Wine Country, California

From Temecula?s The Californian of July 30, 2007

Pit bull killed by Wine Country resident

The task should have been prosaic for Frank Canson: Walk down the sloping driveway, open the 42-inch-high gate and grab the Sunday newspaper.

Instead, a ferocious pit bull that neighbors say has wrought havoc in this community of estate homes lurked at the gate, Canson said.

He soon shot it dead.

As Canson approached the gate Sunday morning, the 40- to 45-pound pit bull jumped up against it, snarling at him, the former San Diego police officer said, but the animal didn’t get over the gate onto his side.

Canson, 59, said he slowly backed up the driveway before reaching his house, where he got his 9mm semiautomatic handgun. He returned to the gate, this time with the gun, but the pit bull —- and two accompanying dogs —- had vanished.

Or so Canson thought.

He opened the gate, only to find the newspaper shredded, its pieces strewn across Meng Asbury Road, he said. He knelt on the dirt road, placed the gun down and began picking up the pieces —- when the pit bull and its companions returned.

Canson said the pit bull was within 20 feet of him when he began firing his weapon. The second or third bullet, Canson believes, struck the dog, who was maimed and struggling.

“It yelped, and I could see it limping,” he said.

The pit bull limped to his neighbor’s property, where Canson shot it dead.

“It was down, and obviously suffering. It was the appropriate thing to do,” said Canson, who, along with his wife, has four dogs.

Remarkably, the owner of that adjacent property —- Ralph Fonseca, 48 —- said he slept through the presumably earsplitting incident, in which Canson said he fired 15 rounds.

Sheriff’s deputies responded and decided not to cite Canson, said Investigator Jerry Franchville.

“You can’t just (shoot a dog) for sport,” Franchville said. “But if you feel like you’re in danger, you have to defend yourself.”

The dog’s owner couldn’t be reached for comment Monday.

Residents said Canson’s encounter was the latest in a string of incidents involving the dogs along Meng Asbury and Monte de Oro.

Sunday wasn’t the first time county officials had visited the neighborhood.

Fonseca’s 19-year-old daughter, Vanessa, had tried to calm the pit bull when it approached her and her friend recently, but it only got more vicious, she said.

Canson’s wife, Kelli, had complained to county Animal Control in the weeks before Sunday’s incident, alleging the pit bull and friends had threatened her.

“It’s been weeks that we’ve been menaced,” she said. “We felt imprisoned on our property.”

A neighbor warned Animal Control he and others would arm themselves if the dog returned, Kelli Canson said.

The department fielded three phone calls before Sunday, said Rita Gutierrez, Animal Control’s field services commander.

An investigator for the department believes the owners of the dogs were abiding by her instruction to secure them on the property, Gutierrez said. The investigator asked that the dogs be tied up, she added.

Yet, observers Monday afternoon saw the two remaining dogs roaming the streets, lurking near the Cansons’ and Fonsecas’ properties.

“They gotta do something, get them tied up,” Ralph Fonseca said.</blockquote

Gainesville, Florida

From Gainesville.com of July 31, 2007

Two pit bulls attack man’s dog, one shot and killed

A Gainesville man awoke to the sounds of a dog fight early Monday. When he walked outside, he found his dog locked in the jaws of a large pit bull.

“I’m sound asleep and my wife says there’s a dog fight in the yard,” said Fletcher Sutton, 58. “And within 90 seconds I find myself standing in the yard in my bathrobe with a knife in one hand, a gun in the other and a dog dead between my legs.”

Sutton and his grandson, Robert Koehler, 16, reacted quickly when they found their 110-pound Labrador-Mastiff mix being attacked by two pit bulls, the larger of which had clamped down on the dog’s neck.

“We tried to beat him off, we tried to kick him off, and it was like it was to the death,” Sutton said.

Lt. Scott Meffen with the Gainesville Police Department said they arrived at the home, 2415 SE 11th Ave., around 7:30 a.m. Monday to find a large black pit bull shot twice in the head. Sutton’s dog had wounds to his neck and two front legs from the fight.

“(The pit bull) had a collar on it but no tag, so it doesn’t look like we’ve identified the owner,” Meffen said.

Meffen said Sutton and Koehler told police they first tried to get the pit bulls to let go of their dog by stabbing them with a pocket knife. But when that didn’t make any difference, Koehler went inside and got his grandfather’s .22-caliber revolver and Sutton shot the dog in the head.

The smaller, brown pit bull ran away once the shots were fired and police had not located the dog as of late Monday.

Sutton said it appeared the dogs slipped through the slats on the aluminum gate around the pasture in back of his house in order to reach his dog.

And he said the black pit bull he shot did not look like a family pet.

“This was a pit bull fighting dog. He had scars all over his face,” he said. “It wasn’t just a generic incident. This dog was out to kill something this morning.”

Sutton said he had seen the smaller of the two pit bulls wandering around his neighborhood off of Hawthorne Road, but he had never seen the black one.

“You don’t need these dogs,” Sutton said of pit bulls. “There’s no sense in them. You do everything you can to protect your animal and protect your property, and then something like this happens.”

Piute County, Utah

From the Salt Lake Tribune of July 31, 2007

Trespassers meet with gunfire

A landowner greeted trespassers with gunfire in Piute County on Sunday. No one was injured. About 6 p.m., nine people entered a gate with a “no trespassing” sign and proceeded toward the Kimberly Mill, according to the Piute County Sheriff’s Office. As they rounded a turn to the mill, a man who owns the property fired a .40-caliber pistol, said Deputy Mike Gayler. Gayler said it is unclear whether the man was trying to harm anyone or just scare away the party. The party fled to the main road but along the way one man stopped and fired five pistol shots into an unfastened padlock, the sheriff’s office said. Gayler said the man appeared to fire at the lock out of spite. The sheriff’s office is referring the case to county prosecutors.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

From Baton Rouge?s The Advocate of July 31, 2007
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Police also are investigating a shooting that occurred around 5:45 a.m. Saturday at a residence at 4652 Byron Ave.

A woman at the home told police she shot her boyfriend in self-defense after he hit her several times. The man was taken to a hospital with nonlife-threatening wounds and the woman was questioned and released, police said.

Tuscaloosa, Alabama

From the Tuscaloosa News of July 31, 2007

No one charged in killing
Barbershop case now goes to grand jury

Homicide investigators haven?t charged anyone in the shooting Saturday that occurred at Brown?s Barbershop on Seventh Street.

Maurice Spencer, 32, died as a result of gunshot wounds he sustained in the 4:15 p.m. altercation, officials said.

Spencer, a barber at the shop, got into an argument with a 26-year-old man that resulted in the slaying, investigators said.

The name of the alleged shooter was not released, but Otis Brown, owner of the barbershop, said Spencer was shot by a man named Carl, who also cut hair at the establishment.

Capt. Loyd Baker, commander of the Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit, said the discussions with the Tuscaloosa County District Attorney?s Office revealed that the state?s new self-defense law, which eliminates the condition that a person must reasonably try to escape or flee before killing an attacker, may apply in this case.

?We?re going to take this case to the grand jury, hopefully during the August session to determine what — if any — charges will be brought against the shooter,” Baker said.

Limestone County, Alabama

From Huntsville?s WAFF,com of July 30, 2007

2 men arrested for stealing garbage

Two men were arrested for trying to steal garbage.

24 year old Timothy Darnell Maynor and 20 year old Shaun Christopher Holley targeted the home of a disabled Limestone County man, apparently trying to steal the aluminum cans he collected for supplemental income.

The men didn’t get the cans, but they did get a big surprise.

Robert Shoulder proved that he may be down, but certainly don’t count him out.

“To supplement his income, he does get out and try to collect cans for resale,” says Captain Stanley Mcnatt.

Shoulder says the night before the incident, sacks full of cans turned up missing.

“The next day I come back by there and I caught these boys stealing my cans,” says Shoulder.

He immediately called the Limestone County Sheriff’s Department.

“Well I was out there in the yard. They thought we had gone. I was sitting in the truck and they walked back up, cause they were going to try to get in the car and get away,” says Shoulder. : “The one guy, he started towards me and I told him to stop and he kept coming, so I pulled my gun out on him and he was made to lay down on the ground.”

The partner was also made to wait for law enforcement.

“They observed our victim having 2 individuals held at gunpoint, that he had caught stealing his aluminum cans,” says Mcnatt. “It is unusual, but it’s not the first time that this has happened, where a victim of a crime has held someone at gunpoint, but it is unusual…..”

Sheriff’s officials say they also cleared up another burglary case with these arrests.

Charleston, South Carolina

From Charleston?s WCBD.com of July 30, 2007

Armed Robberies: Hispanics Fight Back

A string of armed robberies targeting Hispanics ends with gunfire.

Charleston County deputies arrested three men and a woman Monday morning. Authorities arrested 26 Year-Old Issac Alston, 19 Year-Old Montrell Perry and 18 Year-Old Zarel Isadore. Deputies have not released the woman’s name because she has not yet been charged, although witnesses say she served as a look-out.Four suspects.

Three armed robberies. One common theme. Hispanic victims.

The violence started inside a mobile home on Tedder Street around 1:30 Monday morning. Count on 2′ Crimetracker Jenny Fisher said, “When Roberto Flores answered a knock at his door, he was punched in the face. Once he was on the ground, someone continued to punch and kick him and stole $200 from his wallet.”

The suspect, who had a knife, also injured Flores’ roommate and took $15. Afterwards, police say the group drove to a Hess gas station on Dorchester road. Police say the suspects took Noe Perez’s wallet at gunpoint. They wanted his keys, but a nearby car distracted them. Perez took off in his truck, but the suspects followed in a dark car. They fired a shot, but eventually turned away.

Deputies say that’s when the group stopped at the corner of Nelson and Leslie Street to lure a group of Hispanics to their car. Captain Mike Benton with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office said, “They attempted to make it seem as if it was going to be a drug deal and the individuals came over to the vehicle and the individuals came over to vehicle, who happened to be hispanic, and they attempted to rob them.”

Yet, this time, things turned out differently. A victim was shot in the knee, but a suspect was also on the receiving end of the gunfire. Captain Benton said, “The pellets from the shotgun ricocheted and hit one of the suspects in the foot.”

That’s when other Latinos heard the commotion and rushed outside to help their own. They broke the glass out of the suspects’ car, pulled a few punches of their own and detained the four suspects until authorities arrived.

The three men were charged with armed robbery. They are expected to appear in bond court Monday night at seven.

Detectives say they investigate crimes against Latinos all too often. They say some Latinos make easy targets because they don’t trust many people or banks so they keep their cash in their homes.

Cobb County, Georgia

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of July 30, 2007

Teen shot in southwest Cobb

A juvenile was shot Sunday night after he allegedly participated in a home invasion in southwest Cobb County.

According to police two juveniles attempted to rob a home on South Gordon Road in Mableton just before 11 p.m. Sunday. When police arrived on the scene, they found one of the youths with a gunshot wound.

Sgt. Dana Pierce, a police spokesman, said that during the attempted robbery the youths shot at the victims. One of the people in the home returned fire, wounding one of the youths. He was taken to a local hospital.

The remaining juvenile was charged with aggravated assault.

Dougherty County, Georgia

From Albany?s WALB.com of July 30, 2007

Would be robber met with shotgun

A Dougherty County armed robber found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun Thursday night. The robber had every intention of holding up a liquor store near Putney, but a quick-thinking security guard changed his mind in a hurry.

In the parking lot at Dora’s Beer and Wine on U.S. 19 South in Dougherty County, the would-be robber, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, pulled a gun and headed inside.

But before he got inside, he got a surprise. Manager Sheryl Morgan said “we have a security guard in the evening who sits here, and he saw him. And he went out after him.”

The guard pulled a shotgun, and the robber took off running. Morgan went out to back him up, but the robber escaped in a waiting car. Morgan said “you are working hard to make a living, what little bit of living you can make, and then someone wants to come in and take everything away from you. To me it’s not fair.”

Morgan was the victim of a robbery late last year at the store, when a man held a gun to her head. She says she got angry, and is not going through that again. Morgan said “I’m gonna fight back. I really am. We have the protection and all, so yes, we are going to fight back.”

Dougherty County Police Chief Don Cheek says no amount of money is worth dying for, but understands when people decide they are willing to fight against criminals. Cheek said “we certainly recognize that people want to protect their property, and have the right to protect their property.”

Morgan says they will continue to keep armed security, and are ready to use guns to protect themselves. Cheek said “it can have deadly and disastrous consequences. You stand the possibility of being injured. But you might also be able to protect your property, so it’s the individual’s choice.”

Morgan says she believes it’s time people took a stand against crime. Morgan said “if you just lay down and let them take over, you are losing. You are letting them win. Something has to be done.”

Morgan and her fellow workers say they are glad they are not the latest crime victims today.

Riegelwood, North Carolina

From Wilmington?s WWAYtv3.com of July 30, 2007

Riegelwood dispute turns deadly

The Columbus County Sheriff’s Department says a dispute turned deadly Sunday morning. It happened around 5 a.m. on Robbie’s Lane in Riegelwood.

Authorities say 23-year-old Terrell Brown broke into his girlfriend Ashley Brown’s house using a machete. David Simmons was staying with her in the house and the two go [sic] into a fight.

Deputies say that’s when Simmons shot and killed Terrel Brown.

Brown’s friends are defending his actions.

Brandon Razor is the victim’s friend. He said, “I talked to him the day before yesterday and he told me he was going to buy an engagement ring, he got engagement ring for my stepsister and he was going propose to her. He went over there to propose to her, I guess him and the new dude got into a fight and he just shot him.”

Simmons went to the hospital with minor injuries.

Right now deputies say it appears the shooting was self-defense.

Evansville, Indiana

From the Evansville Courier & Press of July 30, 2007

Shots fired during liquor store robbery

A liquor store owner fired three shots today at an intruder who entered the store carrying a hammer, an Evansville Police Department report said.

William Shepherd, owner of Apollo Liquors at 1165 E. Riverside Drive, told police he was taking inventory in the store about 3 a.m. when a man entered through a rear door.

The man saw Shepherd, became startled and attempted to leave through a front door that was padlocked from the outside.

He then ran back toward Shepherd, ?cornering him into the rear of the store with the hammer in his hand,? the police report stated.

Shepherd ?felt threatened and fired a warning shot at the suspect,? according to the report. When he did not leave, Shepherd ?fired two more shots at the suspect?s lower legs, possibly striking one of them.?

The suspect then said ?you shot me, Mr. Shepherd? before leaving through the same door he had entered, police said.

No arrests have been made.

Indianapolis, Indiana

From the Indianapolis Star of July 29, 2007

Man fatally shoots pit bull after attack

A man on Saturday shot and killed one of three pit bulls that attacked and bit his wife, police said.

The pit bulls jumped out of a pickup truck about 1 p.m. Saturday along Mann Road in northeastern Morgan County.

Media Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety’s Animal Care and Control office, said the woman had stopped to help catch the dogs when she was attacked.

She drove home, and her husband returned to the area with his gun.
The man, whose name was not released, was questioned by police but was neither arrested nor cited, Wilson said, because the shooting appeared to have been a case of self-defense.

The dogs’ owner disappeared in the confusion, and his identity was unknown, Wilson said.

A second dog was captured by animal control. The third dog escaped.

The woman’s injuries were not serious.

Charlotte, North Carolina

From the Charlotte Observer of July 29, 2007

Forced to kill: 4 stories of survival

Every year in the United States, about 200 people kill someone in self-defense. It’s legal. It’s often necessary. But it can emotionally scar the people who do the killing.

From 2001 through 2006, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police investigated 25 homicides later ruled justified.

Generally, police warn the public not to fight robbers because, they say, criminals are more likely to hurt or kill anyone who challenges them. But sometimes people feel they have no choice.

At least four times this month, would-be crime victims in Charlotte fought back against people trying to rob them. Two suspects were killed, two injured.

The latest occurred Monday, police said, when a clerk killed a man trying to rob her northeast Charlotte store. Prosecutors haven’t decided whether to charge her. But “she is emotionally devastated by the decision that she was forced to make,” her lawyer said in a statement.

Four Charlotteans say they understand how she feels. All fatally shot someone while trying to protect themselves. None was charged. But all four say the killings altered their lives.

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Athens, Alabama

From Athens? The News Courier of July 27, 2007

Homeowner held thieves at gunpoint until officers arrived

Stealing three bags of aluminum cans worth a total of $25 can cost more than it pays.

That?s what two Athens men learned Friday.

Timothy Darnell Maynor, 24, of 17356 Lucas Ferry Road, and Shaun Christopher Holley, 20, of 1703 Edward St., were arrested after the owner of the cans held the two at gunpoint until sheriff?s deputies arrived.

?The homeowner came home and found these two guys in his yard stealing the aluminum cans he had collected,? said Limestone County Chief Investigator Stanley McNatt. ?He pulled a gun on them and held them until Investigator Josh McLaughlin and Deputy Tim Craig got there.?

The arrests led investigators to other thefts the duo may have committed, McNatt said.

?When we were questioning them, Investigator Brian Ruble was working a burglary on Poff Lane where two rifles and a back pack were stolen,? he said. ?We searched their car and found those stolen items inside the vehicle.?

He said the two men were also charged for theft in another home burglary on Poff Lane. Maynor and a companion, Erica King, 31, of 19472 Heron Drive, Athens, are also charged with the burglary of a home last October.

Maynor was being held in the Limestone County Jail Friday night on charges of third-degree theft and three counts of third-degree burglary. Holley is charged with third-degree theft and two counts of third-degree burglary. King is charged with third-degree burglary.

Mt. Oliver, Pennsylvania

From ThePittsburgChannel.com of July 27, 2007

Family Upset After Neighbor Shoots, Kills Dog

A 12-year-old Mount Oliver boy broke down on Thursday after his dog was shot and killed right in front of him.

One of the Jackson family’s three pit bulls left its yard without a leash Thursday night.

Neighbor Jim Peelor said the dog came after him three times in 10 minutes while he was walking his dogs.

The family of the boy said there was no reason for its neighbor to shoot and kill its pit bull, but the man said he was in danger, so he fired.

“I just screamed, ‘Why did you do that?’” said Devin Jackson, who witnessed the shooting. “I picked up her head. I tried to pet her. She just died.”

Peelor said he felt threatened when the dog kept circling him, so he got out his gun.

“It wasn’t like the dog ran out and I shot him,” Peelor said.

Through tears, Peelor said he wished it didn’t have to come down to that, but he had to protect his pets.

“I was in a spot where I felt like I had to watch him die or kill the other,” Peelor said. “I told the kid, I screamed, I pleaded, ‘Go get help.’ I’m an animal lover. I love animals, and the last thing I want to do is kill one.”

There is no word on whether Peelor will be charged.