Years of 911 calls couldn't save Lino Lakes woman

Every cop in Lino Lakes was wary of Al Taschuk.

The laid-off sheet-metal worker and volunteer firefighter intimidated and bullied his wife, Pam, their sons and so many others that police had him at the top of a list of the town's most dangerous residents. They set up a special tactical response plan for calls to his home at 467 Post Road.

"It got to the point where he was mean, just mean," police Chief Dave Pecchia said.

Dozens of 911 calls involving Allen Taschuk came in over 15 years. In the last, on Oct. 1, it was Taschuk who reported a shooting at his home. When officers arrived, they found him and Pam Taschuk -- who was in the process of leaving her husband -- dead of gunshots, the result, they believe, of a murder-suicide perpetrated by Allen Taschuk.

His mean and dangerous history raises obvious questions about why some authority didn't stop him before he killed, and how Pam Taschuk, a longtime social worker, could live 22 years with him before summoning the resolve to leave.

An examination of the stack of police reports concerning Allen Taschuk, and interviews with authorities who dealt with him and advocates who dealt with his wife provides some answers, unsatisfying though they may be. Though often mean and full of rage, he rarely got caught committing a serious crime, and victims of bullying often were afraid to testify.

When he did get caught, he served his jail time, paid his fine and returned home. And at least once, according to records, Pam Taschuk aided her husband in avoiding prosecution.

"People want to make this a simple thing; it's not," said Connie Moore, executive director of Alexandra House, the Blaine battered women's shelter where Pam Taschuk, 48, sought help and was counseled just two hours before she was murdered.

"It's very complicated, and the whole relationship is not as simple as walking out the door."

Raging through town

Motorists who Allen Taschuk tailgated and neighbors he intimidated called police many times over the years. Once, he nearly struck someone who was picking up mail. A neighbor said he intentionally poured oil on the neighbor's lawn. At one point, police called a meeting of Taschuk's neighbors to ask that they report every crime they witnessed by him. But they were afraid.

"He's a sick man," one neighbor told police, according to the report. "I'm afraid he will come after me if he finds out I am reporting him."

Pecchia said that, after many reports, "We'd follow up and ask if they'd like to press charges. They'd say, 'No, just talk to [him].' But this aggressive driving stuff is an indicator that somebody's having a problem."

Taschuk's record does include a handful of citations for speeding and following too closely.

Others got pulled in

When he was arrested, it usually was for crimes against his family. Sometimes he wasn't the only one who got into trouble.

In August 2007, he allegedly beat his then-14-year-old son with a belt after they argued about football practice. He whipped the boy at least 20 times, leaving bruises and welts.

The boy reported the attack to police, who interviewed both parents.

Pam Taschuk told officers that she was out shopping when the incident supposedly occurred, and that she suspected her son of making up the story.

Later, she admitted that, not only was she present, but that she got the belt for her husband. He was convicted of domestic abuse; she was cited for obstruction of justice and lying to police.

She told officers that she knew that, as a social worker, she was mandated to report any child abuse to police. That time, Allen Taschuk was sentenced to 60 days in jail and fined $100.

The case illustrates part of the problem with domestic abuse, said Paul Young an Anoka County prosecutor whose office handled the case. Unless the abuser commits serious bodily harm, uses a weapon or does something else to raise the crime to a serious felony, the punishment isn't going to be severe, and they'll be free to do it again.

"You don't get locked up and put away forever because of hunches or low-level conduct," Young said.

As for Pam Taschuk's role in that incident, Young said: "I'm not going to throw stones at why she may have lied. Maybe it's because of all the abuse he's done to her all these years, and she was afraid of what was going to happen."

Taschuk herself described that paralyzing fear in one police report:

"You would think it would be so easy to just pack up and leave someone, but it took a lot for me to even come up here. ... Allen is like the guys in the stories where the wife leaves the husband and then he kills her."

The last calls

In January 2008, Pam Taschuk reported to police that she was "bullied and intimidated" by her husband when he dragged her to his chiropractic appointment while she was wearing slippers. He threatened to throw her out a window and told her that if she called police, "You'll be dead."

At the same time, she said he hadn't hit her "in four or five years." The city attorney cited him for misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

On Aug. 25 this year, Taschuk bloodied his wife's nose, split her lip and trapped her in their home overnight. The next day she went to the police.

This time, she got him charged with false imprisonment and domestic abuse. She filed an order for protection and filed for divorce. She told authorities of her fears that he'd now kill her, writing in an affidavit: "I'm scared."

Their 16-year-old son told police, "I was not scared by the incident, but to be honest, I have become used to it."

Allen Taschuk was released from jail on $5,000 bail; he had paid a greater amount to avoid conditions that he stay away from his wife, but the protective order already was in place.

On Sept. 24, police escorted the Taschuks' 21-year-old son as he gathered clothing for his 16-year-old brother to go to the Bridge, a crisis center for youth in Minneapolis. In the meantime, Pecchia said, it was believed that Allen Taschuk was staying with a relative in Lino Lakes.

Because he was convicted of domestic abuse, Taschuk no longer could have firearms, but somehow he got his hands on one. Some people have asked why Pam Taschuk, as scared as she was, didn't arm herself. It does not appear that she applied for a permit to carry a weapon.

Young said that there was no way for the system to know what Allen Taschuk was about to do.

"This guy committed a crime," Young said. "He was charged, he was held in custody, he was taken before a judge, the judge set bail, and [then] he did something crazy and horrible.

"There's no formula that says we're gonna be able to predict acts like this. God, I wish there was."

On Oct. 1, Allen Taschuk dropped off his 16-year-old son at a gas station and then called 911:

"Hi, I need a, a police officer to go to the Holiday Station on Lake Drive and 35W or County Road 23 and pick up a child. There's been a shooting at 467 Post Road in Lino."

"OK, who was shot?" the operator asked.

"I don't know. Bye."

"It's your house, right?" the operator asked.

But the line was dead.

Abby Simons • 612-673-4921