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Spooky, sad end to DelCo Halloween saga

A spooky, sad coda to a Halloween controversy in Springfield occurred last week.

A Springfield, Delaware County man who hung a skeleton from his maple tree wearing an Obama T-shirt at Halloween -- infuriating neighbors and sparking peaceful protests -- allegedly fired a shot at a local police officer last week that shattered a neighbor's window, the Delco Times reports. George Vucelich was arrested Thursday and charged with attempted first-degree murder.

I wrote a column about the skeleton last fall that caused so much distress in his community. Vucelich spoke with me for a half hour, defending his position and failing to see how he might have offended neighbors by handing  a skeleton with a noose around its neck that strongly suggested lynching.

"I just don't see it," he told me repeatedly. "I swear to you I'm not a racist. I'm just somebody who is being pushed too far." He said he felt the protesters tried to get him arrested. He wished neighbors had spoken to him before calling the police. Twice, he thought about taking the skeleton down, but he said people had yelled profanities and sent hate mail. The longer the protests have gone on, the more he has dug in his heels.

"I feel I've been painted into a corner, " Vucelich said in October. "You back a rat into a corner, he's going to fight."

Vucelich allegedly fired shots at neighbors last week before the officer arrived. He is being held in the county prison, the Delco Times reports, with bail set at $500,000.

--Karen Heller