Category: Feel Good Stories

From Castaic, California;

Johnny Velasquez, a Northridge resident, pleaded no contest – treated as a guilty plea – to vandalism over $400 in damage and a misdemeanor charge for trespassing by entry or occupying.

In return for the no contest plea, prosecutors agreed to drop the original charge of first degree burglary with a person present.

Velasquez pleaded on May 23, 2018 and will receive his sentence May 23, 2019, exactly a year later.

Around 2 a.m. on June 26, 2017, a woman noticed Velasquez trying to force entry into her home on the 36000 block of Ridge Route Road. Once he forced his way inside, the woman fled her house and then called 911 to report the break in, sheriff’s officials said at the time.

But after making the call, she saw Velasquez leave her home.

Thinking she was safe, the woman returned to the house and barricaded the front door. Velasquez then broke into the home a second time using a rear entrance, according to officials.

This time around, however, the woman armed herself with a handgun. After a short confrontation with Velasquez, the homeowner fired her gun, hitting him in the chest.

From Alberta, Canada;

Long story short … the cop busts out his taser to take down the guy. Meanwhile, his female friend tries to make a clean escape by running into the stockroom and climbing through the ceiling — y’know, ‘Mission: Impossible’ style. She almost made it. Almost.

This entire caper was captured by the store’s surveillance cameras. Thank God.

From Salt Lake City, Utah;

The homeowner who shot and killed a woman who broke into his home in West Jordan will not face criminal charges, according to Sim Gill, Salt Lake County District Attorney.

On June 8, Makayla Yeaman, 23, entered a home at 6845 W. 7605 South about 5:30 a.m. after obtaining a garage door opener from a truck parked outside the home, according to investigators.

Police said when she made it into the house, she was confronted and shot by the 26-year-old homeowner, whose name has not been released. He told police he heard the garage door opening and dogs barking, so he took a gun with him to investigate.

A knife was discovered near Yeaman’s body, according to police. Gill said Wednesday she had been pulling out the knife before the shooting occurred, making the threat to the homeowner more serious.

“The homeowner’s home had been invaded and the homeowner had a reasonable concern for his own safety, and therefore defended himself,” Gill said.

Smart criminals in Imperial, Missouri discover that they couldn’t kill their intended victim with a replica handgun;

On June 24, 18-year-old Casey Lynn Duncan contacted a friend, 19-year-old Jesse Noal Killian, and informed him of a plan to break into a home in the 5100 block of Autumn Ridge Drive and kill the homeowner because that man’s daughter had recently dumped him.

Killian traveled from his home in Cape Girardeau to Duncan’s residence in Fenton in the early morning hours of June 25. The two then traveled to the victim’s residence in Imperial.

Duncan brought with him a large knife, a replica Beretta handgun, and a loaded .22-caliber rifle. He gave Killian the rifle and kept the replica pistol.

Police said Duncan and Killian went to the back deck and contemplated breaking in through the rear door and shooting their intended victim. Instead, the two men gained access to the attached garage and got inside the residence through an unlocked door.

The suspects took alcoholic beverages from a fridge in the garage and placed them in the victim’s SUV.

Duncan and Killian searched the home and found the victim, his wife, and a young child asleep in the living room. The pair was unable to follow through with their plan, so they fled in the victim’s SUV and stole the garage remotes.

Authorities in Ste. Genevieve County tracked the vehicle’s GPS and located Duncan and Killian at an area hospital. Killian had sliced his leg while climbing into the garage and required stitches.

Police apprehended the two men at the hospital.

“So they looked beyond just the initial crime of stealing a motor vehicle and discovered that there was a much bigger plot here,” said Sgt. Matt Moore, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

From Houston, Texas;

Police said two men were kidnapped and taken back to their home where a shootout broke out between the victims’ family members and the kidnappers when they tried to break into the home.

Police said the kidnappers left the home and a deputy later spotted them driving erratically.

The suspects sped away from the officers, leading them on a chase, police said.

The chase ended at Irvington near Turner after the driver hit a curb. Police said at least two people ran from the vehicle and one woman stayed inside. She was arrested.

From Center Pointe, Alabama;

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said a man was fatally shot after trying to rob someone at The Pointe Apartments in Center Point Wednesday evening.

“Early Information from the scene is that the deceased attempted to rob the other injured party,” the sheriff’s office said. “There was an exchange of gunfire and both were struck.”

The condition of the victim is unknown at this time.

From Hamilton, Canada, a former Army reservist was acquitted in the case in which he shot an intruder and the Crown tried to convict him of second-degree murder;

Peter Khill, 28, admitted he shot Jon Styres but pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, saying he fired in self-defence when he thought Styres was pointing a gun at him.

The trial heard that Styres, a 29-year-old father of two from Ohsweken, Ont., on the Six Nations reserve, did not have a gun at the time of the shooting.

Peter Khill, charged with second-degree murder, leaves court in Hamilton on Tuesday, June 12, 2018. Khill, 28, is charged with gunning down an Indigenous man, Jon Styres, 29, who was allegedly trying to steal his pickup truck from his rural home in the early hours of Feb. 4, 2016. The case has overtones of the emotionally charged Coulten Boushie killing in Saskatchewan. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel

A jury acquitted Khill this morning after beginning deliberations Tuesday afternoon.

Khill was stoic as the verdict was read out. His wife tearfully embraced family members in the front row of the court, while Styres’ friends and family consoled each other.

Justice Stephen Glithero thanked both sides for their participation in what he called a tough and emotional trial.

The incident took place in the early morning of Feb. 4, 2016.

Khill and his girlfriend – now his wife – awoke to the sound of banging outside their rural home and saw Styres inside their truck parked outside, the jury was told. Khill loaded his shotgun, left the home through the back door, and cut through a breezeway between the house and the garage to confront Styres.

Khill told police and a 911 operator that Styres raised his arms as though he were pointing a gun at Khill, the jury heard.

Only after Khill shot Styres did his girlfriend call 911, court heard.

From Houston, Texas;

An armed suspect who climbed on the roof of a Harris County deputy’s home was shot at by the off-duty officer, HCSO authorities tweeted Tuesday night.

About 9 p.m. Tuesday the suspect climbed on the roof in the 13900 block of Beckwith Drive and ran from one roof line to another, deputies said.

After a search, the suspect was found in a backyard hiding behind a palm tree and taken into custody, Houston Police said in a tweet. Officers assisted deputies in the search.

The suspect was not hit by gunfire but treated for non-life-threatening wounds received from a dog bite.

From Akron, Ohio;

The resident called police to report a man trying to break into her home in the 600 block of Wyandot Avenue shortly after midnight. The resident’s 36-year-old son struggled to keep the man from coming in the back door. The resident grabbed a handgun and gave it to her son, who shot the intruder, police say.

The two men continued to struggle and the son shoved the man out of the house and fired another shot. Police found the man in the backyard, where he was pronounced dead, police say.

“Send an ambulance,” the upset resident told a dispatcher in a 911 call. “My son had to shoot him!”

The woman told the dispatcher that the doorbell rang and she went to the front door, while her son went to the back door. She said the man kept trying to break in and her son shouted at him, “Get out of here!” and “Get off my mom’s property!” but he didn’t listen.

She said neither of them knew the man.

From Houston, Texas;

Police said a burglar first knocked on the door to see if anyone was home and then broke through a back window to gain entry to the house.

Two young sisters, 12 and 14, were inside when the man broke in through the back window, said Asst. Chief Sheryl Victorian. The siblings realized a burglar was inside, hid in a bedroom and called their mother. She alerted police, telling them there was a burglary in process at her home.

The mother then activated an alarm system, which the neighbor heard, according to police. He saw the burglary suspect coming out of the house and told him to stop. When he didn’t, the neighbor apparently felt threatened and shot the burglar twice with a rifle, Victorian said.

Around the same time that the neighbor confronted the suspect, the girls’ father came home and thought his daughters were still in danger, Victorian said. He broke down the front window and pulled the girls out to rescue them.

From Bloomfield, New Mexico;

San Juan County deputies were called to a bizarre incident near Bloomfield in late May when a woman told deputies a man she didn’t know was bleeding all over her porch.

“He’s still got the arrow in his arm,” said a dispatcher in the police video.

The man on the woman’s porch turned out to be 38-year-old Eric Tillerson. Deputies and paramedics say he had an arrow lodged in his arm.

“Does that hurt?” said a deputy to Tillerson heard in police video as he moans in pain.

Deputies were trying to figure out what happened, and why someone had shot Tillerson with a bow and arrow.

As Tillerson was rushed to a nearby hospital, deputies tracked his trail of blood back to the scene of the crime. When they found themselves at another house, the homeowner told them Tillerson had been coming by his home throughout the day, making threats.

He then said Tillerson later hopped a fence and shot at a dog. That’s when he pulled out his bow and arrow and shot Tillerson in the arm.

“How much pain are you in?” a detective is heard asking Tillerson during an interview, he replied, “Extreme. It f****** hurts man.”

At the hospital, Tillerson bolted, but deputies found him soon after and eventually sat him down to ask what happened.

“I’m looking for your side of the story,” said a detective.

Tillerson said he did not know why the homeowner shot at him and claimed he was good friends with the person who shot him. But deputies weren’t buying it.

Surveillance video ended up connecting Tillerson to an attempted break-in just days earlier at a Farmington home. One town over, and one arrow through his arm later, deputies said they had their guy.

From Lady Lake, Florida;

The culprit demanded money while pointing a gun at clerks and took an undisclosed amount of cash, deputies said.

During the robbery, the assailant was believed to have been shot by an armed security guard, who fired two shots from his gun, according to officials.

The thief dropped the cash and ran into the parking lot, where a getaway car was waiting, deputies said.

The assailant was described as about 5 feet 7 inches tall and 250 pounds.

From Bayonne, New Jersey;

The two men, later identified as Bayonne residents Jonathan Belle, 35, and Tyrone A. Baskin, 48, approached the victim at a park bench around 11:30 a.m., threw him to the ground and began assaulting him, police said.

They took his wallet and fled the scene, authorities said.

The victim told police he was involved in past incidents involving the two men, although specific circumstances are unclear. Police Lt. Eric Amato could not immediately be reached for clarification.

Baskin, of West 29th Street, has a detailed criminal history. He was arrested last month after being accused of brandishing a starter pistol inside the 7-Eleven on Avenue C, and in the same convenience store four years prior he was arrested for allegedly pulling a knife on a customer for being told he was “backing up the line.”

Later in the day, officers responded to the Gorman Field parking lot near First Street and Humphrey Avenue on reports that four men in a white pickup truck had beaten two men with baseball bats, authorities said.

Upon arrival just before 3 p.m., officers found a silver van belonging to Belle that had crashed into a wooden guard rail. Baskin was in the front passenger seat, unresponsive and bleeding from the head, while Belle was outside the vehicle, police said.

“The assault is believed to be in retaliation for the robbery that had occurred earlier,” Amato said in a release.

Both men were arrested and charged with robbery during the on-scene investigation after police headquarters informed the officers of their involvement in the attack earlier in the day. They were transported to Bayonne Medical Center for their injuries.

Police, meanwhile, broadcasted a bulletin to units to be on the lookout for the pickup truck.

The U.S. State Park Police quickly responded and notified police they had detained the four men at Liberty State Park.

Gary Elam, 31; Elijah R. Porch, 24; Arthur L. Elam, 31; and Albert C. Smith, 33 — all Bayonne residents — were charged with two counts each of aggravated assault, unlawful possession of a weapon, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and endangering an injured victim.

From St. Petersburg, Florida;

Three people forced their way into a St. Petersburg house before dawn Sunday before gunfire broke out, killing a suspect and injuring two residents, police said.

About 5:30 a.m., the people arrived at a house in Childs Park, on the 4100 block of 11th Avenue S, and forced their way inside, according to St. Petersburg Police Department spokeswoman Yolanda Fernandez.

Three adult brothers live at the house, she said.

Someone started shooting. One suspect, who police did not identify, died. Two residents — Ackeem Marks, 25, and Shaevaughn Marks, 20, were also hit but are in stable condition, police said. Ackeem Marks was critically injured, and his brother Shaevaugh’s injuries were not life threatening, according to police.

In Goochland County, Virginia;

Just two days after arriving in the United States, a New Zealand man was shot after attempting to break into a Goochland home, according to investigators, according to CBS 6.

Deputies with the Goochland County Sheriff’s Office says the incident happened Friday at approximately 4:30 p.m. on Steeplechase Parkway in the central part of the county.

After receiving an initial call for a shooting at the location, deputies also received a call from a man who said his wife called him about an intruder trying to break into their home.

An investigation determined that a suspect, identified as 25-year-old Troy George Skinner, of New Zealand, attempted to break into a home occupied by a mother and two teenage daughters.

Deputies say Skinner attempted to break into the basement of the home with a brick, when the mother told him that see was calling police and that she was armed with a handgun.

After the break-in attempt was unsuccessful, deputies say Skinner went on the deck and broke the glass door with a concrete stone.

“After repeated warning by the mother, Skinner smashed the glass on the door and reached through to unlatch it. As he reached through the door, the mother shot twice at Skinner with a .22 caliber handgun,” according to a sheriff’s office spokesperson.

Skinner suffered a gunshot wound to the neck and stumbled onto the front yard next-door while trying to flee the scene.

When deputies arrived, aid was given to Skinner, who was transported to VCU Medical Center via Med-flight. There is no word on his condition at this time.

Investigators say Skinner came into the United States through the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday, June 20.

From Hancock County, Tennessee;

A Hancock County man who reportedly was highly impaired went to jail Friday following an alleged bungled, firearm-assisted home robbery and one of the most flawed and humbling getaway tries imaginable, authorities say.

Central details about the inglorious incident, including the alleged would-be robber’s name, were not available by Saturday evening.

After failing to secure anything of value from his alleged target, the suspect fled to an unidentified body of water, where he became snagged and immobilized by barbed wire, according to District Attorney General Dan Armstrong.

Instead of disentangling himself in the ordinary way, the defendant thought it best to blast his way out. It’s not clear if the man hit the barbed wire. What’s certain is that he shot himself in the leg, according to Armstrong.

From Charlotte, North Carolina;

A 37-year-old man has died eight days after he was shot by a homeowner in a small neighborhood just west of uptown Charlotte. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says the man, Wayne Carrothers, had broken into a home on Greenleaf Avenue around 4 p.m. on June 15 when he was shot by the homeowner.

Carrothers was armed at the time, according to police. He was hospitalized at Carolinas Medical Center and died from his injuries early this morning.

Police are withholding the name of the homeowner, who has not been charged with any crimes. In a news release, police say the case will be presented to the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s office, which will determine if the shooter will be prosecuted.

From Swatara Township, Pennsylvania;

Police in Swatara Township are looking for a man accused of trying to rob a convenience store, but was stopped by an armed patron.

The attempted robbery happened at 2:54 a.m. Saturday at Rutters in the 8000 block of Derry Street. The suspect entered the store, and was spotted by an employee who fled from a different entrance.

The suspect displayed a handgun and continued into the store, when he was confronted by the armed patron, according to police. The suspect then turned and fled the store.

Police said the patron was licensed to carry a firearm.

The suspect in described as black man wearing a red hooded sweatshirt and a black mask. The suspect also committed an armed robbery at a Turkey Hill in Derry Township about 40 minutes prior, according to police.

Jarhead sends us a link from Geneva County, Alabama;

In Geneva County on Rex Road just south of Wicksburg Community.

Reports that a homeowner has shot a possible burglary suspect. Hartford Rescue is on the scene.

Geneva County Sheriff Tony Helms and members of Geneva County Sheriff Department are rolling and/or on the scene. Houston County Sheriff Deputies are assisting.

More info to follow.

UPDATED @ 7:50 PM

Unconfirmed sources have stated that the suspect that was shot by the homeowner has died. The investigation is still on going at this time.

From Alberta, Canada;

All charges have been dropped against a rural Alberta homeowner accused of shooting a trespasser on his property near Okotoks.

Eddie Maurice, 33, was charged after a suspected thief was wounded when shots were fired on Maurice’s property on Feb. 24.

On Friday morning at the Okotoks courthouse, Crown prosecutor Jim Sawa withdrew charges of aggravated assault, pointing a firearm and careless use of a firearm.

He said Crown has conceded there is no reasonable likelihood of conviction because of new information that had just come to light.

The courtroom erupted in applause at that news.

Maurice had said all along that when he saw thieves on his property, he fired a warning shot, and that it was a ricochet bullet that struck the intruder.

On Friday, Sawa said the Crown had recently received a firearms report supporting that story.

So, I guess in Canada you’re safe if you can skip the bullets into your criminal.

From Enterprise, Alabama;

On Wednesday, June 20, at 11:35 p.m., the Enterprise Police Department responded to a burglary call at a residence in the 100 Block of Loftin Street Enterprise. The victim arrived home and noticed the rear door to his residence was open. The victim immediately discovered an armed intruder in the residence and instructed the suspect(s) to leave the home. The suspect(s) fired several shots at the victim and the victim returned fire with his firearm. The victim was not injured and waited outside the residence for police to arrive. The suspect(s) fled the scene before Officers arrived. The suspect(s) stole firearms and prescription medications from the residence.

On Thursday, the firearms and prescription medications were recovered in an overgrown section of the victim’s backyard.

From Wadesville, Indiana;

A man is dead after a fatal domestic shooting in Wadesville late Thursday evening, Posey County officials said.

Posey County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death of 48-year-old Troy Higginson, allegedly shot by his wife Peggy Higginson, 45.

The shooting, which happened inside a car on Wade Road, led to Posey County law enforcement officials shutting down a section at or near the 1200 block of the road to investigate.

Posey County officials said Troy and Peggy Higginson were having an argument in the car. Peggy Higginson told officers her husband physically attacked her, at which point she pulled out a gun and shot him.

Law enforcement is still investigating whether or not the shooting was self-defense, Sheriff Greg Oeth said Friday.

The couple did have a history of domestic battery reports, according to the sheriff and court records.