Man who threatened trooper with arrow pleads guilty but mentally ill

A Porter Township man who threatened to shoot a state trooper with a razor-tip arrow has pleaded guilty but mentally ill in Schuylkill County court.

David E. Sink, 42, of the Reinerton section, pleaded to aggravated assault/physical menace and simple assault.

The remaining charges of attempted criminal homicide, 10 counts of aggravated assault, five counts of simple assault, possession of a weapon, three counts of recklessly endangering another person, disorderly conduct and three counts of harassment were dropped.

Judge James P. Goodman deferred sentencing to 11 a.m. Sept. 27 in order to give the Adult Probation Department time to do a presentence investigation.

Sink remains in the county jail under $100,000 cash bail.

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by Trooper Norbert J. Brennan of the Jonestown barracks, the situation unfolded around noon Oct. 19, 2017, when a neighbor called police to a home on the 100 block of North Yohe Street to report a domestic dispute.

A woman, her face bloody and beaten, told a postal worker who was delivering mail to the house that she had been raped and needed help.

Sink carried a compound bow, loaded with a razor broadhead, onto the front porch, twice pulling back the weapon and threatening to shoot police who had responded to the call.

Trooper Marshall J. Hummel of the Schuylkill Haven barracks eventually shot Sink in the leg.

On the way to the hospital, Sink told trooper Keith Rudy, “I wanted them to shoot me. I wanted them to end my life. I didn’t mean to cause you guys stress. I did it just to get out of the relationship. I wanted to get hit. I did not want to hit anyone. I’m sorry.”

At the hospital, he told medical staff, “I believe I was shot. I was in a bad relationship. I tried to get the police to kill me.”