Dayton, Tennessee

From the Rhea County Online of September 19, 2005

Shooting victim allegedly attacked trio first

An Ogden Road man who shot another man at his home may have done so in self-defense.

Deputy Steve Rievley responded to a report of a shooting at 2:39 a.m. Friday at a mobile home on Ogden Road. When he arrived, Rievley found two men and a woman in the home, and they turned over a Sterling .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol to him. Rievley took the three people into custody temporarily.

Rievley found the shooting victim, Terry LaFuze, 47, of Pearl Street, Dayton, in the bathroom, sitting on the floor with a bullet wound to his right foot. LaFuze was able to walk out of the home without assistance, and Rievley had him wait for the ambulance on the front porch. LaFuze appeared to be intoxicated, according to Rievley.

After the Rhea Emergency Medical Service ambulance transported LaFuze to the Rhea Medical Center Emergency Department, Rievley then interviewed the other three individuals.

David Kite, 47, whose home it was, said he had been the one to shoot LaFuze but had done it because he was afraid LaFuze was going to hurt someone.

Kite, his nephew, Christopher Kite, 32, of College Street, Dayton, and Cindy Gailor, 41, of Ogden Road, were all at the residence Thursday night when LaFuze showed up at about 11:30 p.m. LaFuze was heavily intoxicated and asked to spend the night, according to the witnesses.

He was argumentative and even combative before falling asleep at about 12:30 a.m. At about 2:30 he woke up and was again combative, according to the three. They said he didn’t recognize them or where he was.

“Terry was lost and totally out of his mind and out of control,” reads the statement they all signed.

When David Kite tried to restrain him, LaFuze began fighting him. In turn, Gailor and then Christopher Kite attempted to intervene, but LaFuze attacked them as well, according to their statement.

The semiautomatic pistol fell out of LaFuze’s pocket during the struggle, and David Kite picked it up and put it on a shelf. LaFuze had Christopher Kite on the floor and picked up a heavy glass candy dish and appeared to be about to hit him in the head with the dish when David Kite retrieved the pistol and shot LaFuze one time in the foot.

“David had to defend us and shot Terry due to necessary causes and our protection due to the shape Terry was in. There was no choice,” their statement reads.

Later that morning LaFuze told Rievley that “all I remember is waiting for the ambulance.”

Chief Deputy John Argo said that the circumstances could indicate it was a case of self-defense. The sheriff’s department will give the evidence to the District Attorney’s office for a determination on whether to file charges against Kite or LaFuze.