Deputy Michael Van Kuren, 36, of Warren Center was shot and killed along with Deputy Christopher M. Burgert, 30, of Sayre, on March 31, 2004 in Wells Township, Bradford County, in Northeastern Pennsylvania with a .357 Magnum. Both were trying to serve a bench warrant on Dustin F. Briggs, 27, for failure to appear in court at approximately 11:00 a.m. At the time both Deputies were wearing vests and Deputy Van Kuren’s K-9 “Montana”, a rottweiler, was not with him. When both Deputies failed to check in, Pennsylvania State Police were sent in and discovered both Deputies shot and killed in the junk yard drive way of Briggs home on Congdon Road. One of the Deputies guns was missing from the scene. The suspect, Dustin F. Briggs, accused of killing both Deputies was arrested after a 36-hour man hunt at approximately 6:30 p.m. the following day after a tip from someone who reported seeing him. Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Investigator Vince Schreffler of the Laporte Barracks in Sullivan County had spotted movement 60 yards off the road south of Thunder Creek Road and it turned out to be Briggs. Briggs previously committed criminal possession of a weapon, a felony, in late 1997 when he tried to pull a loaded pistol on two New York state troopers after a traffic stop, but was wrestled to the ground and served more than two years in a New York State prison in Watertown, N.Y. from 1998-2000. Six months earlier he tried to run over a police officer in Troy N.Y. He was recently charged with selling methamphetamine in Bradford County. Deputy Van Kuren had served with the Bradford County Sheriff’s Department for 10 years, and is survived by his wife Elane, his son Andrew Todd and his daughter Tiffany. Many
An eight-woman, four-man jury deliberated more than 10 hours and found Dustin F. Briggs guilty of 2 counts of first degree murder
