A petition to dismiss criminal charges against a farmer accused of striking a police officer reached over 2,000 signatures within 11 hours of its creation.

While his family’s Myerstown dairy barn was engulfed in flames, Timothy Getz was being arrested for aggravated assault of a law enforcement official Thursday evening. According to a Pennsylvania State Police release, the trooper ordered Getz to vacate the structure, but Getz refused and made physical contact with the officer.

Yet numerous third-party accounts of the incident noted Getz was simply attempting to rescue as many cows as he could – and there are varying versions of what transpired between the farmer and the officer as a barn was being destroyed and livestock was lost.

Previously: Farmer charged as fire destroys Myerstown barn

More on the petition

The online petition was created on Change.org by a group calling itself Friends Of Timothy Getz, and it requests Pennsylvania State Police and County of Lebanon courts dismiss all charges against Getz.

The petition calls upon the community to “stand strong in supporting our agricultural neighbors and friends.”

“On the night of September 4, 2019, one of our community members and friends found himself in the thick of that moment, alongside his family members, as they fought to save their life’s work, their heritage, but more importantly a herd that has become like family to them,” the petition reads.

The petition states the police officer who arrived on scene “interrupted” Getz’s efforts to save the cows.

The officer’s intentions at this point may have been pure, but his focus was clearly different than that of the family trying to save their herd. A moment in the life of a family that was already tragic became far worse through the actions of an officer interfering with the efforts of a farm family trying to save their herd from certain death within a burning building. As the situation escalated, the course of action could have proceeded in several ways: (1) Assist the family in freeing the herd before the barn was engulfed in flames; (2) Have the officer vacate the building and allow the farmers to work diligently before the fire moved farther through the barn or (3) Arrest the farmer for resisting an attempted forceful removal from the building by someone he later found out was a police officer. Sadly, the path chosen was the latter.

Police investigating

As a state trooper and a fire marshal investigated the still-smoldering remains late Friday morning, an unmarked police cruiser parked in a nearby field. Out jumped two plainclothes officers in dress clothes, who began trekking around the muddy property to interview witnesses.

They weren’t there to get to the bottom of what started a barn fire.

Chatter among locals who had gathered on the property Friday was as much about Marlin Getz’s farm as it was his son, still in custody. One man demonstrated what he believed Getz had done to the officer, firmly pushing and shaking a reporter's shoulder. A family member said he heard Getz punched the cop. Other retellings landed somewhere in between or contained different details.

“I understand the cop was just doing his job, but I think he should've had a little more consideration for the situation at hand," said brother Todd Getz. “We needed to get those cows out of the barn.

“I don't know that had he left us keep doing it if we would've saved them all. We probably wouldn't have, but we could've saved a few more maybe.”

The investigation is ongoing, according to a police news release.

More on the fire

Farmers had just finished milking the cows when the fire started around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the dairy barn belonging to Marlin Getz at 440 Elco Drive, Myerstown. Witnesses said they could see the fire from over a mile away.

Six to eight of the roughly 65 cows in the barn died, per a preliminary estimate. Surviving cattle were transported to a nearby farm.

The barn was described as “a total loss.” The official cause of the fire was not immediately known.

The trooper allegedly assaulted in the incident was not identified in the release.

Know of a story Lebanon Valley communities need to be aware of? Contact citydesk@ldnews.com with the scoop.

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