From the Dayton Daily News of September 2, 2009
Robbery, standoff end with 2 men dead
A stolen $500 piece of silver and two dead suspects are what’s left of a bizarre home invasion that led to a four-hour police standoff.
Bradley Fugate said he had just opened the front and back doors to let some cool air into his Huffman Avenue home Monday, Aug. 31, when two men came in the back door and put guns to his head.
Less than 24 hours later, both of those men were dead, one at Fugate’s home Monday and the other after a Fairborn standoff Tuesday.
“I didn’t know who they were, and they kept asking 'Where’s the money?’ ” Fugate said. “My brother, we kept trying to talk in circles to keep them calm. The black guy, he kept laughing.”
That man, Danny L. Brown, 30, pushed Fugate’s niece down onto a bed while rummaging through a safe in the bedroom, Fugate said.
“That was enough for me and it allowed me to get my gun from where I keep it in the bed and I raised up and fired,” Fugate said. “We got into the kitchen and he turned around and raised his gun up at me. That’s when I shot him in the head. It was a fatal shot.”
Fugate said he fired two shots at the other robber, Shawn Jones, 40, who was able to get away in a cream-yellow Cadillac with a one-pound silver bar and some prescription medication.
“They got into my safe and got the silver,” Fugate said. “It was just one of the safes with a key — a K-Mart special. You use it to store important documents in case of a fire.”
Brown was found inside Fugate’s home on Huffman Avenue and pronounced dead at Miami Valley Hospital.
Hours later three women tried to pawn the silver bar, Dayton Lt. Patrick Welsh said. Detectives used the silver bar to track down Jones in Fairborn, Welsh said.
Jones at first slammed the door and held his grandmother, Edna Vickery, captive, yanking her back into the house twice when she tried to leave, Fairborn police Capt. Doc Plemmons said.
About 15 minutes later, police were able to pull the woman out of her home when she came to the door a third time. Police said she was not injured but had her grandson’s blood on her clothes.
Fairborn Chief Terry Barlow said police were never able to talk to Jones after that initial contact at the door. Negotiators urged him to come out, waited, then fired tear gas into the house, all with no response. Officers then kicked in the door and found the man dead in the living room, his wrists cut .
Welsh said police are still looking for a possible third suspect in Monday’s home invasion — a person who drove the Cadillac from the scene.
Bradley Fugate is not facing any criminal charges at this time, police said.
An Ohio law passed last year allows people to defend their homes from invaders by any means necessary, including lethal force.
“I ain’t no hero, and I’m broken up about it,” Fugate said. “I did what I had to do.”
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