Good Guy with a Gun #255: New Hanover County, NC
We have a lot of detail on this story, but we're clearly still missing something. | Original incident: July 13, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version.
The man on the porch was calling for a woman who didn’t live there.
It was just after 3 AM on a Saturday when the doorbell rang. Then the pounding started, loud enough to wake Rodney Jester and his wife, Val.
Rodney got up and opened the door, and the man outside shot him.
Val threw her weight against the door to force it shut. The man shoved back, trying to get inside.
Bleeding, the homeowner reached for his own gun and fired once, through the door. The round hit the man in the head. That was the end of it.
The offender
The dead man was 74-year-old David Rose. And I’ll be honest — Rose doesn’t seem a likely character for this story.
I know obituaries don’t mean much. I’ve read obituaries of repeat felons who were killed during the commission of armed robberies, and the obituaries make them sound positively nice.
But this one describes a Navy veteran who served on the USS Enterprise in Vietnam, a retired National Guard Staff Sergeant with 25 years in, a thirty-year aircraft mechanic — and, after all that, a man who logged more than 3,200 volunteer hours building houses for Habitat for Humanity.
I know veterans can be dirtbags and don’t deserve special consideration just for the fact of their service. But this seems unusual, and hard to reconcile with the man who opened fire as soon as Rod Jester opened his door.
It seems likely that he was at the wrong address. Doorbell video shows him calling a woman’s name that didn’t belong to that address. A friend of the homeowner’s, who watched the footage, is sure Rose had come to kill an ex-wife and simply had the wrong door. Maybe. But Rose’s own obituary describes his former wife as a longtime friend, and mentions a home in New Bern, better than eighty miles up the coast from where he died.
What a 74-year-old was doing on a stranger’s Wilmington porch at three in the morning, armed, almost ninety miles from home, calling a name no one inside recognized, is a question I can’t answer — so I guess I’ll leave it there.
The aftermath
The round Rose fired went through Jester’s liver. Jester spent weeks in intensive care and underwent two major surgeries. A friend of his says he’ll walk, but won’t be the same. He started a fundraiser (still active, nothing donated recently) to help with the bills.
The neighborhood, which consists mostly of senior citizens, was shaken by the event. WECT interviewed local woman Cristina DiNatale.
“The only reason I moved here is because it’s a quiet neighborhood,” she said. “It’s a safe neighborhood. I mean, they never had a robbery. They never had any, I mean, crime around here.”
She also recognized the value of personal protection: “Thank God [he] had a gun and then protected him and his wife, you know, or it would have been a real tragedy.”
Sheriff Ed McMahon issued a press release discussing the situation, and it reads exactly how I would hope it would. (Johnny Carson could not be reached for comment.)
Last night, a homeowner faced a dire situation when a suspect attempted to forcefully enter his home. In defense of his life and property, the homeowner acted within his rights. Our investigation has determined that the homeowner used necessary force to protect himself and his family.
Under our state’s laws, individuals have the right to defend themselves when they believe they are in imminent danger. Our thoughts and prayers are with all parties affected by this incident. The Sheriff’s Office will continue to support the homeowner and uphold the laws that protect the rights of our citizens.
The DA agreed, and no charges were filed against Jester.
Sources
Primary sources
Rose’s obituary can be found here.
Local news
The Wilmington StarNews did a great job: It covered the initial story (find it at NewsBreak if that doesn’t load), then put out another story after viewing Ring doorbell footage, talking to Jester’s friend, and establishing the surgeries, the ICU stay, and the GoFundMe. (If that link doesn’t work for you, Yahoo! syndicated it.)
WWAY 3 ran the sheriff’s release essentially verbatim.
WECT got the response from the neighbor, Cristina DiNatale, and you can see a two-minute video at the link.
Wish I could give this to the guy who pounded on our door the other night after 8. He was just a local promoting some politician for the primary, but the way he pounded on the door about gave me a heart attack -- I thought it was either an emergency or someone wanting in that shouldn't. I mean, if you are just giving out leaflets, just knock on the door like a normal person . . . or even ring the doorbell that's _right there_.