SAN ANTONIO - A burglar was shot and killed by a neighbor after breaking into a South Side apartment.
The deadly shooting happened around 11:30 p.m. Sunday at The Flats at Big Tex Apartments on the 400 block of Blue Star near Probandt Street.
Police said a man climbed onto the fourth-floor balcony of the apartment then broke in through the door.
The man who lived inside the apartment called his neighbor for help and ran to safety.
More HereSan Diego police said a man walked into La Michoacana, a market and taco shop at 1702 Vesta Street, with a gun around 10:40 a.m. and demanded money from two cash registers. The store owner, a 40-year-old man, handed over the money then grabbed his own gun as the suspect walked away.
The store owner “challenged the suspect” then shot him twice when the suspect turned back toward him, according to police. The armed robbery suspect was shot in the stomach and wrist. He was taken to the hospital with injuries not considered life-threatening, police said.
Authorities have not said what spurred the argument in the home or how many people were involved, but they said the 33-year-old man grabbed a 17-year-old girl by the hair and choked her during the incident. The boy grabbed a gun from a bedroom and shot the victim in the shoulder.
The man, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital but died there a short time later. No other injuries were reported in the shooting.
Around 4:45 p.m. an off-duty officer was flagged down by a witness who stated a person was being robbed inside Neiman Marcus. The victim told the officer he checking out at the cash register when he was attacked by multiple Black males in an attempt to steal his bag.
During the attack, the victim pulled out a weapon and shot at the four suspects.
Image courtesy Dean Weingarten, small portion of guns turned in, Phoenix, 2014
The Grand Rapids Michigan Police Department has announced they will be running two gun turn-in events in Grand Rapids, two weeks apart.
The police department said it will be holding two buyback events where people can get rid of firearms in exchange for a prepaid gift card with no questions asked.
The first will be held Saturday, Oct. 24 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. at 1534 Kalamazoo Ave. SE. Then on Saturday, Nov. 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Genesis Non-Profit Housing Corporation.
Participants are asked to bring their weapons unloaded and stored in the trunk of a vehicle.
Gun turn-in events have become rare in states where private sales are legal. Private buyers advertise at the events and ruin the propaganda value for those who want the population disarmed.
Sign at Milwaukee Gun Turn in May, 2014 Courtesy Dean Weingarten
The gun turn-in events scheduled for Grand Rapids is likely to bring in a few guns, and to run out of gift cards very quickly. An event in Phoenix, Arizona, with over $200,000 budget ran out of gift cards after collecting over 2,000 guns.
The Grand Rapids turn-in events have split the funds between two events. Either the cards will run out at the first one, or funds will be kept in reserve. In both cases, private buyers can benefit. When the cards run out, people who brought guns to turn in will be open to any reasonable offers. Grand Rapids has a budget of $15,000 total, to be used for gift cards to exchange for guns at both events.
People who sell their guns will receive generic gift cards ranging from $50 to $200 depending on the type of gun and its condition.
Guns like assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns in good condition will yield more than, for example, hunting rifles and firearms not in good condition, according to police officials.
Generally, a gun must be in working or near-working condition to be eligible, but it’s a case-by-case basis. Rusted antique weapons, however, will not be bought.
Grand Rapids police Sgt. Dan Adams said the buyback will be “completely anonymous.” Those buying the guns won’t ask sellers for any identification or even if they live in the city, he said.
Michigan residents can help make the turn-in in Grand Rapids more effective by standing on
the curb with your "Cash for Guns" sign, or at a folding table, willing
to offer more than the gift card for firearms that are more valuable.
It would be best if numerous private parties were available, as more
good guns could then be transferred into responsible hands.
This action serves many useful purposes. It stretches the turn-in budget
so that more guns can be taken off the street. It helps keep fearful
widows from being defrauded of most of the market value of the gun they
are turning in. It prevents valuable assets from being destroyed by
bureaucratic inflexibility. It is a win-win-win situation.
Private sales of firearms in Michigan are covered by this wikihow.com article. Laws change, so Michigan private buyers should perform their own research to conform with the law. A generic pistol purchase permit is needed in advance for a private pistol purchase.
A key to being a successful private purchaser is to make the exchange easy for the seller. Look for easy places for people to park so items can be looked at prior to purchase. It is not unusual for people bring several guns to these turn in events.
Many academic studies have shown how ineffective these events are at fighting crime. From the Freakonomics" web site:
When it comes to gun buybacks, both the theory and the data could not be clearer in showing that they don’t work. The only guns that get turned in are ones that people put little value on anyway. There is no impact on crime. On the positive side, the “cash for clunkers” program is more attractive than the gun buyback program because, as long as they are being driven, old cars pollute, whereas old guns just sit there.
When private purchasers show up at these events to offer cash for guns, it is cheap activism. It shows guns are valued by many members of the community.
The so called "buybacks" (Buyback is an Orwellian propaganda term. You cannot buyback something you never owned.) were common a few years ago.
©2020 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Police responded to a home on White Cap Way at 5:51 a.m. for reports of an attempted home invasion robbery with shots fired. Officers were told by the residents they had observed a suspicious vehicle parked outside of their home and two men with a firearm got out and began to approach the house.
Out of fear, one of the residents armed himself and opened the front door, shooting several rounds into the ground and in the direction of the vehicle, he told police. The unknown men then drove away, officials said.
Police reports show around 1 a.m., an Idaho Falls Police officer was called to investigate an anonymous 911 regarding a disturbance at a home near Vernon Avenue and Wheeler street, according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by EastIdahoNews.com.
Investigators found a man sitting outside of the house bleeding from his face. The man said his friend, 30-year-old Ruben Hernandez, had kicked in his door and attacked him as a result of a domestic dispute.
He told officers that Hernandez showed up at the home banging on the door after exchanging text messages with him. Ultimately Hernandez forced open the door, busting the frame, police said.
That’s when the victim, who was armed with a rifle, shot at Hernandez but did not hit him.
The victim said the shot did not scare Hernandez away and he continued to charge at him, punching the victim multiple times in the face and head, according to court documents.
Winsett said the contractor was in the 1700 block of South Fares Avenue when he claims he was attacked by another man. That employee pulled out a pistol and shot the other man.
As of Friday afternoon the incident remained under investigation and Winsett was not yet able to say if it was self-defense or not. The second man was shot in the eye with a 9 mm pistol, Winsett said, but was conscious and able to talk to police. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries.
According to deputies in Harris County, the victim said he planned to meet the woman at an apartment complex along Uvalde Road in Northeast Houston when two men walked up and tried to rob him at gunpoint.
The victim said he pulled out his own gun and shot one of the men before taking off. He drove to a nearby gas station where he called for help.
Police tell us they were called out to the shooting around 1:30 a.m. in the 8800 block of Old Homestead Dr. in southeast Dallas.
There, they found the owner of La Pulga de Autos, a car lot in town. The owner said he saw suspects steal a vehicle from his lot, just under two miles from where he shot them.
After witnessing the theft, the owner told police he chased them down and shot at them, hitting one in the arm. The suspect shot was taken to the hospital.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is unlikely to have acted, as policy, to deliberately hurt President Trump's chances at re-election. This does not mean a faction or individuals inside the ATF did not do so.
Several sources have been willing to talk, off the record, about what is going on in the ATF. None are currently inside the agency. None were willing to be quoted. All have had considerable contacts with the agency over past years.
One source confirmed the Ammoland article by John Crump
on 8 October was "on the money". It was claimed Associate Deputy
Director Marvin Richardson was quite upset with John Crump's Ammoland article.
In the article, sources inside the ATF state Acting Director Regina Lombardo is "not loyal to the president". They state Associate Director Marvin Richardson believes pistol braces "violate the NFA".
Believing pistol braces violate the NFA appears to be a common position inside the ATF. ATF rulings on pistol arm braces have been contradictory.
An
Acting Director of the ATF is not required to be personally loyal to a
President. They should be expected to follow DOJ directives.
Lombardo was next in line after Acting Director Thomas B. Brandon retired at the end of April of 2019. The simplest thing to do was to make her Acting Director while waiting for approval of a direct appointment by President Trump.
GOA actively worked to prevent the appointment of Chuck Canterbury. That meant Lombardo continued on as Acting Director, at least through the election.
The Giffords organization, which seeks numerous restrictions on gun
ownership and use, approved of Lombardo's appointment as acting
director. From Giffords press release:
“Regina Lombardo is a career special agent who has served our country at ATF for over 25 years. We support her ascension to the top role at the agency. Congress and the Trump administration must now provide the increased funding and resources she needs to succeed in an agency that has been historically underserved.”
As someone who has studied bureaucratic dynamics for years, it appears ATF is being obstructionist, waiting out the election.
The inference is many inside the agency think there will be a different President in 2021, a different Attorney General, and those pesky DOJ memos directing them to carefully follow the Administrative Procedures Act will go away when the next administration takes over.
A
significant source of power in the ATF is to make rulings with private
letters, reverse them, change them, and never worry about having those
rulings challenged in court. The Trump administration, through the DOJ,
as part of its regulatory overhaul, has been working to change that and
to make ATF rulings more transparent.
A common theme has
been: the ATF is more chaotic than most bureaus, and has factions inside
which work against one another. It leaks repeatedly to Congressional
members, and resists Congressional oversight. At the same time, the
Congress has been deadlocked, unable to enact reforms which are needed.
Acting Director Regina Lombardo has a reputation of being reasonably competent, but not a rock star. Getting control of a chaotic ATF is no easy task. ATF has always been rather political.
The Honey Badger Cease and Desist letter may be an attempt to circumvent the DOJ memos.
The
Boston Field Office of the ATF issued the Honey Badger Cease and
Desist letter. They claimed the Firearms and Technology Division
determined
the firearm is a short barreled rifle. It is not clear if Lombardo
and/or Richardson approved of the letter before it went out. In a well
run Bureau, such a sensitive item would not be sent out without approval
from the top brass.
If people inside the ATF made the pistol brace letters
to hurt President Trump, they have a poor understanding of the
electoral dynamics. Such shenanigans are as likely to show the need to
keep the Trump administration in control to bring the ATF into line. It
is not easy to know how such moves will effect voters.
The smart bureaucratic move would be to do nothing so close to an election. It would be easy to justify to a Biden administration, as they could claim to be following the DOJ directives. What administration would want a bureau inside the DOJ to resist their directives?
As a political move, the brace rulings signal overconfidence of a Biden victory.
The ATF is part of the Administrative State. The Administrative State will reflexively resist attempts to control it and reduce its power. A strong, reform minded director of the ATF is needed to change the organizational mindset.
©2020 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
SPARTANBURG CO., SC (WSPA) – Deputies say there will be no criminal charges against a man who shot another to death at a QuikTrip in Spartanburg County Tuesday night.
According to the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office, the shooting happened around 11:00pm at the QuikTrip on Reidville Road.
The coroner said 58-year-old Russell David Berry of Duncan was shot in the torso and taken to Spartanburg Medical Center where he later died during surgery.
“The homeowner went back in the house and retrieved a handgun and when he came back out the same male stopped in the roadway of Greengate Drive on the side of the house and approached the homeowner with an aluminum bat,” Miramontez said.
In the confrontation that ensued, the resident shot the man at least five times, she said.
No charges will be filed in the case, because Sheriff Donald Valenza said 34-year-old Dantrail Mills was trying to break into a Kinsey home when he was shot by the homeowner. On Sunday, Oct. 11 around 2:00 a.m. the Houston County Sheriff’s Office received a call for a possible burglary in progress on Nomad Circle.
Mills was armed and had parked about 90 to 100 feet from the home. When Mills entered the home he was met by a male resident who fired multiple times.
Mills is no stranger to law enforcement. He’s been arrested more than 20 times. He was currently on federal probation.
A man carrying a legally concealed handgun was robbed Wednesday night on the Far South Side, shot in the thigh and returned gunfire in the thieves' direction as they fled, Chicago police said.
At the scene, authorities were told that one suspect was shot inside the house during an altercation with a homeowner.
The suspect, identified by a coroner as Dallas White, 21 of Summerville, was transported to an area hospital were he succumbed to his injuries.
The home invasion happened along the 900 block of Chalk Level Road. Police said three men “entered (the) premises and began shooting.”
Two men were shot. One returned fire, police said.
We’re told the incident happened just before 11 p.m., at a residence on Wheatleys Pond Road. It was reported that a suspect forced entry into the home and was confronted by the 87-year-old homeowner/victim. The victim reportedly had a handgun and extended towards the suspect, but the suspect was able to take the gun away from the victim before fleeing on foot in an unknown direction.
The victim got out and began to fight with Frankenfield, police said. The suspect pulled away and now on the passenger side of the car, fired a shot that shattered a window in the 2002 Volkswagen Golf and the round became lodged in the window frame on that side of the car, police said. The victim then reached into the driver’s side of car and pulled out a weapon of his own, police said.
The victim chased Frankenfield through the parking lot and onto the sidewalk along Broad Street, police said. Frankenfield fired another shot that whizzed by the victim before the suspect ran out of sight, police said.
At about dusk, the hog disappeared into some tall overgrowth along a canal and wasn’t an easy target for the deputy. When Andrus maneuvered around the hog to push it back to the deputy, it turned and charged Andrus from about 20 feet. Andrus shot and killed it.
“It wasn’t exactly my easiest moment in the world when it came at me,” he said. “Luckily I had my .45.”
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