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The Self-Defense Files,
February, 2001
by Robert A. Waters
Every day, we see stories of gun
violence on our television screens. Here's the other side of the story--a few of
the many cases in which citizens used firearms to defend themselves and others
during the month of February, 2001.
On February 3, Cherese Belin
returned to her Charleston, South Carolina apartment to find jewlery and money
missing. She called police, who determined that a thief had entered the home by
removing an air conditioner from the bedroom window. Police searched the
apartment, but failed to find the intruder. After investigators left, Belin
asked her neighbor, Shermaine D. Whitley, to search the house a second time.
Arming himself with a handgun, Whitley peered beneath the homeowner's bed and
found the burglar hiding there. He ordered the man to come out. Instead, the
thief fired two shots at Whitley, striking him in the leg. The armed neighbor
then returned fire, killing the burglar. Whitley will not be charged. "The
suspect fired first, and the victim returned fire," a police spokesman
said. "He was defending himself."
Lisa Liev, owner of Johnny's Cut Rate Liquor in Dallas, was working the
afternoon shift on February 9
when a man entered the store. He pulled a gun and demanded money. Liev dove to
the floor and grabbed her own pistol from beneath the cash register. As the man
jumped the counter, she shot him. Liev then ran outside and locked the robber
inside the store before calling police. Still wearing a bandage on her head from
a previous robbery attempt, she said, "I'm lucky to be alive. This is the
second time they try and rob and hit me." The robber died at the scene, and
police ruled the shooting justifiable homicide.
On February 12, a
fourteen-year-old boy was alone in his Dayton, Ohio home when he heard someone
breaking out a window in the back bedroom. The teenager yelled for the intruder
to leave, then ran to his father's bedroom and armed himself with a shotgun.
"He told the person not to come through the window, to back out, and that
didn't happen," a police spokesman said. The teenager then loaded the gun
and fired. A few minutes later, police found a man riddled with buckshot
wandering the neighborhood. He was arrested. The fourteen-year-old was not
expected to be charged.
On February 14, three
members of a Suffolk, New York rock band fought back when when two armed
invaders kicked in the front door of their home and attempted to rob them. Two
of the band members grabbed shotguns. The first intruder had enough sense to
flee when he saw the armed homeowners. Wesley Jones did not--he was killed with
a shotgun blast as he held a gun to the head of the third resident.
Investigators stated that the shooting appeared to be justified.
On February 17, three men
forced their way into an upscale Atlanta home. One intruder pushed the
homeowner's mother into a back bedroom while his accomplices pistol-whipped her
son. A police spokesperson said, "Two males were on top of him, kicking and
beating him." When the assailants attempted to remove his coat, the
homeowner broke free and retrieved a handgun. He opened fire, killing one of the
invaders, later identified as Nedrick Taylor. The resident was not charged.
At about 2 a.m., February 18,
Jose Antonio Herrera and Rodrigo Castaneda burst through the door of an
apartment near Three Points, in Tucson, Arizona. The assailants used duct tape
and "tie wraps" to bind the two female occupants. As the intruders
ransacked the house, eighteen-year-old Amelia Gamboa broke free and ran to her
bedroom. She retrieved a pistol from beneath her mattress and confronted
Castoneda. When he pointed a rifle at her, she shot and killed him. Herrera was
charged with first-degree murder. Gamboa was not charged.
On February 19, Kyung Choi and his wife Sung let two customers into their
Chicago jewelry store. Almost immediately, one of the men pulled a handgun and
shot Sung Choi in the left shoulder. Kyung grabbed a shotgun and fired a single
shot at the robbers who quickly fled.
On February 20, Rhonda
Darlene Hand was in the kitchen of her Nashville home when she heard someone
open her unlocked back door. Anthony Ray Krantz, holding a handgun, entered the
kitchen, but was met by Hand who had armed herself. Police believe Krantz fired
one shot at her, and Hand fired five shots at the invader. Krantz, who police
speculated was there to rob Hand, died at the scene. Hand was not charged.
Other self-defense stories that occurred during the month of February include a
stepson in Galveston, Texas
who shot and killed his step-father as the angry man attacked his estranged
wife; the Pikeville, Kentucky
storeowner who shot it out with two armed robbers and drove them from his
business; and the Homosassa,
Florida homeowner who used a shotgun to capture two of five burglars who had
broken into his home.
None of these accounts were reported by the mainstream media.
Robert A. Waters is author of The
Best Defense: True Stories of Intended Victims Who Defended Themselves with a
Firearm, Cumberland House Publishing, Inc., 1998.
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