Victim’s family sues shooting suspect

BY STEVE McCONNELL

Times-Shamrock Writer

The family of a man shot dead in Susquehanna County last month is suing the alleged shooter.

The father of Joshua Rogers, through his attorney Michael J. Pisanchyn, filed suit in Lackawanna County Court on Monday against Lloyd Thomas, who state police say fatally shot his son and his son’s friend Gilberto Alvarez on Feb. 11 in Great Bend Twp.

“It is a shame that the outrageous actions of Lloyd Thomas have taken away Joshua Rogers – an Army veteran and father of two very young children,” Pisanchyn said. “They will never get to know their father, and that truly is a tragedy.”

Rogers, a 30-year-old Army veteran from New Milford who served a combat tour in Afghanistan, left behind a 2-year-old son, a 7-month old daughter, and his wife, Katrina.

Rogers’ body was found 75 feet away from his Mustang that he and Alvarez took to Thomas’ family property that day, where they intended to find the person who apparently shot his car, according to testimony at a preliminary hearing on Feb. 22.

Earlier, Rogers was at his home, where he told his girlfriend that someone shot his car and that they were going “to see who did that,” a state trooper said during the preliminary hearing.

The pair returned to the area of Thomas’ family property with Alvarez’s guns – a rifle was found in the Mustang and a shotgun was tossed in the woods – and surrounded Thomas’ father’s 144 Pine Ayres Road home, according to the court testimony.

Thomas, 45, told troopers he shot the men after they approached the home, claiming it was self-defense, arrest papers said. Alvarez’s body was found within 20 feet of the front door, according to court testimony.

Pisanchyn said Rogers’ family sought to litigate the matter in civil court because they fear Thomas will invoke his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent during the criminal proceedings, making it difficult for the “facts” to surface.

“We really are trying to get some answers – why he shot my client in the back?” Pisanchyn said. “A lot of the information I received was from your stories” in The Times-Tribune.

The suit paints a different picture than the self-defense claim Thomas made to state police during questioning just after the double homicide. Thomas said little during the interview, state police have said.

The suit alleged Thomas has a “long history of illegal drug use.” This could have made him “paranoid” and made him “overreact,” the suit stated.

It also claims Thomas “chased down” Rogers, and did not call police after the shooting.

Rogers was shot once in the hand and one bullet pierced his abdomen area from behind, troopers said. Alvarez, a 28-year-old former Florida resident who moved to Susquehanna County to work in the natural gas drilling industry, was shot once in the head, troopers said.

The suit also names Lloyd Thomas’ father, Hayden Thomas, and The Outdoorsman Inc., the gun business Lloyd Thomas owned and relocated to his father’s home after his Lenox Twp. store burned down in 2010.

Hayden Thomas could not be reached for comment on Monday. At the preliminary hearing, Lloyd Thomas’ attorney George Lepley said his client’s case could be among the first in the state to incorporate the “expanded castle doctrine,” which allows the use of lethal force on a person’s property beyond the confines of their home.

Pisanchyn dismissed the castle doctrine argument as the rationale for Thomas’  behavior.

It “doesn’t say you can chase and brutally murder someone,” he said.

The suit seeks more than $200,000.