<!–Saxotech Paragraph Count: 2
–>
As 32-year-old David A. Salasky turned toward the police officer who was shouting orders, he later told investigators he saw the cop turn into a creature, complete with growing fangs.
The New Castle-area man reached into his pocket, pulled out a hunting knife and used it to fend off the vampire-like creature before running away — at least that’s the story Salasky told New Castle County investigators when they interviewed him about the Sept. 16 killing of Lt. Joseph Szczerba.
County police Lt. Teresa Williams and Capt. Robert McLucas detailed the events that led to the death of Szczerba, including where his accused killer bought and smoked bath salts the day before the killing, where Salasky acquired the hunting knife and comments he made after the gruesome stabbing. The details came to light today during a Superior Court hearing to see if state prosecutors had enough evidence to justify holding Salasky without bail.
Superior Court Judge William C. Carpenter Jr. agreed there was, and Salasky was returned to Vaughn Correctional Center near Smyrna.
Salasky is accused of killing the 44-year-old Szczerba during a short but fierce struggle in which Szczerba was repeatedly stabbed in the head, back and buttocks as the officer was attempting to take Salasky into custody on suspicion of breaking into cars in the Penn Acres and Wilmington Manor neighborhoods near New Castle. In a letter to The News Journal last year, Salasky wrote that he has a history of mental illness and that the use of the since-banned designer drug known as “bath salts” played a role in that night’s incident.
Law enforcement and legal sources also have said Salasky was likely high on bath salts that night.
In enacting an emergency state ban in late September on bath salts — which had been sold in colorful packages at convenience stores and smoke shops — officials said the compound can send users into a psychotic state and induce violent outbursts.
Article source: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20120215/NEWS01/120215064/Details-emerge-about-events-led-Szczerba-s-death