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

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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