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Murder By Circular Saw

This is certainly not the most pleasant story, but it is one of the most bizarre. Here in Wisconsin a guy working on a roofing project killed his coworker with a circular saw. Holy cow, what a way to go!

As the story goes, the worker was being razzed by the other workers on the job. "Razzed," by the way, is for my generation the equivalent of "bullying" or "micro-aggressions" for millennials. Apparently the "razzing" got more intense as the day wore on and finally the guy "snapped." He attacked his co-worker, and I suppose primary tormentor, with a circular saw, and in the process made deep cuts to the man's face, neck, and back. The victim died before the ambulance arrived. The killer was arrested and charged with homicide and creating mayhem. "Creating mayhem" might be an understatement.

Figure 2 - Tool or weapon? It all boils down to "intent.""

As bizarre as this story seems, it didn't get the kind of deep, intellectual, and probing reporting that, say, a reality TV star might get for a traffic stop or a wardrobe mishap, so I have been left with questions. Foremost, how did this even happen? For at least forty years, circular saws have had blade guards. Did the killer use two hands? One hand to hold the saw and pull the switch and the other to hold the blade guard back? And if the killer was using both hands to work the saw, how did he manage to overcome another presumably healthy, active worker?

It is unlikely that I will ever learn exactly what happened in this tragic incident. The news cycle will move on. But this I do know… as long, hard, and diligently as we preach safety and personal responsibility in all that we do with our woodworking tools, we simply can't blame the tools for ill-intentioned misuse by people. I think there might be a lesson to be learned somewhere in this story.

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Steven Johnson is retired from an almost 30-year career selling medical equipment and supplies, and now enjoys improving his shop, his skills, and his designs on a full time basis (although he says home improvement projects and furniture building have been hobbies for most of his adult life). Steven can be reached directly via email at sjohnson@downtoearthwoodworking.com

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