Good Guy with a Gun #166: Hapeville, GA
You couldn't ask for better police response — but by that time, the bad guy was already dead. | Original incident: April 15, 2026
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is significantly updated from the calendar version.
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.
I don't know about others, but I think I'd hesitate to try to rob somebody practically across the street from the police station . . .