Category: Feel Good Stories

Yeah, sorry, I’ve been AWOL all day, but I was down at Lucky’s cigar shop ingesting some fine Partagas tobacco. But when I got back, UpNorth had been on the job and found us our daily feel good story to cleanse our palate from the bile in the previous post. This one is from Florida;

Police said that after [Sean Pino, 26] and [Dylan Kane, 21] arrived at [Stephen Wright,23]’s home late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, there was a disturbance and shots were fired. Police said Wright, 23, fired the shots.

According to police, Wright told them that Pino and Kane forced their way into the home, armed with an unknown weapon, and became aggressive.

Police said Wright told them the shootings were an act of self-defense.

Chief Tango sends us a video of the neighborhood;

Chief Tango sends us our morning feel good story to enjoy with our coffee and muffin, this time from Louisiana, where a burglar followed the homeowner’s friend back into the house from her car;

“She walked back in the house and like probably three to five minutes after she walked back in the house, here come this dude running in my house with like something wrapped around his face,” says the homeowner.

The pregnant homeowner says she was also with her four children and her 29-year-old boyfriend, who was cleaning the bathroom, when the suspect came running though her front door, brandishing a gun and demanding money.

“He was coming out of the bathroom. So, he put a gun to his [the homeowner’s boyfriend’s] head and after that he was tussling for the gun, tussling for the gun and after that all I heard was gun shots. So, I hurry up and ran. I got my children and took them out of the house,” says the homeowner.

The homeowner says once everyone in the house was sure the suspect was dead, her friend began rummaging through his [the alleged armed robber’s] pockets.

“I say ‘what you going into his pockets for?’ I said ‘get on the phone and call the ambulance.’ [My friend was saying] ‘uh, I got this, I got this.’” I said ‘just get on the phone and call the ambulance,’” says the homeowner.

Now the homeowner, who is choosing to not give out her name, says she fears retaliation following the fatal shooting of the suspect in her home.

Acadiana’s Multi-Media News Station

There was another one in Texas yesterday, too;

A man suspected of breaking into a home on the 5300 block of Greenbriar Monday morning was shot by the homeowner and taken to Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital in critical condition.

Police say evidence points to the suspect breaking in through the back of house and being shot in the abdomen by the homeowner at around 10:30 a.m.

At the time, police believed there to be a second suspect, prompting a search of the Country Club golf course. A K-9 unit was requested, but that request was later canceled after police determined there was not a second suspect.

John from Texas sends us our first feel good story of the last month of the year. This time it’s from Fort Worth where a homeowners alarm system went off at 5 AM, so he grabbed his gun to confront the source;

The man looked outside and saw a man with a flashlight allegedly trying to break into the detached garage. The homeowner told police he grabbed his gun and confronted the suspected burglar, telling him to stop. The homeowner said he fired off several rounds after the intruder did not stop because he feared for his life.

The homeowner’s wife called 911. When officers got to the scene, they followed a blood trail to find the accused burglar suffering from two gunshot wounds. That man was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition.

Chief Tango sends us our holiday feel good story this morning, this time its from Florida where five rambunctious yougsters attempted to break into Peggy and Ira Roberts’ cottage behind their house;

“I said, ‘Who are you and what are you doing out here and what do you want?’” Peggy Roberts told Local 6.

Ira Roberts said he then grabbed a gun and fired a warning shot into the ground.

“Legally, you can’t shoot them when they’re running away, so I pumped one into the ground, which was a good thing (because) it alerted all my neighbors,” he said.

One of the neighbors who heard the shot was Beverly Rose. At the time, she didn’t know who was armed, but said it didn’t stop her from chasing after and tackling one of the suspects.

“When I got him and I tackled him, I put him in like a full nelson so he couldn’t reach (for a possible gun),” said Rose.

Rose, a former professional boxer and football coach, held Justin Goodrich, 23, of Edgewater, until deputies arrived. She even had time to snap pictures as Goodrich was taken away in an ambulance.

“I mean, I could have tackled him on the grass to be honest with you, but I wanted him on the asphalt,” laughed Rose.

OIF ’06-’07-’08 sends us today’s feel good story, this time from Nashville;

Police said 18-year-old Joshua Jones told them he had opened his apartment door to take out the trash when he was confronted by at least two men who tried to rob him at gunpoint.

Jones said a struggle ensued, and he was able to wrangle the gun away from one of the robbers. Jones then shot the man, later identified as 20-year-old Kendrick M. Edwards.

Jones then went back inside his apartment, and the other robber fled the scene.

When police arrived on the scene, they found Edwards deceased on the scene.

Good for Mr Jones, I’m glad he survived the harrowing experience. It’s probably one of the best stories we’ve read here – a struggle in a narrow breezeway and our hero wrestles the gun away from the bad guy and wins. Mr. Jones is f’en Batman.

WKRN, Nashville News, Nashville Weather and Sports

Chief Tango sends us our feel good story this morning, this time from Seattle when two men entered a convenience store late Saturday night;

Robert Moore was ringing-up a customer around 10 p.m. at the Morning Star Mini Mart, located in the 8800 block of 9th Ave SW, when two men entered the store wearing ski masks. One of the men stayed near the entrance of the store while the other attempted robber approached the counter and pointed a gun at Moore.

“This is a robbery,” Moore said the man told him.

Moore said the attempted robber’s gun didn’t look real.

“I looked at his gun and said ‘I have a bigger one than you do,’ ” he said.

Moore then turned to reach for his own gun and that’s when the attempted robbers took off in a white SUV with dark markings toward the rear of the driver’s side and a sun roof.

I guess the incident has sparked a debate about gun-free zones in Seattle;

KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson says this is a perfect example of why the gun-free zone business campaign in Seattle doesn’t make sense.

“Here’s what would have happened if that had been one of the gun-free zone stores. The crooks would have walked in with their toy gun, everybody not knowing if it was real or not and not able to defend themselves, probably would have had to have kowtowed to them, turned over the cash, and the crooks would have gotten away so they could buy drugs,” says Dori.

“But at the store where a store owner keeps a gun to defend himself from the punks, the punks run off, nobody gets hurt and nothing gets stolen.”

Apparently, more than a hundred businesses in Seattle have signed on to be “gun free zones”. Maybe this will bring that to a screeching halt.

Ohio and Chief Tango send us some feel good stories to start out your week. The first is from Columbus, Ohio where four people tried to rob two others who were in their apartment when the four busted in;

Columbus Police say 23-year-old Jonathan Milton, two other men and a teenage girl tried to rob two people at a west side apartment on Cascade Court Wednesday.

10TV spoke with the robbery victims. 55-year-old Elec Reed says he ran outside for help when the suspects came in.

67-year-old Edward Finnell says that is when one of the robbers pulled a gun on him, and he reacted.

“I didn’t want to shoot nobody, but i didn’t want to get shot. Just like something sprang and I was right back in Vietnam again- kill or be killed,” Finnell said.

Finnel shot Milton and 25-year-old Carmeore Johnson.

The other story comes from Kentucky, where a convenience store owner turned someone’s life around;

The shooting occurred early Friday afternoon. Police received a call from the Marathon Food Mart about the shooting at 12:46 p.m. Officers arrived at the Marathon, 1209 Winchester Road, near Eastland Shopping Center, shortly after. The man was shot once, and had some “pretty serious injuries,” said Lexington police spokeswoman Sherelle Roberts. Police said the man was shot with a handgun that was later found inside the store.

The owner of Marathon is protected under the castle doctrine, which says a person is not obligated to retreat from somebody breaking into their home or vehicle. The 2006 law says someone is entitled to use deadly force if they “had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry or unlawful and forcible act was occurring or had occurred.” It also applies if a person is attacked in a public place “where he or she has a right to be.”

UpNorth sends us our feel good story for this fine morning. It’s from Kansas City where a woman heard a knock at her door. the man at her door asked for someone who didn’t live there, and when she told him he had the wrong address, he forced his way into the house;

He forced the woman into a bedroom, where he reportedly assaulted her. Afterward, he walked into the kitchen.

The woman fetched her revolver and walked out of her bedroom, police said. When the man came at her again, she shot him once. He collapsed.

A neighbor heard the gunshot and saw the woman walk out of her home and ask for help.

Police released the woman from custody Thursday afternoon.

The dead criminal, Paul J. Williams, was 24 years old and he just got out of prison last year for a home invasion he committed in 2006 with a tire iron.

Chief Tango sends us two more article, the first from Columbus, Ohio where police found the two perps outside the home where they were shot.

According to Columbus police, officers were called to the 1300 block of Cascade Court at 5:25 p.m. Wednesday on a report of a shooting stemming from a robbery.

Responding officers found one man with a gunshot wound in the front of the home where the alleged robbery took place, according to police. He was transported to Mt. Carmel West Hospital in critical condition.

Officers located a second man with a gunshot wound a short distance away on Abbots Cove Blvd. The man was transported to Mt. Carmel West Hospital in critical condition. He was later upgraded to stable condition, according to police.

According to police, the two men injured in the shooting may be suspects in a home invasion. Detectives say the homeowner shot the two men.

The third story today comes from Chicago where two other enterprising youths are recovering from their .380 caliber lessons;

Police said two men, ages 19 and 23, broke into a home in the 5500 block of South Laflin Street about 2:25 p.m. Wednesday.

The men rang the doorbell twice to check if anyone was home, and by the time the 53-year-old reached the front door, the men were gone, his fiancee said.

Shortly afterward, they broke into the back door of the home, cops said. The 53-year-old man, who was home alone at the time, grabbed a .380-caliber handgun from under a pillow and fired at the intruders, according to police sources.

Police said the 19-year-old man was shot in the buttocks. The 23-year-old man fled and broke his femur as he jumped the back fence of the home, she said.