GUNS IN THE NEWS--October 17, 2003

As CO Liberal sez:
1 - Feel free to add any CURRENT stories to this thread by replying to this message.
2 - Both pro-gun and anti-gun stories are welcome in this thread, as well as gun-related editorials.
3 - Do not change story titles. In other words, if the Oskosh Gazette's web site runs a story titled "Two Killed in Holdup", the title of your message should read "Two Killed in Holdup". Don't change it to "Gun Owner Kills Two People", or anything else that changes the meaning of the story.
4 - In order to be considered current, stories should have been originally posted to the 'Net within the past 24 hours, or provide follow-up to a story that was previously posted on the J/PS board.
5 - Comment on a story by replying to that story.

"A local gas station clerk faces charges after he apparently took the law into his own hands by firing shots at a suspected shoplifter, Local 4 reported.
The clerk at the Citgo apparently ignored the two men. Words were then exchanged and the attendant threatened to call police, according to Local 4 reports.
Family members say the two men told the clerk they would leave and calling police would not be necessary.
Echols was reportedly shot as he walked out of the gas station and into the parking lot, according to police. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20031017/lo_wdiv/1833804

"LOS ANGELES - One of two men charged with murder in the shooting of a San Francisco Giants fan at Dodger Stadium pleaded innocent Thursday.
Marron, who is at large, also has been charged with discharge of a firearm. A $25,000 reward has been posted for information leading to his arrest and conviction.
Police said the shooting appeared to involve fan rivalry. Antenorcruz, described by family members as a Giants fan, got into an argument with the suspects before one of the men went to his car, pulled out a gun and fired. The men then drove off. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031017/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbn_fan_slaying_1

"Two shootings in two days in two nearby neighborhoods have some wondering whether there is a connection to the violence.
An emergency response team cleared an apartment near Allied Drive Wednesday night after gunshots were reported. Detectives said an armed robbery spawned the violence. The bullets hit no one, and police have recovered the gun apparently used in the shooting.
On Tuesday evening, a 9-year-old girl came home to find her father shot to death. Greg Bray, 26, lived on Raymond Road, just a couple of miles away from Wednesday's shooting, and is survived by the aforementioned girl and a 6-year-old son. Bray had been arrested in the past for dealing drugs, and police think that may be useful to solving his murder. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20031017/lo_wisc/1834951

"Two men were found shot to death in a garage Thursday evening, and police are searching for at least one man who may be responsible.
Alberto Hamilton 29, of Hamilton, Ohio, and Jermico Clifford, 26, were found just after 7 p.m. near the Beekman Market on Beekman Street in Cumminsville, WLWT Eyewitness News 5's Raegan Butler reported.
The deaths are the 49th and 50th homicides of the year, according to WLWT. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=410&ncid=410&e=2&u=/ibsys/20031017/lo_wlwt/1835501

"Two people were shot and one was killed in an afternoon crime spree that involved several carjackings and shootings and a police chase in Oklahoma City, Eyewitness News 5 reported.
The man is accused of shooting a woman at a dry cleaning business near Northwest 49th and Western, police said. Witnesses said the suspect drove up to the business and pretended that he was going to drop off dry cleaning when the woman exited the building to help him.
The man then allegedly shot her in the stomach. The victim, Janice Bizzell, was taken to a local hospital and was in surgery, Eyewitness News 5's Mark Myers reported. Her condition was not immediately known.
The suspect next drove to Interstate 40 and Eastern, where he dumped his vehicle and allegedly carjacked a white pickup truck, shooting the driver. The driver died as a result of his injuries. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=299&ncid=299&e=3&u=/ibsys/20031016/lo_koco/1834661

"The execution-style shooting death of a 32-year-old man in Hartford's North End earlier this week may be connected to an increasingly violent feud between rival groups of drug dealers.
Police Chief Bruce P. Marquis said Thursday that the feud is the main cause of an outbreak of shootings and robberies in recent weeks.
Though police have not yet identified a suspect in Tuesday's shooting of Jermaine Ward outside his home on Edgewood Street, Marquis said Ward may be the latest casualty in the escalating war between rival drug groups, or factions, in certain North End neighborhoods."


http://www.ctnow.com/news/yahoo/hc-factions1017.artoct17.story

"A would-be robber's attempt at holding up a video store with a fake gun backfired when the clerk pulled out a real one.

Greensboro police say a man walked into Action Video around nine Wednesday night and asked for change for a dime.

When store manager Ron Simpson handed him two nickels, the man pulled out a plastic gun and demanded money.

Simpson pulled out a real one and the suspect ran off."

http://www.wfmynews2.com/news/news.asp?ID=18695

Greensboro police say a man walked into Action Video around nine Wednesday night and asked for change for a dime.

When store manager Ron Simpson handed him two nickels, the man pulled out a plastic gun and demanded money.

Simpson pulled out a real one and the suspect ran off.

Does this constitute self-defense, or brandishment?

since a crime was being committed. For the past month I have been babysitting a hotel that has been robbed three times by the same guy. On the security video he walks in flashes a pistol then puts it back into his pocket very fast. I would guess the pistol is fake and does not want the victim to look at it very hard. If he shows up while I'am there he will have the same choice as the guy above, leave or get shot, I will not wait to make the decision if the gun is real or not.

Legally it's hard to say for sure. If the prosecution could convince a jury that the store manager had to have known with certainty that the plastic gun was not a real gun they might be able to get a conviction on a brandisment charge.

Morally I have no problem with what the store manager did even if the plastic gun was obviously not a real gun.

against armed robbery. The fact that the gun was fake is legally irrelevant.

"Guns, ammunition and thousands of dollars in cash became the center of attention in the murder trial of millionaire Robert Durst, News2Houston reported.
Robert Durst, a 60-year-old New York real estate heir, stands accused of murdering his 71-year-old neighbor, Morris Black, and dismembering his body before discarding it in Galveston Bay on Sept. 28, 2001.
When he searched his car in Pennsylvania, the lieutenant said he found two loaded 38-caliber guns, as well as 96 rounds of ammunition. Investigators also found three maps and paper with personal notes on them that said, "dead, dead" and listed two addresses -- a crisis center and a friend of his first wife. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20031017/lo_kprc/1834646

"It was Valentine's Day 2001 that he killed his wife, shooting her three times in the back of the head after catching her in an affair with her ex-husband.
Throughout the trial, the state's attorney painted a picture of a calculated execution at the daycare the couple ran. Four children witnessed the crime, three of them testifying this week in court.
Rodgers took the stand in his own defense, claiming Henderson was shot accidentally in a struggle after she pulled the gun on him.
After the jury read its verdict, Rodgers' attorney told Channel 9 the gun belonged to the ex-husband, who never answered a subpoena to appear in court, a fact the jury never knew. "

http://www.wftv.com/news/2562178/detail.html

Another family made safer with a gun...

"It was Valentine's Day 2001"

So much for the "current" aspect of these threads...

"Tyree Roberts, 41, also known as Abdiyyah ben Alkebulanyahh, is standing trial this month on two counts of murder in the Jan. 8, 2002, shooting deaths of Cpl. Dyke "A.J." Coursen and Lance Cpl. Dana Lyle Tate of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office.
The deputies were answering a domestic disturbance call at 21 Riley Road in Burton when Roberts allegedly ambushed them with an SKS assault-style rifle. Both men were shot repeatedly in Roberts' bedroom.
Roberts, also wounded, was arrested about an hour later and hospitalized before being taken to the Charleston County Detention Center a day later."

http://www.lowcountrynow.com/stories/101603/LOCtyreewed.shtml

"Smithfield police are investigating the overnight shooting death of an 8-year old boy.
Authorities say they received calls reporting shots fired in the Jersey Park Apartments around 11:30pm Thursday, but when they arrived, they only found shell casings.
Later, a resident at the apartment complex on Wrenn Road went to check on her son around 1:30am Friday, and discoverd he had been shot in the throat."

http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-gunshot-1017,0,1188411.story?coll=dp-headlines-topnews

"A Lexington man was in critical condition Thursday night at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson after his older brother tried to kill him and then committed suicide. The shooting happened just before 6 p.m. Thursday morning. The town of Lexington is still in disbelief over what has happened between two well-known brothers.
The Lexington Police Department received a call from the two brothers' mother at about 5:44 Thursday morning. The mother, who is bedridden, told a dispatcher that James was going to shoot Billy. When police arrived at her home on Clifton Street, they heard a gun shot.
Wright says James shot his brother Billy three or four times with a 38-caliber revolver in their mother's room. According to Wright, James then went into the kitchen and shot himself in the head. Now police are trying to find out why this happened."

http://www.wlbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=1486049&nav=2CSfIaCK

"ROSWELL -- Just two days after obtaining a restraining order, a North Fulton County woman was shot and killed late Thursday in her front yard by her former boyfriend, who then turned the gun on himself, police said.
Kelly Jo Kranz, 28, was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said she suffered gun shot wounds to the head and back. Her 32-year-old former boyfriend, who also died at the scene, suffered from a single gunshot wound to the head, police Sgt. James McGee said.
Police were summoned to the home in the 1500 block of River Oak Drive around 10:30 p.m. Kranz, a pharmacist, was not living at the house at the time because she feared that the man, who was not identified, would harm her. "

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/2561130/detail.html

"MARYVILLE (WATE) -- Ryan Wimbley, 28, died Friday afternoon at UT Medical Center.
Blount County Sheriff's Office say Timothy Lattimore, 29, shot Wimbley in the head in what resulted in a four hour hostage standoff Thursday night in Alcoa.
Lattimore was arrested after he allegedly shot Ryan Wimbley, his uncle, and Sara Wimbley, his aunt. Lattimore's grandmother was slightly hurt when a SWAT team charged into their home on McArther Road to end the ordeal."

http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=1486601

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/17/1066364479769.html

Her slaying is also being seen as a new low in Britain's fight against a wave of gun crime, much of it in the black community and much of it related to a tidal wave of crack cocaine use.

Gun crime in Britain has risen by 38 per cent over the past two years (though the rate of increase is slowing), with Home Office statistics this week revealing more than 10,000 separate incidents in the year to March. In London, 285 crack users are dying every year.

Charges related to either the possession or trafficking of crack - a crystalline form of cocaine - have jumped by 200 per cent. In Bristol alone, police seized 2212 kilograms of crack last year, up from 761 kilograms two years before.

You mean they didnt try banning drugs too?

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=66056&command=displayContent&sourceNode=65583&contentPK=7426191



A Judge has condemned Nottingham's growing gun culture as he jailed a man for five years for possessing a firearm.

They found a modified gun capable of firing live bullets and arrested the 35-year-old - who had a string of previous robbery and violence offences.

Since Operation Stealth was launched a year ago, officers have now recovered 167 firearms and more than 600 people have been arrested.

Interesting, he made his own gun.