Richard Poplawski, accused of gunning down Pittsburgh police officers, praised the Virginia Tech massacre and talked of killing "a couple of members of the Pittsburgh police" in an audio recording of an Internet radio show made before his alleged ambush of three Pittsburgh police officers.
The show's existence was first reported in January when police released details about it in search warrants filed in court. The audio of a show surfaced Tuesday in a blog related to a book about right-wing radicals.
Will Bunch, a writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and author of "The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama," wrote about the recording and posted clips from the show that he says are Poplawski talking. The book was published this week.
Bunch said he got the recording during an interview with Edward Perkovic, 24, of Lawrenceville, who recorded the Eddie and Po show with Poplawski. A chapter in his book talks of the role that right-wing media and conspiracy theory played in Poplawski's actions, Bunch said.
Perkovic could not be reached for comment.
The recording has heavy metal music and gunshots in the background.
"All I have to do is reach for the trigger and, Pow! ... I plead not guilty. ... I plead not guilty. ... I plead not guilty. ... I plead not guilty. ... Thirty-three people dead, I'm fairly impressed by that," one clip states.
Another states: "I want to kill my ex-girlfriend, her mother, her pets, my father, people I don't like and in a random measure a couple of members of the Pittsburgh police."
Poplawski's attorney, Lisa Middleman, filed a request in April asking to have references to the show barred from the trial. The date of the recording is unclear, but Middleman said it was years before the Pittsburgh shootings.
"Despite my best efforts, somebody appears to be intent on trying this case in the media," Middleman said.
Officers Eric G. Kelly, Stephen J. Mayhle and Paul J. Sciullo II died April 4, 2009, while responding to a call for help from Margaret Poplawski, the suspect's mother, after an argument with her son at their Stanton Heights home.
Perkovic told the media after the slayings that he believed Poplawski was motivated because he feared President Obama would confiscate his firearms.
