I’ll be honest, I originally thought this story was just “rich people getting robbed.” But it’s a heck of a lot more intriguing than that.

It got a lot of coverage, probably because it happened in a tony community in Newport Beach, California, that had expensive homes and a gate and a guard. But there are a lot of little pieces to put together.

Let’s start with the home invasion itself.

Just before 5 AM, 24-year-old Andrew Miguel Rosas and another man invaded a rental property on Vista Luci. This is not a motel: It rents for $35,000 per month, boasts 4,709 square feet, and has beautiful views of the coastline. I’ve heard estimates of its value that range from five to seven million dollars.

I know, I know: the price of everything and the value of nothing. But it helps us understand the target of the invaders’ ambitions.

Moreover, the invaders knew the people who lived there, though we don’t know what the relationship was. The renters were Chinese nationals,1 and four people were home at the time — a man,2 two women, and a child.

The invaders brought zip ties and rope. They took a phone away from one of the victims to prevent them from calling for help.

But they weren’t able to take the man’s rifle away. Rosas was shot multiple times. He stumbled out to the street, where the police found him lying down and holding his handgun. The other invader ran, hid in some bushes — and committed suicide with a bullet to the head.

I don’t know about you, but that seems a little weird to me.

None of the people in the home were hurt. When they called the police, they not only got cars, but SWAT and a helicopter.

(…but they wouldn’t have been able to call the cops if they hadn’t had a rifle. Just saying. This is still a Good Guy with a Gun story.)

Rosas was taken to the hospital for an extended stay. Newport Police initially wouldn’t give a motive, and then they said that the invaders hadn’t necessarily been trying to rob the house. However, by the time he appeared in court, Rosas had been charged with first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery, carrying a loaded firearm in public and conspiring to commit a crime. But hold that thought.

Specifically, Patch tells us “he was accused of conspiring with Gao Ming to commit the robbery, according to the criminal complaint.” Is Gao Ming the dead guy? Not clear: Just two paragraphs later, Patch mentions that the police aren’t mentioning the dead guy’s name yet — and I see nothing else about him in the months that followed. But I suspect that it is, and here’s why:

When we fast-forward to December, 2024, Rosas and two others pleaded guilty to charges related to this crime. Quoting MyNewsLA.com:

First, note that Rosas, Hernandez, and Cortez were all charged with kidnapping for ransom — this was no ordinary robbery.

Then note that the three people who were alive to plead had Hispanic names, but there’s no Gao Ming.

So a man with a very common Chinese name is mentioned as a conspirator in court documents; the people in the home are Chinese nationals; one of the people who failed to kidnap the victims took his own life. Who was he? What was he afraid of?

Now I want to know more about the Chinese nationals who rented the house. But of course they’re the victims, so there’s nothing about them in the usual places.

Finally, the Orange County Register notes:

That last bit can be chalked up to the capriciousness of judges — but on top of everything else, I have to wonder. Maybe I watch too many conspiracy TV shows. Or maybe there really was something weird going on.

Let’s wrap up with something a little more mundane: A tweet from then-Mayor of Newport Beach, Will O’Neill.

In case Substack stops working with X again, here’s what he says:

I have a message for those who would come to our City to commit crime. We will defend ourselves.

In the embedded video, he adds, “…and today is an example of that.”

Sources

There are too many sources for this story to mention. I’ll link (in some cases re-link) some of the sources that gave key details for this story that I used for my reconstruction (and conspiracy theory).

The Orange County Register did a great job overall, so that’s the source to stick with if you’re just sticking with one.

• Newport Coast resident shoots home invasion suspect, April 16, updated April 22

• 24-year-old man charged in Newport Coast home invasion, April 16, updated April 20

• Man shot by Newport Coast resident during apparent home robbery attempt appears in court, April 29, updated April 30

• Violent Newport Coast home invasion leads to prison terms for 2 men, 1 woman, December 3, updated December 5 — note that this is the primary source for the prosecutors’ opposition to the plea bargains for the three living conspirators.

The Daily Mail claimed to have some sources that gave them details that weren’t given elsewhere:

• the renters being Chinese nationals

• a reference to a Fox11 article or broadcast that I can’t find in which the police said that it might not have been a robbery

• confirmation from unnamed local sources that it was a kidnapping attempt

…and of course they have dazzling pictures that it would be unethical to steal, but don’t think I wasn’t tempted.

Stu News Newport mentioned that a source told them that the man with the rifle was there specifically to protect the people in the house.

Patch is the only source to mention conspirator Gao Ming.

MyNewsLA.com talked about the pleading.

There are dozens more, but I think if you’ve read these, you’ve probably got every detail worth noting. If anyone finds something else, please drop a comment.

Paid subscribers get the full list; free subscribers get a sample.

Note that we don’t pretend that this represents every newsroom that covered any given story. And everyone is innocent until proved guilty.

To the stories!

Florida

Jacksonville: In a twist on the usual sequence of home-invasion events, a homeowner returned home and found the invader already inside the house.  After confronting the invader, who was a male in his late-teens, the homeowner shot him in the shoulder. Police then arrived and transported the wounded man to the hospital.

• One shot during suspected home invasion on University Boulevard North, Jacksonville police say (First Coast News)

• Florida Man Shoots Intruder After Walking In on Home Invasion at Jacksonville Apartment (USACarry)

Miami-Dade County: No one is saying what the argument o Tuesday morning was about, but it must have rankled Eugene Witherspoon, 46, because hours later, after midnight, he went to the victim’s home and shot at him three times, hitting him in the leg.

The victim then fired on Witherspoon, causing him to flee.

Deputies found him later on Wednesday and arrested him, at which point Witherspoon “admitted to shooting the victim and getting rid of the gun,” and thanks to the fact that Witherspoon is a registered sex offender, a charge of “felon in possession of a gun” was added to the attempted first-degree murder charge.

• Man shot hours after dispute near northwest Miami-Dade restaurant, cops say; 1 arrested (Local10.com)

Illinois

Chicago: A homeowner (who happens to be a license concealed carrier, not that he needed to concealed carry in his own home) fired on an intruder who charged at him. He then called police and started CPR, but the intruder died from the gunshot wound in his chest.

One story notes that the home the intruder broke into is across the street from a police station—even across the street isn’t close enough to stop someone charging at you when the police are still a call away... [Note that the same was true for today’s GGWAG #166 —Ed.]

• Man shoots, kills intruder who charges at him in home in Chicago’s South Deering community, police say (CBS News)

• Homeowner Shoots and Kills Intruder Who Charged at Him Inside Chicago Home (USACarry)

• Defending the Threshold: Chicago Resident Fires Fatal Shot After Intruder Charges (Concealed Nation)

Read more

Hapeville is small-town Georgia. Jeff Foxworthy’s hometown has been through good times, busts, and later gentrification.

On a Monday morning around 9 AM, our gun owner left his apartment to go to work. Now, when people talk about calling the police instead of being your own first responder, consider showing them this picture: the view of the victim’s apartment complex from the front of the police department.

The victim got to his Mercedes in the parking garage when a white Camaro pulled up. A man got out, pointed a gun at him, and ordered him to get on the ground.

Sergeant Stephen Cushing of the Hapeville PD described what happened next with classic understatement:

He did go down a little bit, and realized, “Hey, you know, I’ve got a gun, I can defend myself.”

Using his car as a shield, the victim fired off multiple rounds at the man. That man went down, but when the victim stood up, he realized someone else was in the passenger seat of the car. He fired at him and ran back to his apartment to call 911.

You can hear parts of the call in Channel 2’s follow-up coverage, as indicated in the Sources section.

Police arrived on-scene to find 39-year-old Lando Renard Carter’s corpse. He had had a criminal history, including an almost-14-year federal sentence for armed robbery; he had been released from that sentence less than a year before this incident.

The man in the passenger seat was 33-year-old Alton Coleman. He wasn’t hurt; the cops found him after a few minutes, peeing in front of a church about a quarter-mile away. (Why yes, I do wonder about his cognitive ability and/or drug usage, thanks for asking.) You can see bodycam footage of that arrest in the same Channel 2 coverage. He also had a lengthy criminal record dating back to 2011, and he was charged with murder in Carter’s death — but that charge was later dismissed.

No charges were filed against the victim.

I’ll let Sgt. Cushing have the last word:

It was very lucky. The victim was able to turn himself from being a victim to being able to defend himself legally.

Sources

WSB-TV 2’s Michael Seiden did a fantastic job of reporting on this incident. He got court records for the criminal backgrounds of both men and the interview with Sgt. Cushing; he highlighted how close the apartment was to the police department; and he published both an initial report and the follow-up when the case against Carter was dismissed. There’s video in both; the first one contains the interview with Sgt. Cushing, and the second one contains the 911 call and bodycam footage. Superb work.

I can find only one other report on this incident, surprisingly enough: Carlos Garcia at Blaze Media.

Honestly, the Shell station clerk’s restraint is more striking than the five-foot-long snake. And I really appreciate the family coming to the store afterward.

But we’re getting way ahead of ourselves.

At 2 AM in Memphis, Reginald Cook made a purchase at a Shell station and left. A half-hour later, he returned and demanded money. On the second visit, the cashier thought he might have a weapon, but he refused to open the safe. Cook left again.

A little after 3 AM, Cook came back a third time — with a five-foot-long snake around his neck.

He demanded money and reached into his backpack, at which point the cashier drew his own firearm. No shots were fired, and the cops picked Cook up.

The backpack? No gun: It held a railroad spike and a rock.

Kudos to Cook’s family, who later apologized and offered to cover damages that might have resulted from the incident. That didn’t get as much coverage as I would have liked. They seem like the type of people who are trying to raise their son right.

But wait: We’re not done.

This situation seems ridiculous — who would rob a store with a snake? — but check out this story, where two men successfully robbed a truck stop using snakes.

This happened in Denmark, Tennessee — about an hour northwest of Memphis — less than a year later, in March, 2025. Unfortunately, nobody there was able to detain the men, so they absconded with about $400 in CBD oil.

Sources

There are literally too many sources to name, so you’re going to get a sampling. Funny thing is, I don’t see the original police report, so all you’re getting is secondary sources.

Main story

Straight news sources (local)

• The article that spawned most of the offshoots is from WREG 3, with text and video.

• WMC/Gray News supported a number of outlets, much like the AP does. Here’s an example from WWNY TV 7.

• News Channel 8, WFTV 9 are examples of other local coverage, much of it through affiliates.

Straight news sources (national)

• The New York Post.

• The Washington Examiner.

• I don’t know News Nation, but I’ve seen them referenced before, so they’re probably not nobody.

Specialist news sources

• Sean Holt at USACarry.

• Aggregator Hoodline often covers defensive gun uses, and they didn’t disappoint.

• The Daily Caller ran with it.

• Those trippy dudes at Smoke Tales on YouTube.

Talk radio

There were a lot of these, but most were duplicates down to the last comma. Here’s a sample: 104.5 WOKV, B100, Talk Radio 960, KCOL 600.

Why am I not surprised?

Not the Bee covered this story. That’s a first for us, covering the same material they did. But how could they not? Unfortunately, I’m no longer a paying subscriber, so I can’t read it. :(

Successful March 2025 snake robbery

This is documented at WREG 3 and Lipstick Alley.

Dude: Take the L.

Christopher Cendroski was a violent man. Just last week, on April 6, 2026, he became the poster boy for domestic abuse in an article from The Guardian.

A few months into their relationship, which began in 2011, Cendroski started beating Martin, and in May 2012, he nearly choked her to death, she said. Police arrested Cendroski and helped both Martin and her children get to a shelter.

The same article contains a notable postscript: “Her abuser, Cendroski, was shot and killed in 2024 while invading a home.” This is that story.

It starts with… loitering. No, really. Cendroski was seen loitering around the Beer Barn in Greenfield, Missouri before going over to the Price Cutters. Not a big deal.

Except then he got caught shoplifting. The store manager confronted him, and he ran.

Still not that big of a deal, but he ran across the street and into the back door of a private residence.

A relative1 of the homeowner was there, armed, and they exchanged gunfire. The relative was hurt and went to the hospital, but Cendroski was killed.

Shoplifting isn’t punishable by death: He should have stopped while he was behind.

But then, there’s a lot of stuff he should have stopped.

Sources

The Greenfield PD published a report on Facebook.

KY3 (“the place to be!”) published a terse report online and gave it 20 seconds of airtime (though it sounds like that’s just the update).

And here’s that domestic abuse article from the Guardian.

Erratum: The calendar entry showed AK (Alaska) rather than AR (Arkansas).

A gun isn’t magical. It won’t ensure that you’ll remain uninjured when you defend yourself. But many people would rather risk injury than remain helpless in the face of crime.

In this case, the crime was armed robbery: Lamarion Bailey, 18, tried to rob 23-year-old Damariantae Russell at gunpoint outside the Race Street Market in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Russell didn’t submit. We don’t have much more detail — a car with bullet holes, Bailey found dead by police who arrived shortly after the shooting, and Russell appearing at the hospital with gunshot wounds — but we do know that the Jonesboro PD said that Russell was acting in self-defense in the ensuing exchange of gunfire.

Sources

Primary source

The Jonesboro PD had an initial report on Facebook and an update on Facebook when they determined it was self-defense.

News sources

Several sources documented this incident before the police cleared Russell. They include: Imboden Live, The Sun and one of two stories mentioned in Northeast Arkansas News.

Outlets that covered the story when self-defense had been determined included NEA [Northeast Arkansas] Report (they posted, and then updated in place — thanks, folks), The Fox 104.9, and KAIT 8 (with 35-second on-air clip).

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette had an article behind a paywall that I didn’t break.

I saw no 2A / specialist coverage of this incident.

I’m changing my format a little to manage the setting and the dramatis personae.

Three people were selling a Glock 27. These are the bad guys:

• Martin Henderson

• Mario Duarte, who listed the Glock for sale

• Yasmine Duarte, who was Henderson’s fiance and Mario’s sister

Two people came to buy it:

• Victor Hernandez

• Pedro1, last name not available

They met in the parking lot of an apartment complex, the three bad-guy sellers in a black Buick and the two buyers in a black BMW. (It would help me a lot if the buyers were in a white car, but we go to war with the story we have, not the one we want.)

The incident

Mario Duarte got out of the Buick and stood at the window of the BMW, negotiating with Pedro. They agreed to a price of $500.

Then Duarte told Pedro to get into the Buick to complete the transaction.

Hernandez thought the sellers were behaving suspiciously, so when Pedro got into the Buick, Hernandez stayed in the BMW and put his personal Glock in his lap.

Good thing. Duarte took the money, then loaded the gun that was supposedly for sale and pointed it at Pedro. Pedro smacked it aside and jumped out of the car.

Duarte made eye contact with Hernandez and acted as if he were going to aim the weapon at him. So Hernandez shot at him, and he continued to shoot toward the Buick as Pedro joined him and they drove away. (Continue to shoot until the threat is neutralized, as they say.) After reaching a safe distance, Hernandez called 911.

The aftermath

Mario Duarte was wounded in the legs. Martin Henderson was shot in the head. They were both taken to the hospital; Henderson died there.

Yasmine Duarte wasn’t wounded. She drove back to her apartment and shoved a bag with four weapons in it — including the now-bloody Glock — behind her washer/dryer.

Much of this was caught on video, including Yasmine entering her apartment with the bag, which enabled Bexar County deputies to corroborate Hernandez’s story and recover the bag. As a result, they determined that Duarte, not the shooter Hernandez, was responsible for the violence.

Mario Duarte was charged with aggravated robbery and murder. The murder charge stems from the fact that he “committed an act clearly dangerous to human life that caused the death of Martin Henderson.”

Yasmine Duarte was charged with aggravated robbery and tampering with evidence.

Other notes

Added color

1. I’ve scrupulously avoided calling Victor Hernandez and Pedro “good guys,” and with significant reason: I’ve learned that Pedro might have been a juvenile. That wouldn’t change the fact that Duarte was threatening to kill them, that Hernandez’s actions were properly in self-defense, or that Duarte was charged with murder — but it does cast a pall on Hernandez’s reasons for being there in the first place.

2. In 2022, Mario Duarte was put on trial for the murder of Sabstein Diaz, then 16, who was selling Duarte drugs. Duarte was found not guilty. KSAT 12 discusses that a bit below. It notes at the end that Duarte was facing a separate charge for robbery at that time, stemming from another incident — he is not a nice man.

Errata

The calendar entry left out Yasmine Duarte. Some other news sources don’t mention her, but most do.

News 4 San Antonio calls Mario “Duarte,” then calls Yasmine “Duerte,” and then calls Mario “Duerte” from then on. They’re the only ones who use the e, so I assume it’s just a mistake.

Sources

Multiple sources gave slightly different information for this story, which I’ve tried to synthesize.

KSAT 12 is the standout for the depth and clarity of coverage it gave to all facets of this story, including the video posted above.

KENS 5 did a pretty good job as well, and gave the story a minute of airtime, including community reaction. On-air, they didn’t yet know that the “victims” were the robbers.

News 4 San Antonio (looks identical to Fox) and the San Antonio Express-News did a good job here as well.

News Radio WOAI 1200 gave it a brief mention.

Finally, Smoketales. They don’t have new information, but they certainly have a certain style when reading through these news articles.

Do a quick search on Coos Bay, Oregon, and you’ll get a lot of articles about their tourist attractions and golfing facilities. This story is a little different, even though it does involve a golf club, a shot, and a hole in [some]one.

Early on a Friday morning, just before 1 AM, 28-year-old David Holmes made the mistake of trying to break into a Coos Bay home. He was armed with a golf club.

The homeowner shot him and called 911. Luckily for Holmes, the homeowner didn’t feel like shooting eighteen holes.

Police provided medical care until medics arrived, and then Holmes was taken to the hospital. There was no word on charges against him at press time.

Sources

There’s a police report, which you can find on Facebook and Instagram, and everything else derives directly from that.

KVAL 13 devoted 37 seconds of airtime to the story. Other reports came from The World Link, KOBI 5, OregonToday.net, and KEZI 9. I don’t see any follow-up, interviews with nearby residents, or any other legwork from news organizations.

I also don’t see any coverage from 2A or specialist news organizations.

Sometimes we get very little information from the news articles about shootings — but that little bit can tell an important story.

A little after 9:30 PM on an April evening, a homeowner in Van Nuys, CA found four men inside his home.

He fired one shot at them, and they all ran away. When the police came, they found that the homeowner was uninjured.

We don’t know anything else. Was the homeowner alone? Did one of the intruders get hit? What were they after?

But one thing we know for sure is that guns are the Great Equalizer: Four against one!

Sources

This is a little frustrating: All of the sources, starting with MyNewsLA.com, point back to “a report from NBC 4”. Guess what I can’t find? Not on YouTube (though that’s diabolically hard to search well), nor with an nbclosangeles.com site search, nor with Google’s site search. So I’m really hoping that MyNewsLA got it right.

The other sources are pro-gun sites USACarry and Carry Hard, which includes it as part of a wrap-up piece.

Note that we don’t pretend that this represents every newsroom that covered any given story. And everyone is innocent until proved guilty.

To the stories!

Florida

Miami Beach

In this case, the gun was drawn but not fired.

The aggressor, who later told investigators that he was Muslim and “does not like Jews,” approached a father and his two children, 5- and 7-years-old, and asked if they were Jewish. When the father answered in the affirmative, this allegedly led the suspect, Ahman Zeeshan, to “verbally assault” the family and threaten to attack the father.

After warning Zeeshan many times to stop and to stay away, the victim and witnesses say the victim feared for his and his children’s safety and drew a concealed handgun.

After retreating initially, Zeeshan began moving toward the family again and resumed his verbal threats.

A nearby witness stood between Zeeshan and the family to protect them, at which point Zeeshan began to record the incident and left in his car, and he, the victim, and the witness all called the police.

The police indicated that they felt the victim was “in fear for his life” and justified in drawing his gun, and that the suspect—charged with “assault with prejudice based on religion”—put the family and others in the park in danger through his actions.

Man draws gun after cops say suspect harassed him and his children for being Jewish: Local10

West Park

In an update on an incident from January of 2024, a judge granted Darrell Rose’s “motion for immunity under Florida’s ’Stand Your Ground’ law.”

In the incident, Rose was arguing and fighting with Serdjy Hyppolite outside a tire shop when Hyppolite pulled out a gun.

The judge ruled that as the men struggled for the weapon, Rose “simply tried to prevent himself from being shot and killed by Hyppolite and, during the process, the firearm accidentally discharged.”

• Broward judge grants manslaughter suspect’s motion for immunity under ‘Stand Your Ground’ law: Local10

• Broward Court Shocker: Stand Your Ground Shields West Park Killing Suspect: Hoodline

Georgia

Atlanta

Najal Swain and Kamari Walker got into an argument with two other men outside a Food Mart. According to police warrants, Swain was “the first person to show he had a gun” and probably “shot it at the feet of the other two men, one of whom shot Walker in self-defense.”

Walker died at the scene, and Swain is charged with his partner’s murder, as well as “possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and two counts of aggravated assault.”

Suspect arrested in deadly shooting outside south Atlanta convenience store: Atlanta News First

Illinois

Chicago

An argument in a home escalated when a 44-year-old man drew a knife or “sharp object” on the 31-year-old man he was arguing with.

The younger man, who has an FOID, shot the man with the knife multiple times, also hitting a 38-year-old woman who had tried to intervene. Both the man and the woman died, and the shooter is being held. Depending on the news story, charges are supposedly pending as the investigation continues.

Chicago Today opines that “gun violence and fatal altercations in homes remain a persistent public safety issue in Chicago” and that this incident highlights “the need for better conflict resolution resources.”

Funny, but it was the attempted knife violence that allegedly made this altercation escalate to a fatal encounter, and “conflict resolution resources” means someone coming to the scene to try to resolve the conflict—how long would someone facing an angry man with a knife inside a home have to wait for more such resources to arrive?

• 2 dead in double shooting Monday night on Chicago’s West Side: Chicago Tribune

• Two Killed in East Garfield Park Shooting, Suspect in Custody: Hoodline

• FOID card holder fatally shoots man, woman inside East Garfield Park home, police say: ABC 7

Rockford

A mother waiting in her car at a gas station witnessed two people go inside the gas station’s store and start punching her son.

She took her handgun and approached the store—according to her and surveillance footage, one person continued to beat her son while the other held the door closed, so she forced the door open a bit and fired, hitting one of them in the leg. That convinced the attackers to stop and everyone left the gas station, with the mother calling police from her home.

She was charged with “Aggravated Battery/Use of a Deadly Weapon and Aggravated Battery/Discharge of a Firearm,” though other sources say police indicated that their continuing investigation included looking into the legal justification of using deadly force to protect a family member.

Rockford mom charged with shooting son’s attacker at gas station: WTVO 17

Read more

Here’s a free link to one of the sources.

It wasn’t the first time Eric Ivan Searcy-Bryson had broken into a car — he had been arrested after being found sleeping inside a stolen car in March the prior year — but it was to be his last.

He had gone to the Riverview Hotel in Macon, GA at around 3 AM on April 9. We don’t know precisely what he was up to, but police report that he tried to break into a parked Mercedes.

Read more

This one is visual: Watch the good guy’s dashcam video. And watch it to the end.

Our victim stops at a light on Old York Road in Philly. Suddenly, the passenger door opens on the Nissan Murano in front of him. An aggressive man gets out, immediately points a gun at him, and starts walking toward the victim’s driver-side door.

Suddenly, the aggressor flinches and backtracks. He fires once and runs back to the Murano, which pulls away in a hurry.

Moments later, puffs of smoke tell the story that the news didn’t cover: The victim had a gun, too.

Sure, shooting an aggressor while he’s in retreat could get one in real legal trouble. But let’s be fair to the victim here: He had been shot, and his adrenaline was screaming. (He ended up going to the hospital in critical condition.) Nevertheless, his life might have turned out very differently — or ended — if he hadn’t had a gun.

Sources

Primary

The real source here is the YouTube video. You can also find it embedded in the Philly Police crime blotter. 

NBC 10, ABC 6, and Glenside Local also carried the story, including the video.

This is not the incident in St. Louis where a homeowner shot a half-naked man who broke in. We’ll be giving you that story on September 17.

No, this is the incident in St. Louis where a fully-naked man broke through an apartment wall and threatened to kill the family living there.

Read more

Happy Easter!

Sometimes the news gets things badly wrong. In this case, all of the news sources (along with other sources) have reversed the roles of “victim” and “suspect.”

Let’s look at the Fontana Herald News. The story reads:

According to witnesses and investigation, the victim confronted the suspect on Park Avenue south of Redlands Boulevard and a physical altercation occurred. During the altercation, the suspect fired several shots, wounding the victim.

But who confronted whom? If the “victim’s” confrontation of the “suspect” resulted in a physical altercation, then the “victim” was the aggressor. More: The shooter’s handgun was legal, and he was detained by police and then released.

Contra the news, it looks like the shooter was the victim, using justified force, and he shouldn’t be called a “suspect.”

Read more

Defensive Gun Uses (DGUs) often don’t involve anyone pulling a trigger, much less getting shot — but those incidents rarely make the news. In fact, I’m leaving this post wide open so you can share it and show people that yes, this really happens.

In this case, it happened in Norway, Maine, where a woman was prevented from breaking into a home and was held for police with nary a shot fired.

Matthew Glatz heard a banging noise and glass breaking at his neighbor’s home, so he grabbed a handgun and went to investigate. He discovered 43-year-old Lindsay Clark trying to break into the house. When confronted, she stopped, and he held her at gunpoint until police arrived.

Police said that the home was damaged, but nothing was stolen. Clark was charged with attempted burglary and criminal mischief — though one has to wonder what will really happen, given that Norway police had charged her with failure to appear in a separate case less than two weeks earlier.

Vagrancy was apparently a real problem at the time; among other things, the Norway PD posted to Facebook on April 19 saying:

NOTICE: Due to recent burglaries and homeless taking up shelter in vacant homes, we ask that if you own a vacant property or a property that is under construction in Norway and would like regular property checks, please email Officer Pullen at [redacted]. She will make sure that your property is checked on a regular basis.

Sources

The Sun-Journal gave us the GGWAG’s name and the detail about failure to appear; the story is behind a paywall.

WGME 13 covered the story based on the Sun-Journal account and showed us the mugshot, though without the name or failure to appear detail. The Bangor Daily News seems to be affiliated with WGME and printed a not-quite-but-almost identical story.

It hit the radio on The Mix 107.9 and True Country 93.5 with identical stories.

As I said in the article, the Norway PD posted to Facebook about vagrancy and burglaries.

Here’s a free link to the indictment press release.

Sometimes a gun can’t stop you from getting hurt, but it still turns the tables on the bad guys.

When Lt Col Siamelie Nick Mila — “Lt Col” is the 20-year-old’s name, not his title — approached a woman outside EOS Fitness in Murray, Utah, she probably looked like an easy mark. He had an illegal gun, and he wanted her car. He and his driver, 21-year-old Maddyn Dean Christiansen, had been looking for a BMW to steal for a ready buyer.

But she had a legal gun and a concealed carry permit, and she fought back. She was critically wounded in the encounter, unfortunately, but so was her attacker.

Read more

Here’s a free link to one of the sources.

It was 4:00 PM on a Wednesday at the New Horizons apartment complex in Whitehaven, a section of Memphis, Tennessee. For reasons unknown, someone in the complex shot at two men who were outside the apartment.

The shooter hit one of his targets, apparently a security guard whom he knew, and put him in critical condition.

The other wasn’t injured. He returned fire and apparently struck the shooter, who then barricaded himself in the apartment.

Swarms of police surrounded the apartments, including the crisis negotiations team and the mobile command center.

These screen shots are taken from Action News 5’s coverage.

Read more

Note that we don’t pretend that this represents every newsroom that covered any given story. And everyone is innocent until proved guilty.

To the stories!

Illinois

Decatur: Sha-ron Shelby [What a difference a hyphen makes! Ed.] went looking for trouble — he was a felon in possession of a handgun, and he parked his car and fired at someone down the street for unknown reasons. He then “ran west, stopped in front of a house and pointed his gun toward an unobstructed window. 

A resident, standing just inside the aforementioned window, fired his legally possessed firearm at Shelby through the window in self-defense, believing that Shelby was going to shoot him.”

To add to his crimes that night, after being injured by the lawful gunowner, he broke into a house to hide, but police were already on his trail and he was arrested and booked on several charges.

• Decatur man accused of multiple weapons offenses after Friday shooting (WCIA 3)

• Michigan Homeowner Fatally Shoots Intruder Who Broke Into Attached Apartment and Assaulted Tenant Before Trying to Enter Home (USACarry)

Florida

Escambia County: Andrew Harvey really, really didn’t want another car to merge.

After that car sped up and pulled in front of Harvey, Harvey engaged in some impressive road rage-type behavior, throwing things at the other driver and punching out one of his windows.

The driver, who was traveling with his family in the car, somehow felt threatened by Harvey’s behavior and shot him. “They will not be charged as the incident is being investigated as a Stand Your Ground case.”

Harvey was treated for his injuries and then arrested on various charges related to the incident.

• Man shot in Escambia County road rage incident arrested (WKRG 5)

Michigan

Genesee County: In a frustrating twist, a man who was a concealed carry license holder, and who was found to have lawfully acted in self-defense when he shot a gang member, is still being punished.

A gang member was charged with “assault with intent to rob while unarmed, and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder” after attacking the legally-armed man in a restroom at the fieldhouse on the campus of Motts Community College, while prosecutors did not charge the concealed carry license holder for shooting the gang member because he fired in self defense.

However, under a Michigan law, “sports arena or stadium” is named as a “sensitive place” that concealed carry holders cannot carry.

As Ammoland points out: “The government’s position here is effectively this: yes, you were lawfully defending yourself against a violent assault, but you still should not have been armed when the attack happened because the legislature had already declared that location a ‘sensitive place.’”

• Cleared in Self-Defense, Charged for Carrying: Michigan Case Shows Why ‘Sensitive Places’ Fail (Ammoland)

Lansing: A homeowner shot the estranged husband of his “female acquaintance” after the husband drove over an hour to the home, entered the house, and fired multiple shots at the homeowner.

The homeowner was shot twice but returned fire — the estranged husband was killed, and the homeowner was treated for his injuries.

• Deadly shooting under investigation in Livingston County (WLNS 6)

New Mexico

Albuquerque: This is an update on an incident from St Patrick’s Day of 2019, when an Uber driver claimed he shot a drunk passenger in self-defense as they argued on the side of the road on I-25. This week a jury agreed with him, rejecting the prosecutor’s arguments that he should have driven away or that deadly force was unnecessary, and instead acquitted him of the charges of voluntary manslaughter.

• Uber driver acquitted of manslaughter charge (KRQE)

Ohio

Boardman: A woman claims she shot Montrell Gilbert after “he showed up at her apartment and was trying to kick in the door, as well as threatening to burn the building down” while she had three children in the home, and then confronted another person who came to help.

After Gilbert knocked that person down, the woman got her gun and fired at him, killing him. No arrests have been made so far.

• Report released on fatal Boardman shooting (WKBN 27)

Pennsylvania

Fayette County: A woman “took care of business,” according to officers, when she shot a man that broke into her house and entered her bedroom.

After he refused to leave, she shot him in the leg, but he kept coming toward her so she shot him again in the “side of the head.” That still didn’t stop him [but who needs “high-capacity magazines” or hollow-points? Ed.] and the intruder and woman struggled before she was able to escape the house and meet troopers outside.

State police on the scene told her brother that “she got beat up a little bit, but she shot the guy,” and they also told the reporter that “state police said the castle doctrine, which allows someone to use deadly force to protect themselves inside their home, applies in this case.”

This case also serves as an answer to the question of why someone shooting in self-defense ever needs to fire more than one shot.

• Man shot multiple times after breaking into Fayette County home, authorities say (CBS Pittsburgh)

• Man shot multiple times in Brownsville, Fayette County; Investigation launched (WTAE 4)

South Carolina

Orangeburg County: Deputies arrested a man who was shot by his intended robbery victim after surveillance video confirmed that he did shoot first.

Marquise Farley approached a vehicle while wearing a mask and shot into it, so one of the victims — a mother and her son — shot him in the abdomen in self-defense. (The stories differ in which victim fired.). The sheriff stated: “This was certainly this individual’s unlucky day... The only way he was lucky that day was because he wasn’t killed.”

• Alleged robbery attempt gets suspect shot and arrested, OCSO says (WCBD 2)

• Sheriff: Suspect shot during robbery attempt (WOLO 25)

• SC man fires into occupied car and then shot in the abdomen, deputies say (The State)

Tennessee

Memphis: A homeowner woke a little before 5 AM after hearing noises and found a woman had entered his house.

She claimed she wanted to buy the home.

He fired at her, wounding her in the leg, and MPD arrived and took her to the hospital and then into custody, reporting that she was apparently “experiencing mental health issues.”

• Homeowner shoots intruder near Westwood, MPD reports (WMC 5)

• Homeowner Shoots Intruder Who Claimed She Wanted to Buy His House at 5AM (USACarry)

Texas

Houston: A business owner on his way to work says he got an alert that the building’s gate was open. He allegedly arrived to find two suspects inside, and he claims they then approached him. The article states that “shots were fired” without specifying who shot them, but both suspects were shot and taken to the hospital. The police say that the DA’s office will determine if charges will be filed “once the surveillance footage of the shooting has been reviewed.”

• Man shoots two suspects in SW Houston, claims they broke into his business Wednesday morning: HPD (KTRK 13)

Houston: In a rather strange story, two men were seen running through a neighborhood, one with blood on his head and the other wearing all black and a mask. The bloodied man began going door to door asking for help and pounding on doors before banging on the door of one home, then kicking in the door and forcing his way inside — and the homeowner inside shot him “multiple times.”

The man was taken to the hospital in critical condition while police investigate and search for the man in black.

Police say that the shooting in the home “may have been self-defense” but they initially had a lot of questions surrounding how the man ended up running around banging on doors to begin with. Turns out the two men were brothers, Wade and Kenneth Jolivet, who owned competing smoke shops.

Kenneth took their ongoing feud up several notches when he allegedly tied up and assaulted their mother, who says she was held hostage for six hours until Wade showed up that night, and that, apparently, is when things really “got out of hand” as they fought in the street. Wade ended up knocking on doors, chased by Kenneth, until the shooting occurred.

• Man banging on doors for help shot by homeowner after forcing entry into SW Houston home (Click2Houston)

• KHOU 11

  • Man shot after forcing way inside southwest Houston home, HPD says

  • Frantic doorbell video shows injured man seeking help before being shot inside nearby SW Houston home

• Brotherly feud gets one brother shot by a neighbor and another on the run from police, mother says (KTRK 13)

• Alleged Intruder in Critical Condition After Kicking in Door, Being Shot by Homeowner (Breitbart)

West Virginia

Kanawha County: A homeowner arrived home to find an intruder in the house, armed with a bat and knife.

After a confrontation at the front door, the intruder attacked the homeowner, leading to a struggle in the front yard until the homeowner pulled a gun and shot and killed his attacker. WFXR notes that the homeowner is “not currently in custody which may suggest the killing was justified in self-defense.”

• Police: Branch Lick Road shooting possibly self defense (WFXR)

That’s it for this week!

Here’s a link to the police report on Facebook.

Did you know that the Bay City Rollers were from the UK, and were named after Bay City, Michigan, by the throw of a dart?

Oh, you don’t know who the Bay City Rollers were? Just as well. I don’t know much more about their more-famous musical spawn, Madonna, either, and I’m probably a happier man for it.

But trouble isn’t only sonic in Bay City. Late on a Monday afternoon — April Fools’ Day — it came in the form of a 33-year-old man. He was armed with a pipe.

And he broke into an apartment.

That old saying about bringing a knife to a gunfight? Yeah, it applies to pipes, too. One of the residents was home, and he shot the intruder twice in the torso.

Read more

Here’s a free link to the police report on Facebook.

The more would-be home invaders who encounter armed residents, the better.

Easter Sunday, March 31. It was early in the morning, around 3:30 AM.

A 41-year-old homeowner heard someone trying to break into his house.

Read more