Man’s death in Blue Springs standoff comes as a surprise
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By CARA PESEK / Lincoln Journal Star
Fred Colgrove watched Gene Zarybnicky climb the stairs to his Blue Springs home Saturday afternoon, a gun in his hand.
Colgrove knew Zarybnicky, but not well, he said Monday. And he didn’t know why his neighbor was at his house or why he had a gun.
As he watched from his shop, Colgrove said, Zarybnicky walked into his home, then came out a few minutes later, got into his truck and drove away.
Colgrove called 911.
“I was concerned about myself and anybody else,” he told the Beatrice Daily Sun.
The Gage County Emergency Response team — comprised of Beatrice Police officers and Gage County Sheriff’s deputies — responded, surrounding the home Zarybnicky shared with his wife, Wilma.
Thirteen hours later, at 4 a.m., Zarybnicky stepped outside his home and fired several shots. Officers fired back.
At 7:15 a.m., Zarybnicky, 62, was found dead in the doorway of his home, apparently killed by a gunshot fired by one of the officers. He was the only person home at the time of the standoff.
Gage County Attorney Randall Ritnour offered few details about Zarybnicky or what happened in the home in Blue Springs.
“It’s not something we would have expected at all,” said Larry Stanosheck of Odell, a friend Zarybnicky’s.
Stanosheck said he met Zarybnicky in the 1960s. For years, the two men lived across the street from each other in Odell. Perhaps five years ago, Zarybnicky moved to Blue Springs, Stanosheck said.
He described Zarybnicky as an intelligent, honest man and a skilled mechanic. He graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s engineering school, Stanosheck said, and later worked for Enron, retiring before the company ran into problems.
He was a skilled race car driver and a member of the Beatrice Speedway Hall of Fame.
But in the past few years, Stanosheck said, Zarybnicky had changed.
“He had some mental problems,” Stanosheck said.
But he had never been violent, at least not to Stanosheck’s knowledge.
“He was a good person,” Stanosheck said.
A search of Nebraska court records revealed Zarybnicky had a few traffic violations, but nothing serious.
As required by Nebraska law whenever a person dies in police custody, a grand jury will be called to investigate, said Ritnour.
On Monday, Nebraska State Patrol investigators spent the morning and afternoon interviewing neighbors, he said.
An autopsy was conducted Monday, as well, Ritnour said. Results were not back Monday evening.
The officer who fired the shot that killed Zarybnicky has been placed on administrative leave. Ritnour declined to release the officer’s name, but he said he expects to do so later in the week.
Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.
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