SD: Intruder Stabs Occupant, gets Shot

A disturbance late Tuesday night in Black Hawk left a homeowner with stab wounds and an alleged intruder with a gunshot wound.


According to a release from the Meade County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a call from a residence in the 9300 block of Heritage Drive at 11:23 p.m., reporting an unknown man had entered the home and stabbed one of the occupants.
More Here

MD: Drug and Gun Bans Foster Dirty Cops in Baltimore

The Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force has been found to be filled with corrupt officers who used their positions to intimidate and steal with impunity. Eight members of the "elite" unit have been charged. Six have plead guilty already. It is not hard to understand the temptation faced by the officers. They often dealt in multiple thousands of dollars in cash that would be confiscated or forfeited to the Baltimore government. As members of the "Gun Trace Task Force", they were immune from effective oversight. And they knew it.

They were taking their "cut" before the government took the rest. Given the irresponsibility of the Baltimore politicians, it is not hard to comprehend. Once integrity is lost, it becomes easier and easier to justify more and more corruption. From baltimoresun.com:

Except, Detective Maurice Ward testified Tuesday, the officers already had pocketed half the $200,000 they found inside the safe before the recording started, after taking a man’s keys during a traffic stop and entering his home without a warrant. It was one of many illegal tactics Ward said the officers used as they chased guns and drugs across the city while skimming proceeds for themselves.

Ward is one of four detectives from the police department’s defunct Gun Trace Task Force who have pleaded guilty and are expected to testify at the trial of two fellow officers, Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor, which began with opening statements Tuesday.

The money would not be there if the drugs were easily and legally available. The Gun Trace Task force would not be in existence except for the State of Maryland's obsession with disarming its citizens.

He said the officers’ overtime “was given with a wink and a nod, right up the chain of command, as long as we can say you’re getting guns off the streets of Baltimore City.”

One officer testified that the Gun Trace Task Force kept BB guns available to use as throw down guns to justify a shooting if it was necessary.

At Jenkins’ instruction, Ward said, they kept BB guns on hand in case they hit someone or got into a shootout and needed to plant one on someone. He did not say whether that ever occurred.

 The corruption and illegal activity spanned many years.  People in the black community said "we told you so".

The investigation is far from over. More indictments are likely. It has been alleged that a Baltimore prosecutor tipped of the Gun Trace Task Force they were under investigation by the FBI. The investigation started as an investigation into a drug overdose death.

When many thousands of untraceable dollars are easily available and chances of prosecution are tiny, such corruption is going to continue. This level of corruption may become more difficult with the trend to employ body cameras on officers anytime they are on duty. But if police administrators are part of the corruption, videos can be lost or deleted.


When high levels of cash and high levels of personal power are in the mix, there is a tremendous incentive for officers and administrators to figure out ways to game the system.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Posting Spotty Tomorrow - Traveling to Australia

The trip to Australia by air is not conducive to blogging.

The posts may be a bit sparse for the next day or two, until I am able to get connected in Australia.

Roy Eykamp is having his 100th birthday.

I will be attending his party. Roy and I became rather close last year.

I had the privilege of being chief cook and bottle washer on his farm for nearly three months. It was only a part-time job.  At 99, Roy needs a little help from his friends.

I don't know if the job of chief cook and bottle washer is open, but I suspect my friend, Curtis Eykamp, will appreciate a bit of time off from caring for his father, Roy.

Having some experience with the job, I have a leg up over rank amateurs who may apply.

 I expect to add more articles about the Australian gun culture while I am there.

 ©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

NC: Man Holds Woman at Gunpoint, Husband Shoots, Kills, Aggressor

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) – A Fayetteville property manager said a robber was shot dead Tuesday night by the vicitm’s husband.

Donna Quiles is the property manager of apartments on Netherland Drive. Quiles said a man man started knocking on doors, threatened a woman he saw outside and held her at gunpoint.
More Here

Followup DE: Multiple Charges Against Wounded Home Invader

According to Middletown Police, Howard Watkins, 20, was involved in and determined to be the aggressor in a shooting with a 24-year-old victim at 3:06 p.m. on January 17, 2018, in the 100 block of East Lockwood Street. Both Watkins and the victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
More Here

WY: 7mm Mag for Self Defense Against Moose; Jury Agrees

Image from Linda Blakeman

In early 2016, Chauncy G. Goodrich and his family started having problems with a young bull moose on their property near Pinedale, Wyoming. They were repeatedly chased by the moose. They tried various non lethal methods to haze the moose away. They worked for a short period, but the bull continued to hang around the area. 

By July of 2017, the non-lethal methods were exhausted and/or were no longer effective. Chauncy took a 7 mm Magnum with him as a precaution when he attempted to chase the moose off his property and away from his wife and young children.

The bull was in velvet. It started to move away, then charged him. He shot it in the chest, and it died. Chauncy called the game warden and texted him. From pinedaleroundup.com:

“He stated he tried to push the moose away from his house when it charged him and he shot it,” it says. “… On 7/24/2017 he texted me saying he had put that bull down.”

Last Tuesday, July 25, Roundup reporters went to the Schroeder Ranch, near Goodrich’s property, where they observed a dead bull moose lying in tall grass, its antlers in the velvet stage.

Haley’s affidavit states that he, Pinedale supervisor John Lund and Warden Jordan Kraft went to the “kill site” and found the moose with a single gunshot wound to its left chest and a spent 7 mm magnum rifle casing by the tree where Goodrich reported to be when he shot it.

“The wound path indicated the bull was shot as it was facing Goodrich head on,” Haley wrote.

Moose have killed and maimed numerous people with their hoofs. They clearly have the means and motive for homicide.

In self defense law, if someone has repeatedly and credibly threatened you and your family with deadly force, most people would believe you would be justified if you finally resort to deadly force when credibly threatened.   Animals are incapable of committing crimes, because they cannot read or know the law.

Chauncy was charged with the illegal take of a moose. The crime is a high misdemeanor with a penalty of up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $10,000.

Chauncy decided to take the case to a jury of his peers. On January 17, after a one day trial, the jurors returned a verdict after an hour and 15 minutes. From gillettenewsrecord.com:

PINEDALE – After a one-day trial in state court, six jurors returned a verdict of “not guilty” for Chauncy G. Goodrich of Pinedale, who testified he shot and killed a young bull moose in self-defense.

I suspect Chancy's legal fees were a couple of thousand dollars. He did not spend time in jail.

I like Washington State's system. If you are prosecuted in a self-defense case, and are found not guilty, the state will reinburse you. From apps.leg.wa.gov:

Defending against violent crime—Reimbursement.

(1) No person in the state shall be placed in legal jeopardy of any kind whatsoever for protecting by any reasonable means necessary, himself or herself, his or her family, or his or her real or personal property, or for coming to the aid of another who is in imminent danger of or the victim of assault, robbery, kidnapping, arson, burglary, rape, murder, or any other violent crime as defined in RCW 9.94A.030. 

(2) When a person charged with a crime listed in subsection (1) of this section is found not guilty by reason of self-defense, the state of Washington shall reimburse the defendant for all reasonable costs, including loss of time, legal fees incurred, and other expenses involved in his or her defense. This reimbursement is not an independent cause of action. To award these reasonable costs the trier of fact must find that the defendant's claim of self-defense was sustained by a preponderance of the evidence. If the trier of fact makes a determination of self-defense, the judge shall determine the amount of the award.

Model legislation for all states should include defense against animal attack. I have read of prosecutions for defense against moose, bears, and dogs. There are likely others.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Followup MS: Grand Jury Indicts man for Murder: Police refused to Charge

The video clearly shows the teen attempting to break the window of the car, with a rock. The resolution is not great.

A manager at a Jackson business fatally shot a teenager in 2016 who was allegedly breaking into a vehicle. He was unexpectedly indicted for murder.

On Monday, Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith filed a motion to remand the charges against Wayne Parish, 57, according to media reports.

More Here

DE: Man Shot by Bail Bondsman Identified as Marshall Overby

The bondsman was pursuing Marshall Overby, 35, when a fight between the two came to a head in the backyard of a home on Stratford Road. Police say the bondsman fired one shot at Overby.

A frantic 911 call came in from the shooter around 2:30 p.m., moments after he shot Overby, asking for police and an ambulance.

During the call, the bondsman tells a dispatcher he was chasing Overby because he missed court. Overby has a long list of convictions and charges in several counties in the Triad.
More Here

Followup FL: Armed Victime Shot and Killed Home Invader, no Charges

According to an arrest report, Golden, Quinn, and Washington forced their way into the home at 4700 block of Lillian Highway, held two people at gunpoint and demanded money. The victims of the home invasion initially told deputies they heard the gunshots after the three men took off.

According to an arrest report, the people inside the home and held at gunpoint were Mary Dirian and Stefan Casanova.

Marcille will not say who they believe shot Washington, but confirms it was one of the victims in the home invasion who pulled the trigger.
More Here

Followup MA: Jefrey Lovell Not Guilty in Fatal Shooting of Dylan Francisco

Details came out at trial, not known in the initial article at Gun Watch. 

SPRINGFIELD -- Hampden Superior Court Judge Constance M. Sweeney on Tuesday found Jeffrey Lovell not guilty of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a teenager he believed was a burglar.

Lovell, 44, of Chicopee, was charged with voluntary manslaughter for the shooting that killed 15-year-old Dylan Francisco on July 16, 2016.
More Here

TX: Gunfight, Victim with Pistol Shoots Suspect armed with Sawed off Shotgun

According to police, a man was walking to his car when he spotted a stranger pointing a sawed-off shotgun at him.

The car owner told police that he pulled out his pistol and opened fire on the stranger.

Police say robbery was a possible motive.

The shotgun holder was transported to the hospital in stable condition.

More Here

MD: Armed Homeowner Shoots Intruder as he Breaks into Home

The suspect had allegedly broken into the basement and started to kick the door leading from the basement to the main floor of the home, according to police. The suspect “successfully broke through the door,” police said.

The homeowner shot the suspect twice with a handgun and the man fled. Officers found him after getting a 911 call around 1:45 a.m. that a man had been shot and was in need of help nearby.
More Here

Followup SD: Alex Wittenberg Acquitted by Jury in Jonathan Puttmann Fatal Shooting

This is another example of how the FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR) only catches 20% of justified homicides.  Wittenberg was charged with murder/manslaughter and arrested. That arrest goes into the FBI UCR as a murder. 14 months later, Wittenberg is found to have been justified, by a jury. The FBI UCR has no mechanism for retroactively changing the murder statistic to a justified homicide.

Twenty-four-year-old Alex Wittenberg was found not guilty Tuesday night of second-degree murder and first- and second-degree manslaughter in the death of 39-year-old Jonathan Puttmann. The two men fought when Wittenberg accompanied Puttmann’s estranged wife who was dropping off the couple’s children at Puttmann’s house on Nov. 15, 2016.

More Here

The Washington Post Ignores Right to Bear Arms

In an article about shall issue carry permits in Washington, D.C., the authors, Peter Hermann and Peter Jamison, ignore half of the rights contained in the Second Amendment. It is rather odd, considering it is the main topic of their article.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit struck down the "may issue" law in D.C. specifically.  Here is an excerpt from Wrenn that shows how strong the opinion is.  From Wrenn v. D.C.:

Our first question is whether the Amendment’s “core” extends to publicly carrying guns for self-defense. The District argues that it does not, citing Heller I’s observation that “the need for defense of self, family, and property is most acute” in the home. Id. at 628. But the fact that the need for self-defense is most pressing in the home doesn’t mean that self-defense at home is the only right at the Amendment’s core. After all, the Amendment’s “core lawful purpose” is self-defense, id. at 630, and the need for that might arise beyond as well as within the home. Moreover, the Amendment’s text protects the right to “bear”as well as “keep”arms. For both reasons, it’s more natural to view the Amendment’s core as including a law-abiding citizen’s right to carry common firearms for self-defense beyond the home (subject again to relevant “longstanding” regulations like bans on carrying “in sensitive places”). Id. at 626.

This reading finds support in parts of Heller I that speak louder than the Court’s aside about where the need for guns is “most acute.” That remark appears when Heller I turns to the particular ban on possession at issue there. By then the Court has spent over fifty pages giving independent and seemingly equal treatments to the right to “keep” and to “bear,” first defining those “phrases” and then teasing out their implications. See id. at 570-628. In that long preliminary analysis, the Court elaborates that to “bear” means to “‘wear, bear, or carry . . . upon the person or in the clothing or in a pocket, for the purpose . . . of being armed and ready for offensive or defensive action in a case of conflict with another person.’” Id. at 584 (quoting Muscarello v. United States, 524 U.S. 125, 143 (1998) (Ginsburg, J., dissenting)). That definition shows that the Amendment’s core must span, in the Court’s own words, the “right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation.” Id. at 592 (emphasis added).

 But the Peter and Peter ignore the obvious.  From the Washington Post article:

City officials have long fought efforts to chip away at the District’s strict controls since the high court used a local case in 2008 to declare that an individual has a right to gun ownership.

 (snip)

City officials decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court because of the potential national implications. An unfavorable ruling could have weakened gun control regulations in states such as California, New York and Maryland.

(snip)

“I wasn’t going to try to manufacture a reason. It’s the Bill of Rights. You shouldn’t need a reason,” he said recently, referring to the Second Amendment right to own a firearm.

It is almost humorous the length Peter and Peter of the post go to not mention the right to bear arms.  They specifically mention that the D.C. government will not appeal the case, because they fear the Supreme Court will uphold the right (to bear arms).

The court case that mandated the change in D.C. law, was all about the right to bear arms.  But the right to bear arms is conspicuously absent from the Washington Post article. Perhaps an editor removed it as Post policy.

We may never know.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch





   

VT: Canadian admits to Smuggling 100 Handguns to Canada

Authorities say Alexis Vlachos, 40, of Montreal pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Burlington. He could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Court documents say that between 2010 and 2011, Vlachos worked with others to get about 100 handguns purchased from dealers in Florida into Canada, which restricts handgun ownership.

More Here

Followup TX: Jinenez Shooting Appears to be Self Defense

Police say Jimenez started shooting at the man, who pulled out his handgun from his car and fired back. He and Jimenez did not know each other.
The Travis County Medical Examiner says Jimenez’ cause of death is a gunshot wound. The Travis County District Attorney is reviewing the case, but so far it appears to be self-defense.
More Here

DE: Armed Citizen Holds Intruder with Six Warrents for Police

HARTLY, Del. (AP) - A man who broke into a Delaware house and was held at gunpoint says he only broke in to get out of the rain.

The News Journal of Wilmington reports 28-year-old Jeffrey Smith was charged Sunday with second-degree burglary and criminal mischief.
More Here

Justifiable Homicides are Counted as Murder under the Felony Murder Rule

The Felony Murder Rule is a law where a person who is involved in a felony can be charged with murder if someone dies as a result of the felony.  From justia.com:

The felony murder rule is a rule that allows a defendant to be charged with first-degree murder for a killing that occurs during a dangerous felony, even if the defendant is not the killer. The felony murder rule applies only to those crimes that are considered “inherently dangerous,” as the rationale underlying the felony murder rule is that certain crimes are so dangerous that society wants to deter individuals from engaging in them altogether. Thus, when a person participates in an inherently dangerous crime, he or she may be held responsible for the fatal consequences of that crime, even if someone else caused the actual death.

The felony murder rule is often applied when an armed victim kills one of the criminal suspects attempting to victimize them. If there is a surviving accomplice, the accomplice may be charged under the felony murder rule.

Only four states do not have the felony murder rule in some form. Hawaii, Delaware, Kentucky, and Michigan have no felony murder rule.  They eliminated the rule between 1973 and 1980 as part of capital punishment reform

If someone is charged with murder under the felony murder rule, the homicide will be coded as a murder in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, not as a justified homicide. Examples of this practice are easily found online. From amarillo.com:

Amarillo Police Department has identified the man shot at La Bella Pizza on Olsen Boulevard as Clayton Jerrell Morgan, according to a news release. Officers arrested his alleged accomplice, 29-year-old Ruben Ryel Rios, who police said was charged under the state’s felony murder rule that allows a person to be charged with murder if they are involved in a felony crime that causes a death.

From wbay.com:

An 18-year-old Appleton man was shot and killed by the target of a robbery at an apartment in Oshkosh, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Action 2 News.

Tory Summers, 28, has been charged with Felony Murder in connection to the death of Cashmiere A.S. Hill. Summers is also charged with Armed Robbery and Burglary.

The FBI Uniform Crime Reports only catch about 20% of justified homicides in the United States. The felony murder rule is one of the reasons why the numbers are so low. How many of the murders in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) are from the Felony Murder Rule? In research published in 2002, the number of cases under the Felony Murder Rule were found to be substantial. From virginia.edu:

Although nearly 20 percent of all murders annually are felony murders, no one has empirically validated the effects of the rule. This paper attempts to fill this hole using state-level data on felonies and felony homicides from 1970-98.

20 percent over a sample of 28 years is a a significant number. How many of those were justified killing which became murders under the Felony Murder Rule? We do not know. The FBI does not have a separate category for Felony Murder Rule homicides.

Justified Homicides are counted by the FBI under a very restrictive definition.

For private persons, there were 331 justified homicides recorded by the FBI UCR in 2016  The FBI UCR estimated the number of murders to be 17,250 for the same year.

Justified Homicides, other than by law enforcement officers, were 1.9% of all homicides recorded by the FBI in the UCR. Surveys indicate these are only one fifth of the actual justified homicides. The real number of justified homicides is close to 10% of all homicides.

Felony Murder Rule homicides may be close to 20% of all murders in the United States. There is plenty of room for significant numbers of felony murders recorded by the FBI to be justifiable homicides. Those homicides inflate the United States murder rate and decrease the "official' number of justified homicides in the United States.

England eliminated the Felony Murder Rule in 1957.


©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

Followup SC: No Charges for Man who Shot Teen while Recovering Stolen Car

State law allows people to use deadly force if they reasonably fear an imminent threat of serious injury, even if they are mistaken.

"The death of (Derrick Grant) is a tragedy for his family and for this community," the police said. "We have determined that this incident, however tragic, is not reasonably prosecutable under the law."

Grant's family members struggled to comprehend why the shooter hadn't waited for authorities before approaching the teenager. The police told them during a briefing earlier Monday that Morton was within his legal right to make a citizen's arrest over the stolen car, Mark Peper of West Ashley, an attorney for the loved ones, said.


More Here

TX: Armed Victim Survives Gunfight

Police say Jimenez started shooting at the man, who pulled out his concealed handgun from his car and fired back. He and Jimenez did not know each other.

The Travis County Medical Examiner says Jimenez’ cause of death is a gunshot wound. The Travis County District Attorney is reviewing the case, but so far it appears to be self-defense. The man who shot Jimenez and the other men are cooperating with police, and APD says there is no public safety concern at this time.
More Here