Washington State: Burglar can't escape Toledo homeowner: "Hal Durrett of Toledo was getting ready to take a shower Friday afternoon when he glanced outside and saw a strange man hanging around his vehicles. A white van with a septic maintenance logo was parked in his driveway. Fuming from the loss of heirlooms when his Toledo rental home was burglarized last year, Durrett, 24, got his 40-caliber semiautomatic pistol and went downstairs just as the stranger pushed open the screen door. The man's story about running out of gas seemed rehearsed. Durrett ordered him to lie on the floor and kept the gun trained on him as he dialed 911. "That's when he got gutsy," Durrett said by phone Monday afternoon. The stranger hurled himself on Durrett and tried to wrestle the gun away as they rolled. With Durrett, an ironworker, weighing 255 pounds to the stranger's estimated 160, the match was no contest, but the guy managed to get outside. He jumped into his van and backed out onto State Route 505. Durrett fired three shots at the tires, flattening one of them, he said. Lewis County sheriff's deputies found the van about a quarter-mile down the road and arrested Joel Anthony Anderson, 44, of Puyallup, Wash., without incident. "There was plenty of gas," Durrett said. Anderson was booked in lieu of $50,000 bail on suspicion of first-degree burglary. He also had two warrants from outside Lewis County.... Durrett said the suspect is lucky his girlfriend, Tiffani Alexander, wasn't home. "Tiffani has her own shotguns," he said. "And she's got more temper."


Ohio: Two dead, two arrested in Dayton store shooting: "Two people were shot to death and two people were arrested in a convenience store robbery Tuesday afternoon, Dayton police said. The owner of the Covault Market and Coin Laundry, 3705 Wayne Ave., was killed inside his store along with an employee, according to Maj. Michael Brown. An Air National Guard airman apprehended a masked gunman who was fleeing from the scene, according to the man's mother. Robert Bragg, 24, who works as a military police officer at the Springfield Air National Guard base, was sitting on his porch about 1:30 p.m. when he noticed two suspicious young men walking down Coventry Road off Wayne Avenue, said Barbi Byrd, Bragg's mother. Shortly after that, Byrd said she heard popping sounds and screaming. In the next instant, she said her son saw the same two men running down Coventry. Each was wearing a ski mask and armed with a handgun. Bragg retrieved his 9mm pistol, pointed it the men and ordered them to stop and drop their weapons, Byrd said. "I was freaking out. I thought one of them would shoot him," Byrd said. One man dropped his gun and threw up his hands, as Bragg ordered, while the other took off running through a neighbor's yard. Police took the second suspect into custody a short time later, Brown said." [Let's hope they get the chair. Washington allows it]


Florida: Early-morning shooting of young gang member: "Before Reco Melvin turned up dead, police were looking for him. The 17-year-old Eureka Garden apartments resident was a suspect in a homicide at the complex on Jacksonville's Westside several weeks earlier, authorities told the Times-Union. Investigators suspect Melvin killed his neighbor Herbert Porter in a May 13 shooting while trying to rob the 36-year-old man of money he made selling sodas and other sweets to residents at the complex. Sgt. Dan Janson said Monday that police believe Melvin tried to rob a man who came to the complex to buy drugs that July morning. During the encounter, Melvin pulled a gun, but the man defended himself by drawing his own weapon and firing, Janson said. The slaying happened a few buildings away from the apartment where the teenager lived with his mother and sisters in a spot where a memorial of candles and silk flowers still stands. Porter's homicide happened in his apartment, which is within eyesight of the Melvin family's front door. Assistant State Attorney John Guy said Monday that Melvin's homicide case wasn't closed yet and that a finding of justifiable homicide was a possibility. He wouldn't comment further, and authorities wouldn't name the man they believe shot Melvin". [See also here]