Category: Feel Good Stories

From Anderson County, SC

No charges will be filed in the death of a man who was shot in his car Tuesday outside Sunset Grill on U.S. 29,  Anderson County Sheriff Chad McBride said Friday.

Antwan Evans, 32, who lived in Atlanta and had family in Albany, Georgia, had driven two hours to Anderson to meet with the woman who was in the car with him, according to Deputy Coroner Don McCown. McCown said Evans and the woman, whose identity has not been disclosed by investigators, had previously been in a relationship. She is an employee of the Independent Mail.

Evans and the woman were supposed to be going to breakfast to talk when things went sour, investigators said. Evans and the woman got into a disagreement over several things, one of which was that Evans wanted to see her phone and to know who she had been talking to, McBride said.

“He pulled a gun on her inside the car,” McBride said in an interview Friday. “She had a split second to grab it and fight for her life. A struggle ensued, and he was shot.”

Evans was shot in the chest.

When deputies arrived, he was dead in the driver’s seat of a red Camaro.

McBride said the woman acted in self-defense.

“She did what she had to do to survive,” he said. “She survived to tell her story, and her story adds up.”

From Yoakum, TX

The gunfight happened in the early morning hours of 17 August 2018. The location was 867 Bootlegger Lane in Yoakum, Texas.  Yoakum is a small town in Texas, about halfway between San Antonio and Houston.

There was “bad blood” between Dakota Wayne Kirkman, 19, and Manuel Martinez III, 36.  The men lived about 22 miles apart. Yoakum is in DeWitt County, Texas. Kirkman and his girlfriend lived in Hallettsville in Lavaca County, Texas.

Dakota did not want his live-in girlfriend to hang around Martinez and his wife. His girlfriend, Martinez, and Martinez’ wife were at Martinez’ house when Kirkman came to bring his girlfriend home.  Kirkman arrived in his truck. He had a singleshot .22 rifle and one cartridge, loaded in the chamber.

Kirkman and Martinez got into a verbal altercation. The Sheriff reported that alcohol was involved.

The altercation escalated into a gunfight. Cartridge cases found at the scene indicated that Martinez fired 15 shots from an AR15 type rifle and 12 shots from a .40 caliber pistol.

Most of the action seems to have happened while Kirkman was in or around his truck. 13 bullet holes were found in the truck. 11 of the bullet holes were from  .223 cartridges. Two of the bullet holes were from a .40 caliber pistol.

Kirkman is recorded as firing one shot from his single shot .22 caliber rifle. The shot struck Martinez in the chest, killing him.

Law enforcement was called at 2:43 a.m.  From cuerorecord.com:

When law enforcement made it to the location, a man was found lying in the front yard with an apparent gunshot wound. The initial investigation indicated an ongoing tension between the deceased and the alleged shooter. The murder weapon was a .22 rifle.

DeWitt County Justice of the Peace, Pct. 1, Peggy Mayer was called at 3:08 a.m. and later announced Martinez dead at the scene.

“This is a tragic loss of life, and our hearts go out to Martinez’s family,” DeWitt County Sheriff Carl Bowen said in a press release.

According to Bowen, there was an altercation and an exchange of gunfire between two men. Kirkman left the location on Bootlegger Lane with his girlfriend and ended up at their home at 32 Private Road 4006 in Hallettsville.

Kirkman was taken into custody without incident.

Dakota Kirkman was held at the DeWitt County jail for 55 days. Bail was set at $500,000.

On October 11, 2018, the grand jury found Kirkman to have been justified by reason of self-defense. From victoriaadvocate.com:

Investigators documented 11 bullet holes made by a .223-caliber rifle and two from a .40-caliber pistol. An AR-15 and .40-caliber pistol were found near Martinez’s body along with 15 rifle and 12 pistol casings. One of the bullets passed through the truck’s frame near the driver’s seat belt fastener, said Lassmann, who added if Kirkman had not been crouching in his seat, he likely would have been shot.

“(Kirkman) must have been scared to death,” Lassmann said.

The number of bullets fired by Martinez stood in stark contrast to the single, fatal shot from Kirkman’s antique, bolt-action .22-caliber rifle. Additionally, evidence showed Kirkman went to the home on Bootlegger Lane with only a single round chambered in his rifle and no other ammo in his vehicle.

That contrast further emphasized the likelihood that Kirkman acted in self-defense, Lassmann said.

From Happy Valley, OR

An armed homeowner and his girlfriend, who was “tired of being victimized,” thwarted a burglary suspect’s attempt at raiding their home Oct. 18.

When they arrived home to discover the suspect attempting to leave with their belongings, homeowner Troy Eaton held the suspect at gunpoint while his girlfriend, Dawn Lisa-DesVoigne, called authorities.

Eaton and Lisa-DesVoigne of Happy Valley, Oregon, had just arrived home as the incident was occurring, according to KOIN-TV.

Lisa-DesVoigne and Eaton told the outlet that their home had been burglarized three times in the last 10 days, and they installed a home security system to help thwart or discourage would-be thieves.  “We were tired of being victimized, tired of being traumatized and violated,” Lisa-DesVoigne said.  She added that the break-ins have been “heartbreaking,” because many of the items stolen — which have included antiques, electronics, and paintings, according to KPTV-TV — belonged to her parents.

“These are things my parents collected their whole lives,” she explained.

The couple’s new security system didn’t stop 20-year-old Edward Cerf from breaking into the couple’s home in the middle of the day, according to the KPTV. The system did its job, however, and the couple spotted Cerf reportedly breaking into the home.

They immediately took action to stop him.

Lisa-DesVoigne said that Eaton held Cerf at gunpoint while she phoned authorities, who arrived just minutes later and took Cerf into custody.

“We were determined to keep him there,” she said. “It makes me feel like I took some power back from them, from these criminals.”

Eaton added, “Certainly I didn’t want to kill anybody, but the situation is frustrating enough where we had to take some kind of step to stop it.”

Deputies discovered Cerf’s purported accomplice, Gabriella Solis, asleep in a getaway vehicle about a block from DesVoigne’s home. Solis reportedly told law enforcement that she had been Cerf’s designated eyes and ears during the suspected burglary.

It is unclear whether Cerf and Solis were linked to previous break-ins at the couple’s home.

Authorities arrested Cerf and Solis and charged the two with second-degree burglary. Both were booked into the Clackamas County Jail.

From Bronx, NY

The man shot dead by a Bronx supermarket owner he tried to rob had about 40 previous arrests, including a recent incident when he tried to slash someone at a nearby deli, police said Monday.

Daniel Meeks, 32, showed up twice Sunday night at the J Market on Morrison Ave. near E. 172nd St. in Soundview, police said.

The first time, according to Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea, he took money off the counter.

Two hours later, Shea said, he returned and tried to pull a stickup.

He demanded money, then tried to jump the counter, Shea said. The store’s owner, Jin Jie Chen, 43, shot Meeks in the head.Meeks was rushed to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died. Police said it did not appear he had any other weapon.

Chen has a license for his gun, police said, and has other licenses for other firearms. He was questioned Monday by detectives at the 43rd Precinct, then released without being charged.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the case would be presented to a grand jury.

Meeks, who lived about a half-mile away from the store, has more than three dozen arrests on his record, including for robbery and weapons possession.

Chen has a license for his gun, police said, and has other licenses for other firearms. He was questioned Monday by detectives at the 43rd Precinct, then released without being charged.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the case would be presented to a grand jury.

Meeks, who lived about a half-mile away from the store, has more than three dozen arrests on his record, including for robbery and weapons possession.

On July 6, inside NY Famous Deli on E. 172nd St., a few blocks from where he was killed, Meeks was arrested after he asked a man for change, then tried to take the money from him and slash him, police said.

Last Wednesday, police said, Meeks was busted for petty larceny for stealing a case of water from a Rite Aid on White Plains Road. He was sentenced to time served and was fined, according to records.

Chen could not be reached for comment, but a woman who lives nearby and shops at his market said the store doesn’t tolerate shoplifters and other troublemakers.

“They have big TVs in the store and whenever someone steals they put their picture in the front, saying, ‘This person stole milk,’ or “This person stole ice cream’ or ‘This person stole beer,’ said the customer, Patricia, 27.

“He was protecting his business,” she added. “Once everything is better I’m going to continue to go there. It’s a good store to go to.”

 

From Brooklyn Center, MN

Every grandma in the history of grandmas has had a policy: Don’t put your cups on my table without a coaster.

Someone just dared to violate that policy. And this is what happened . . .

According to the Minneapolis Tribune, there’s a 75-year-old woman named Helen Washington in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota.

Earlier this month, her grandson was at her house and drinking some tea. (There’s no word on how old he is, but we do know he’s an adult.)

Well he thought it was a good idea to keep putting his teacup down on her furniture, even when she told him not to. And finally, she was so upset that she grabbed her gun and shot him in the leg.

The cops arrested her for felony assault, but she told them she didn’t think she deserved to go to jail over it.

She’s due in court in December, and she could be facing up to seven years in prison and a $14,000 fine.

From Washington D.C.

A man who kicked his way through two plexiglass doors at the Fox 5 television station in Northwest Washington

was shot and wounded by a security guard Monday afternoon, D.C. police said.

Police identified the man as George Odemns, 38, and said he has no fixed address. Odemns was admitted to George Washington University Hospital in critical but stable condition, and he was charged with second-degree burglary, police said.

News media have been on higher alert after a gunman walked into the Annapolis office of the Capital Gazette news­papers in June and killed five staff members.

Police said Odemns was not armed.

Video from two surveillance cameras, aired by Fox 5 News, showed the man wearing a red hooded sweatshirt walking up to the door, turning his back to the door and with one hard kick knocking out a panel that appears to be plexiglass. Police said the incident happened at 3 p.m.

The intruder then entered a small vestibule and began kicking a second door opening to the lobby, the surveillance video shows. After five kicks, he was able to pull down the plexiglass from the second door. He then climbed through the door and into the lobby of the longtime WTTG offices at 5151 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

Police Cmdr. Melvin Gresham declined to describe what happened next between the intruder and the security guard or whether she exchanged words with the man or used any less-than-lethal weapons. The security guard fired once and hit the man in the upper torso, Gresham said.

Court records show that Odemns has filed more than two dozen federal lawsuits in recent years alleging that he is being controlled by a microchip planted in his head. All have been dismissed.

In 2014, Odemns sued Fox 5 in D.C. Superior Court, also claiming that the station controlled him with an “illegal nano-chip” and seeking $100 billion in damages.

In November, records show that Odemns was placed under emergency psychiatric care in the District after emailing death threats to D.C. police and the D.C. Office of Human Resources and threatening a federal judge who had dismissed one of his suits. In addition, he was involuntarily committed in 2015, court records show.

Odemns was charged with murder in the District in 2002, but court records indicate that the charge was dismissed soon after he was arrested.

From Lancaster, PA

One of two robbery suspects was shot during an attempted robbery at Smithgall’s Pharmacy on Tuesday afternoon, according to a releasefrom Lancaster Police Public Information Officer Lt. Bill Hickey.

The first dispatch went out around 2:40 p.m., for a robbery in progress at the pharmacy at 536 West Lemon Street, Hickey said. Former Lancaster Mayor Charlie Smithgall owns and runs the pharmacy.

While officers were en route, dispatchers received information that an armed suspect was shot by a clerk, police said.

Police found the suspect suffering from a gunshot wound outside the business, but still close to the scene, Hickey said. The man had multiple gunshot wounds, and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Police did not have an update on the condition of the suspect at the time of their release.

Hickey said the second suspect was a man dressed in black who fled the scene in an unknown direction.

Inside the pharmacy, police spoke with witnesses who confirmed both suspects fled and that the shots were fired as one of the suspects.

A handgun that was possessed by a suspect was recovered at the scene, as well as the handgun used by the clerk, police said.

Officers and detectives are canvassing the area for evidence, witness, and any surveillance video that could have caught something.

From ENCINITAS, CA

A North County drifter was behind bars Monday for allegedly attacking a homeowner during a predawn weekend robbery in a neighborhood near Batiquitos Lagoon.

The events that led to the violent encounter began at about 5 a.m. Saturday, when the victim, 62-year-old Fred Weston, was awakened by a security system on his property in the 500 block of La Costa Avenue in Encinitas, according to officials with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

“Weston’s one-acre property had been targeted several times in the past by people stealing copper cable, leading him to set up the system,” Sgt. Joe Tomaiko said.

After arming himself with a shotgun, Weston went into his yard, where he allegedly found 43-year-old Chuck Edward Neil, a drifter from Escondido, trying to hide in the darkness. Weston ordered the intruder to stand up and get off the property.

Neil initially complied, but as the two men were walking toward a front gate, the transient grabbed the barrel of the gun and began trying to wrest it away, Tomaiko said.

Following a struggle during which the homeowner fired a shot into the air in an attempt to scare off the attacker, Neil was able to pull the weapon away and allegedly punched the victim in the face repeatedly, knocking him to the ground, after which he got on top of him and began choking him with the barrel of the shotgun, authorities said.

Alerted to the altercation by surveillance cameras, Weston’s 58-year- old wife and 19-year-old son hurried outside and drove down their long driveway to intervene in the fight. Neil allegedly refused their demands to release Weston, at which point the teenager shocked the homeless man with an electric stun gun, incapacitating him. The family used a belt to bind Neil, then made a 911 call, the sergeant said.

Deputies arrested the suspect and determined that copper cable “had been cut and was being collected nearby on the property,” Tomaiko said.

Weston was treated at a hospital for a broken nose, scrapes and bruises.

After being treated for minor injuries, Neil was booked into county jail in Vista on suspicion of robbery and grand theft, with the latter charge stemming from a previous alleged incident at the same home. He was being held on $120,000 bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.