Good Guy with a Gun #173: Surprise, AZ
He's a prohibited possessor. Arrested with a gun in an April home invasion. Arrested with a gun in a fatal October shooting. But sure, more gun laws will help. | Original incident: April 22, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version.
If you believe that people who commit crimes should be punished for them, you’ll be disturbed by the fatal follow-on to the story that we published in the calendar. But let’s tell the original story, from April 22, 2024, first.
Original story
They said they were coming to visit his tenant. At 4 AM. Sure.
19-year-old Kason Nelson and a teenaged juvenile tried to break into a home in Surprise, Arizona at about 4 AM on a Monday.
It came out later that Nelson and his co-criminal knew a tenant the homeowner was renting to, and they had the idea that there was $30,000 in a safe in the home. I heard that and thought it might be gang or drug activity. And who knows? It still might be, but it doesn’t seem likely.
Neighbor Nancy McCraven called it “a nice quiet neighborhood” and emphasized, “it’s always quiet.” Single-family homes, well-maintained, children in the area.
A neighbor named Justin said, “It’s pretty shocking because this is a neighborhood where you can leave your cars unlocked, nothing like that happens here.”
At any rate, the homeowner heard them breaking in and called 911. A few minutes later, he called 911 again to let them know that he had shot at the intruders.
When the police arrived, they found Nelson suffering from non-life-threatening injuries. Then they found his underaged accomplice.
After being mirandized, the two told police that the homeowner was renting to a friend of theirs, and they were coming to visit him. And, as noted above, the tenant did indeed know them.
But police found a firearm (even though Nelson is a prohibited possessor) and other items showing their real purpose: burglary.
Follow-up
Fast forward six months: October 13, 2024. Shift location 22 miles southeast, to Phoenix. Time of day is about the same, though: 4:30 AM.
There had been a house party that night. Fighting had broken out. Two people were shooting at each other; 26-year-old Gabriel Gillespie was caught in the crossfire1 and died at the scene.
Who survived the encounter? 19-year-old Kason Nelson. Not in jail, not disarmed (even though he was a prohibited possessor — we all see how well those gun laws work out), and not dead. He was arrested and charged with weapons violations and unlawful discharge of a firearm.
Sources
April shooting
AZ Family did a great job covering the first incident. Local outreach, video so you can see what the neighborhoods were like, solid detail such as the $30,000. They had two rock-solid stories about it.
Fox 10 also did a great job online and on-air.
The Daily Independent and KTAR 92.3 also covered this event.
October shooting
AZ Family also covered this incident, though with less detail than the first one.
Aggregator Hoodline pulled together a good report for this story.
NBC News 12 and Fox 10 also covered this, though I don’t see video of an on-air segment.
It’s possible that he was involved, but it sounds like he was a bystander.