Lost motorist shoots
attacker, suspected robber
Originally ran here
as:
"Lost Motorist Shoots Attacker"
"Alleged assailant is also suspected in robbery
on Monday afternoon"
BY TYRONE WALKER,
Of The Post and Courier staff
Sunday, July 22, 2001
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA -- A motorist who stopped and asked for directions shot a stranger who assaulted
him Saturday on the East Side, Charleston police said.
The wounded man, police said, is also suspected
of robbing a lost motorist seeking directions in the same area Monday.
In the incident Saturday, Ryan Lee Smith told
police the assault took place shortly before 8 a.m. when he took a wrong turn
off the Cooper River Bridge exit and ended up on Sheppard Street.
Smith said when he stopped his Nissan Exterra
at Sheppard and Hanover streets to ask for directions, a man punched him and
tried get into his vehicle, according to the police report.
At the same time, five other men approached the
stopped sport utility vehicle. One of the men reached into the vehicle, put it
in park and pulled the keys out of the ignition.
Smith told police that about that time, he
pulled a .25-caliber pistol from his glove compartment and fired a shot at the
man near the driver's side door.
Smith then called police on his cell phone.
When they arrived, police officers found Smith walking outside his vehicle,
according to the police report.
When police asked Smith if he was armed, he
told them he had a weapon inside his left pocket. Officers confiscated the
weapon and detained Smith for questioning.
Police found Vincent Gary Clark, 40, of Line
Street with a gunshot wound to the chest on a Hanover Street porch. He was taken
to Medical University Hospital, but his condition was not immediately known.
No charges will be filed against Smith, said Charles Francis, spokesman for
Charleston police. "The man was defending himself. He's the victim,"
Francis said.
Police have not identified any other suspects
in the incident, Francis said.
Police said Clark also is suspected in the
robbery of a motorist at knifepoint about 5 p.m. Monday at Nassau and Cooper
streets. A 19-year-old Florence man told police that after he became lost, he
stopped his Volvo sedan and asked a stranger for directions.
As the stranger was giving directions, he
jumped into the Volvo from the passenger side, produced a 10-inch kitchen knife
and ordered the man to drive to Amherst Street, where the motorist was robbed of
jewelry, a cell phone and cash, police said.
Criminal charges are pending against Clark,
Francis said.
KABA NOTE: Anti-gun people would
strip the right of this citizen to resist his attackers from him. Basically,
they are saying to him, "you do not have a right to life and liberty."
Such a position is immoral and repugnant to a free society.
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