Florida check cashing store manager exchanges gunfire with armed robbers: "Miami-Dade Police are searching for two armed men who shot at a check cashing store employee. Police say the suspects approached one of the managers of a check cashing store, located at 140 W. Dixie Highway, as she attempted to open the store Thursday morning. According to the store manager, as soon as she put the key in the lock, the suspects approached her with a gun. "Some words were exchanged and according to the victim, the black male holding the firearm fired a shot at her," said Lieutenant Neal Cuevas of the North Miami Police Department. "She returned fire." Police found one round of bullets in the store when they arrived. The store's windows remain boarded up because the windows were shattered during the shootout. The suspects fled the scene uninjured. Police describe the suspects as two black males, 140 pounds and five feet five inches tall each. Police also say one of the suspects wore business attire: suit coat, blue tie and crisp white shirt, during the attempted robbery."


Indiana: Nutcase shot: "While calling police for help quelling a nasty fight between her two grown sons Monday evening, Kathleen Strickland heard a gunshot. Her older son, Archie Strickland Jr., 30, was shot. Her younger son, Andre Strickland, 22, was gone. Archie died a short time later at Methodist Hospitals Northlake emergency room with a gunshot wound to his thigh. He was pronounced dead at 8:14 p.m., Lake County Coroner's Chief Investigator Paul Castro said. Andre was arrested at his girlfriend's house in Brunswick on Monday night, but was released Tuesday by police after he was questioned. Cmdr. Samuel Roberts said investigators believe Andre fired after his older brother, who suffered from bipolar personality and was recently released from a rehabilitation program, wouldn't stop his attack. "There's an element of self- defense," Roberts said. Lake County prosecutors are reviewing the evidence, but no charges are expected to be filed against the younger Strickland brother. Their mother, a radio dispatcher for the Gary Police Department, told investigators her sons were arguing downstairs in their Tolleston home when Archie began hitting Andre with his fists. Despite her efforts to intervene, the battle continued. She went upstairs to call police when she heard the single gunshot, police said."


California: Medical marijuana defended: "After further investigation: authorities said Wednesday that no criminal charges will be filed against a Helltown Road man who held a gun on two teenagers he suspected of trying to steal his medical marijuana. "I think he was in the right; justice has been done" said the father of the arrested homeowner, Carl Coleman Jr., 37. The younger Coleman was arrested early Monday morning after one of the two youths he caught on his property and held at gunpoint, fled and later claimed Coleman had assaulted them. District Attorney Mike Ramsey said Wednesday further investigation by the Butte County Sheriff's Office was unable to disprove Coleman's claims he was lawfully protecting his property. Gordon Dise, a self-professed "legal strategy consultant" and local medical marijuana proponent who accompanied several of Coleman's relatives and friends to court Wednesday afternoon, praised the decision not to prosecute the homeowner. "I think the district attorney is doing the right thing and pursuing the thieves, instead of the victims, who are medical marijuana patients," the local activist stated. "You have an absolute right to defend your life, your liberty or property with all force necessary," added Dise, even to the point of pursuing a suspected felon who tries to avoid being turned over to the police.