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MO: Victim takes shotgun from attackers - fights b
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Victim wrenches shotgun from carjacker
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
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
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By FRANK ELTMAN
The Associated Press
9/19/02 2:47 PM
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) -- A Hells Angel biker pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal possession of a weapon following the shooting death of a rival gang member at a convention in February.
Nassau District Attorney Denis Dillon said a murder charge against Raymond Dwyer would be dropped in lieu of his guilty plea to the lesser count.
Dwyer, 39, of Oceanside, was accused of fatally shooting Robert Rutherford, a member of the rival Pagans motorcycle gang from Lancaster, Pa., at the Vanderbilt catering hall in Plainview, Long Island. The Hells Angels were holding a motorcycle expo there on Feb. 23 when the Pagans crashed the event with bats and pipes.
Dwyer is also one of six Hells Angels members charged in an unrelated beating and robbery at the motorcycle gang's clubhouse in Hempstead last spring. As part of the plea agreement, Dwyer will serve no more than one year in jail on the weapons charge, but sentencing was postponed until after that trial, said his lawyer, William Petrillo.
"We're pleased that the district attorney saw this for what it was," Petrillo said. "It couldn't be more obvious that the shots which were fired were done so for the purpose of saving innocent people from being seriously injured or killed."
Dwyer's trial in the other case is not expected to start for several months, Petrillo said. "We feel confident that Raymond will be exonerated at that trial," the lawyer said.
Seven-three Pagans, from as far away as Ohio, Maryland and Pennsylvania, have already been convicted or pleaded guilty to federal charges in the case.
Authorities said the gang fight came from turf tensions that had boiled over between the Pagans and the Hells Angels, who had sponsored the Hellraiser Ball expo.
After the rumble, police and federal agents seized hundreds of weapons, ranging from knives and baseball bats to handguns, shotguns and an Uzi machine gun.
http://www.nj.com/newsflash/jersey/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?j0157_BC_NY--Hellraiser-Shooti&&news&newsflash-newjersey
"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