mark he had on his left upper arm---a tattooed dagger he had put on "when he was a kid."
She said she last saw her husband alive about 6:15 p.m. Aug. 17. Asked about his health at that time, she answered, "Perfect." Her voice broke and she left the witness stand before the defense attorney, Lewis E. (Scoop) Lohmann, had an opportunity to cross-examine her.
Lohmann said he had no questions to ask her.
Mrs. Fossum who sat directly behind O'Kasick during the morning's testimony, left the courtroom before Dr. S. Steven Baron took the stand to describe the autopsy he performed on Fossum
Barron said Fossum died of a bullet which entered his head in the right temple, pierced his brain and tore through the left side of his head.
DEATH was almost instantaneous, Barron said, and the muzzle of the gun apparently was "no more than three feet away from his head---probably only a foot or so away."
With 14 witnesses heard from in rapid-fire order yesterday, Scott said the state may complete presentation of its case today.
Lohmann, who declined to cross-examine four of the state's witnesses, said O'Kasick will take the witness stand to testify in his own defense,

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