Wendy Otteson called the sweet old guy "Jerry Berry" when he ate at the Coon Rapids Burger King where she worked. And now she's learned that the man who always liked strawberry jam on his biscuits shot and killed her teenage stepson after he apparently broke into the man's home on Monday night.
"I can see both sides of it," said Otteson, 30. Somebody "was in the house and he [the homeowner] was scared and didn't know what to do. ... He was waiting for them. Why couldn't he have gone out the back deck before he shot them?"
Anthony J. Parks, 17, was shot once by Gerald Whaley, 73, who police said was within his rights to defend himself against a burglar who appeared in his bedroom doorway about 11 p.m.
Whaley told police he heard voices as someone broke in through a garage door in his two-story home. Investigators don't know why Parks was there and are seeking two acquaintances of his who may have information about that night, said Anoka County Sheriff's Capt. Robert Aldrich. He said it's not clear whether Parks had accomplices or if there was a getaway vehicle.
Terry Parks, 40, was too broken up to talk about the son who fished and hunted with him, but the boy's stepmother said Tony was generous and a loving big brother to her three daughters.
"He was definitely not a thief," Otteson said.
"I really believe he was coaxed by his friends," she said. "He didn't go into the house to rob anybody or hurt anybody. ... They were just trying to explore the house they thought was empty. ... I don't think he would choose to do this by himself."
She and Tony's father left their apartment door unlocked for Tony Monday night when the couple went to bed before the teen's 11 p.m. curfew. The next morning the door was still unlocked when she went to work and she thought Tony might have stayed at a friend's house. Later Tuesday, police arrived and Tony's father identified his son through a photograph, she said.
