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Armed Self Defense In The News 9/22/02
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Witness shoots robbery suspect in Pembroke Pines
By Vicky Agnew
Staff Writer
Posted September 20 2002
PEMBROKE PINES ? A Pembroke Pines man apparently intent on robbing a convenience store was captured early Thursday after a witness shot him during a foot chase.
Police said the suspect, Preston Wagner, 39, of 2051 NW 81st Ave., sustained a minor cut on his back from the bullet and that the shooting appeared to be accidental. Authorities called the witness, Albert Carlson, 37, a good Samaritan but were quick to say that innocent bystanders should not involve themselves in dangerous situations.
"We appreciate the public's concern and help, but we ask them to be observers from a safe location," Pembroke Pines Police Capt. Keith Palant said. "We don't advocate vigilantism."
Police said the incident began about 1:50 a.m. when Wagner smashed one of the windows at the Farm Stores at 8100 Pasadena Blvd. and began scooping up cigarette cartons. Carlson, who lives nearby, heard the glass shatter, ran outside armed with a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol and chased Wagner, Palant said.
During the chase, Carlson's gun discharged, sending a bullet ricocheting off something before it grazed Wagner's back. Neighbors who heard the gunshot called police, who went to the store with a police dog and began tracking the suspect, Palant said.
An officer saw both men still running five blocks away, ordered them to stop, and took them into custody. Paramedics pulled a small bullet fragment from Wagner's back, and Carlson told officers that his gun had discharged accidentally. He also said Wagner had turned on him with a piece of wood and tried to beat him, Palant said.
Police charged Wagner with burglary, aggravated assault and possession of drug paraphernalia. They did not charge Carlson.
In Florida, it is legal to own a handgun without a permit. However, permits are required for carrying concealed weapons. State records show that Carlson did not have a permit for a concealed weapon.
"He didn't appear to have broken any laws," Palant said.
Vicky Agnew can be reached at vagnew@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7922.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-srobber20sep20(0,3954307).story?coll=sfla-news-broward
Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Vicky Agnew
Staff Writer
Posted September 20 2002
PEMBROKE PINES ? A Pembroke Pines man apparently intent on robbing a convenience store was captured early Thursday after a witness shot him during a foot chase.
Police said the suspect, Preston Wagner, 39, of 2051 NW 81st Ave., sustained a minor cut on his back from the bullet and that the shooting appeared to be accidental. Authorities called the witness, Albert Carlson, 37, a good Samaritan but were quick to say that innocent bystanders should not involve themselves in dangerous situations.
"We appreciate the public's concern and help, but we ask them to be observers from a safe location," Pembroke Pines Police Capt. Keith Palant said. "We don't advocate vigilantism."
Police said the incident began about 1:50 a.m. when Wagner smashed one of the windows at the Farm Stores at 8100 Pasadena Blvd. and began scooping up cigarette cartons. Carlson, who lives nearby, heard the glass shatter, ran outside armed with a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol and chased Wagner, Palant said.
During the chase, Carlson's gun discharged, sending a bullet ricocheting off something before it grazed Wagner's back. Neighbors who heard the gunshot called police, who went to the store with a police dog and began tracking the suspect, Palant said.
An officer saw both men still running five blocks away, ordered them to stop, and took them into custody. Paramedics pulled a small bullet fragment from Wagner's back, and Carlson told officers that his gun had discharged accidentally. He also said Wagner had turned on him with a piece of wood and tried to beat him, Palant said.
Police charged Wagner with burglary, aggravated assault and possession of drug paraphernalia. They did not charge Carlson.
In Florida, it is legal to own a handgun without a permit. However, permits are required for carrying concealed weapons. State records show that Carlson did not have a permit for a concealed weapon.
"He didn't appear to have broken any laws," Palant said.
Vicky Agnew can be reached at vagnew@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7922.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-srobber20sep20(0,3954307).story?coll=sfla-news-broward
Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
Eva-Marie Ayala
Star-Telegram Dallas Bureau
DALLAS - A robbery suspect was fatally shot while fighting with a hotel clerk who tried to stop him early Thursday, police said.
Police believe the 21-year-old man, whose name had not been released Thursday, also robbed the same Courtyard By Marriott Wednesday night and was involved in 25 to 30 other robberies. A different clerk was working Wednesday, police Sgt. Ross Salverino said. "At one time, a composite drawing was made for all these incidents, and it looks just like him."
Just before 12:30 a.m. Thursday, a man entered the hotel at 2930 Forest Lane and asked to use the bathroom, police said.
When the clerk asked if he was a guest, the man drew a handgun, forced his way behind the counter and took money from the front desk, Salverino said.
The man then made the clerk lead him to the safe and forced the clerk to take off his clothes, Salverino said.
"Somehow, they began to wrestle and a shot went off, hitting the suspect" in the right shoulder, Salverino said. "The suspect then lunged at the hotel clerk, and the clerk shot him in the upper torso."
Salverino said the man died at the scene. He expects a grand jury to rule the death a justified homicide.
A picture of the man will be shown to other businesses in the area that have been robbed recently to determine if he was involved, Salverino said.
Dinesh Ro, assistant general manager at the hotel, said hotel management is doing what it can to comfort employees and guests
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/local/states/texas/4113770.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Jeremy Kohler
Of The Post-Dispatch
Michele Munz Of The Post-Dispatch Contributed To This Report.
He tossed them his wallet.
He told four angry-looking young men that they could take what they wanted: his 1996 GMC Yukon, parked in the 3600 block of Winnebago Street in St. Louis just after 1 a.m. Wednesday.
"I say, 'Yo, dog, you all can have this,'" the robbery victim, 25, explained later.
But he heard one of the robbers, holding a shotgun, ask his buddies, "Yo, what you want me to do with this guy?"
The guy said kill him.
The victim, who agreed to be interviewed without use of his name, said his mind raced. He thought of his 6-year-old son growing up without a father. He figured he had about one second to live.
He used that second, he told police, to grab the shotgun and push the man holding it into another carrying a Tec-9 assault weapon. The second robber tried to fire but the gun failed.
The victim said he ran behind his Yukon. The robbers taunted him. No shells in that shotgun, they said. They lied. He fired three blasts, and they scattered.
By now they were too far to hit with a shotgun. But he had more firepower: a 9mm handgun he says he carries for protection.
He pumped off four shots in rapid succession -- aiming high to miss, he said. The robbers piled into the car they'd pulled up in, an Oldsmobile Alero, and sped west on Winnebago.
"They wanted to murder me," the victim said Wednesday. "After I did what they asked me to do. I'm glad to be alive. I'm glad to still be here. To see my son."
Residents of the block called police and described the Alero, which had been stolen from Lambert Field. St. Louis police chased it south on Interstate 55 into Jefferson County, radioing ahead for help.
Festus police were ready. As the speeding car approached the exit for southbound Highway 67, officers tossed a strip of hollow spikes onto the pavement. The car slowed to a stop near Jefferson Memorial Hospital as the tires went flat.
The four men scattered.
One was caught near the hospital in Crystal City. Another was caught at a 7-Eleven store in Festus. Jefferson County sheriff's deputies nabbed the other two on the highway.
Later Wednesday, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce charged two adults from St. Louis with first-degree attempted robbery, armed criminal action and felony resisting by flight. They are Bryon Jones, 26, of the 7400 block of Calvin Avenue and Branden Jones, 17, of the 4000 block of Connecticut Street. The Joneses are unrelated.
The status of the two minors could not be determined.
Police confirmed the victim's account.
Investigators recovered the assault weapon, which police said the suspects tossed out the window during the chase, and a .38-caliber revolver found in the Alero. They were still searching for a .22-caliber pistol the suspects said they also discarded.
Police Chief Joe Mokwa said Wednesday that the city has seen 98 cases of auto theft involving a gun over the past six months. "There have been enough episodes of violence that they get people's attention," he said.
Among them:
* A man fatally shot by an off-duty city detective in thwarting what police are calling an attempted carjacking Friday night.
* A man from Indianapolis killed when carjackers opened fire just south of downtown last month.
* A former Marine who had just joined the Border Patrol killed in May for his Lexus coupe when his attempt to escape got blocked on a dead-end street.
Police generally advise victims to do follow carjackers' instructions. St. Louis County police Officer Mason Keller pointed to two recent cases in the Affton area that ended peacefully that way.
"You have to do what you feel is best for the situation to keep you and your family and friends safe," Keller said. "You just have to pick the best option out of whatever options are available to you."
Mokwa said most carjackers are usually groups of young men wanting cars for their accesso ries, such as expensive tires. They do not intend to kill, he said, but most are armed and unpredictable.
"They are not thoughtful enough to think of what their behavior might accelerate into," he said. "And they have no remorse if they do have to shoot."
Wednesday morning's victim was no easy target. He is a former college football linebacker, weighing 245 pounds, who is a workout enthusiast and carries a weapon because he runs a liquor store with his father and often transports cash.
"Now every time I come outside I have to fear for myself," he lamented. "I don't know how to live or carry my life well. I can't buy nice things because someone might try to take it from me."
He added, "I'm going to do everything I can to help the prosecutors so those guys never do this to anyone else."
Reporter Jeremy Kohler:
E-mail: jkohler@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-241-9435
http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel/pdweb.nsf/TodayThursday/86256A0E0068FE5086256C39003BEF0A?OpenDocument
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Associated Press
A man was shot in the shoulder this morning after he attacked an armored truck driver and tried to rob her outside a northeast Houston convenience store, police said.
The man ran away but later turned up at LBJ Hospital seeking medical treatment and was identified as the attacker, police said. Charges are pending against him.
The incident happened at 8:05 a.m. in the 3500 block of Elysian when a Loomis Fargo and Company armored truck made a scheduled stop.
When a guard stepped out of the armored truck and started to walk toward the store, a man sitting on the side of the building attacked her from behind, said Houston Police Department Sgt. Steven Ruteshouser. The man tried to take a money bag from the guard and tried to yank her gun out of its holster, Ruteshouser said.
The guard struggled with the man for about 10 to 15 seconds before another guard stepped from the armored truck and shot the attacker, police said.
The guard who was assaulted was taken to Hermann Memorial Hospital, complaining of back pain, police said.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/front/1582316
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Associated Press
Sept. 18, 2002 08:09:00
NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. - An 85-year-old woman, angered that a would-be robber was scaring a cashier, beat the man with her cane and foiled the robbery, police said.
Police said the woman told them, "that poor child was frightened and I wasn't going to let that happen."
She would not give her name and refused medical treatment, though she was knocked to the ground by the fleeing robber, police said.
"She turned out to be a hero, but she adamantly refused to give her name," Sgt. Bob Laporte said.
Witnesses said a man grabbed the cashier by the wrists at a store in New Kensington on Monday and threatened to cut her with a metal can opener that he then used to attempt to open the cash register.
The elderly woman beat the man in the head with her metal cane and he fled, knocking her down. The woman "had some choice words for him while she was sitting on the floor," Laporte said.
have any criminal intent. Their intentions are good," Rokita said. "Just not this way."
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0918RobberCaned-ON.html
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By Alan Morrell, John Kohlstrand and Jeffrey Blackwell
Democrat and Chronicle
BURR LEWIS
Alfred Thompson, 89, talks to police after a break-in at his North Street home early Tuesday. [Day in Photos]
(September 18, 2002) - Rochester police are continuing to investigate two would-be burglaries in which residents -- one, 89 years old -- fatally shot the apparent intruders.
Police were not releasing the names of the dead.
The first happened at 299 Ravine Ave. at 8:22 p.m. Monday. Less than six hours later, a similar shooting occurred at 978 North St. shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday. In each case, a man inside said he shot a man who was breaking into the residence.
Chief Robert Duffy said there were no indications that the cases were related.
"The one on Ravine is not as clear-cut," Duffy said. "The one on North Street was clearly an intruder. The incident on Ravine seems to be a pre-planned robbery of the location ... that incident is a little more complex."
The name of the homeowner was not released.
The homeowner on North Street, who identified himself as Alfred Thompson, 89, apparently surprised a would-be burglar who had broken through three doors to gain access to the home.
The intruder -- identified by the Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office as Earnest Woods, 40, of Rochester -- died from a single shot to the chest.
Thompson said he was watching television early Tuesday when he heard an intruder trying to break in through the side door.
Thompson said he found the man in his kitchen and said he fired once, over the intruder's shoulder, in what he described as a warning shot.
"I was trying to scare him off," Thompson said.
A couple of seconds later, Thompson said, he fired again. During a brief interview late Tuesday afternoon, Thompson expressed surprise that the intruder had died. He said he was using a small, .22-caliber gun. Duffy said the handgun was legal.
"It's an awful feeling," Thompson said.
Neither spoke, Thompson said, but he added that the intruder seemed wild, like he was on drugs.
He added that he was fearful for his safety and remained so -- in part because he was worried that the intruder had friends who would seek retribution.
"In the dark, that's all you see is a silhouette," he said.
No charges have been filed in either shooting.
Duffy said police will complete their investigations and turn the information over to the Monroe County District Attorney's Office, where officials will decide whether to present the cases to a grand jury.
"As a police department, we never offer suggestions as to what people should or should not do (to defend themselves)," Duffy said. "However any citizen who lawfully and justifiably defends his or her life will have my support."
E-mail addresses: amorrell@DemocratandChronicle.com, jkohlstr@DemocratandChronicle.com, jblackwell@DemocratandChronicle.com
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878