Man shot by police was angry over prior prosecution
ALBION – Keith Kent, the Albion man who was armed when he was shot and killed by a Genesee County deputy last night in Pembroke, felt he was wrongly prosecuted about a decade ago.
He was accused of taking far more trees from a Barre woman as part of his logging business, Jordan River Logging, on Route 31A. In an agreement, Kent was to take 40 trees but allegedly took down close to 200. Kent was charged with grand larceny, but a grand jury didn’t bring those charges against him. Instead, he was arraigned on charges of evidence tampering (when some of the trees he was of accused of taking down without permission were allegedly removed.) That charge was dismissed.
Kent, 61, complained to friends and neighbors, and in letters sent to newspapers, that he was wrongly prosecuted with the charges hurting his reputation and business.
Kent also said his business was destroyed by the “Rutherford-Cain gang” from Niagara County, who were rival loggers. Kent in an email to the Orleans Hub on June 29, 2017, saying the two from Niagara County caused him “eight years of hell on earth, including vandalisms, thefts, arson and attempts on my life.”
David Cain Jr. was convicted of 17 felony charges, The Buffalo News reported today in an article about Kent’s death.
Kent in his email to the Orleans Hub said he was terrorized for eight years while law enforcement did nothing to protect him or his family. He said he was treated “shamefully” by District Attorney Joe Cardone, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Marshals.
Kent sent a letter less than two weeks ago on March 30 to The Daily News in Batavia, a five-page letter that the newspaper said made “vague threats of violence.”
At one point in the letter to The Daily News, Kent wrote, “I have been driven to the brink of COMPLETE INSANITY over this and it will end soon.”
Kent was shot and killed by a deputy from the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office at about 11 p.m. after he allegedly threatened patrons in the parking lot at the Indian Falls Log Cabin Bar & Restaurant.
Kent asked, “Where are the police?” minutes before a deputy arrived, according to a report in The Daily News today. Kent was shot after he pointed a handgun at a deputy despite several commands to drop the gun, Undersheriff Gregory Walker told The Daily News.
There were no other injuries from the incident. The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office has requested the State Police handle the investigation.
