Minneapolis, Minnesota

From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune of September 14, 2005

Nick Coleman: He knows the streets and he knows trouble

A guy in a white shirt almost became a historical footnote about 4:30 last Sunday morning. He almost was the first guy to get himself shot by a candidate for mayor of Minneapolis.

"I'm in the dark, holding a gun on him and telling him to get on the ground, but he keeps backing away from me," Mark Koscielski was saying. "Then the guy points at his shirt and says, 'I have a white shirt on, and it'll get dirty if I get in the mud.' And I say, 'It's going to get red if you don't get on the [expletive] ground.' "

In the end, the guy got muddy, and he got arrested, too, charged with attempting to break into Koscielski's Guns & Ammo, at 2926 Chicago Av. S. That was just one of three attempted break-ins at the store in the past two weeks, during which time there has been a rash of burglaries near the corner of Chicago and Lake Street.

(More about Koscielski's problems with local zoners)

Columbus, Georgia

From the September 1, 2005 Columbus Ledger-Enquirer:

A pawn shop employee foiled a robbery attempt Monday when he pulled a weapon from behind the counter.

Columbus police Lt. Vince Pasko said two men tried to rob Columbus Pawn Shop, 2241 Fort Benning Road, at 10:14 a.m. The men, wearing masks and one armed with a revolver, demanded money.

"One of the persons working there had a weapon behind the counter," Pasko said. The clerk pulled out the shotgun and cocked it, and both would-be robbers ran from the store.

Troy, Michigan

From the September 13, 2005 Detroit Free Press:

It started with what sounded like an explosion outside a Troy home and ended with gunfire and one man charged with trying to kill another.

Sterling Heights resident Scott Alan Wooten, 34, is scheduled for a preliminary examination Monday to determine whether he will go to trial following what police call a bizarre sequence of events in a Troy neighborhood.

According to Troy Police Lt. Gerry Scherlinck, here's what happened:

After a loud noise jarred a Briarwood Drive resident awake about 2 a.m. Thursday, the 38-year-old looked outside to see that a Jeep Wrangler had crashed into his attached garage.

Then his doorbell started ringing incessantly. When he looked out the door, he didn't see anyone, so he stepped outside, armed with a handgun.

He found a man in the driver's seat of the Jeep trying to dislodge it from the garage door. With the pair yelling at each other, the driver backed out of the driveway and drove off, with the homeowner trying to get the license plate number.

As the homeowner walked back to his house, the Jeep driver came back down the street with the vehicle's lights off, circled several times around a traffic island at the end of the block, then drove up the man's driveway again.

The homeowner, who told police he was afraid the driver was trying to hit him, hid behind a vehicle parked in his driveway.

But the driver of the Jeep kept circling on his lawn and driveway, then accelerated and smashed into the parked vehicle twice.

At that point, the homeowner fired about four shots at the Jeep before the gun jammed. He ran to his house to get a second gun.

His wife, meanwhile, had called police, as had neighbors.

When the resident came back out of the house, the driver of the Jeep began accelerating directly at him. The homeowner fired two more shots at the Jeep. The driver then left the subdivision. Police did not release the homeowner's name or specify which block of Briarwood Drive he lives on.

Police caught up with Wooten driving a Jeep with bullet holes in it, near Square Lake and Dequindre roads.

Police said Wooten first told them that he had been shot at while trying to get into his own home in Sterling Heights. He later told police that he didn't remember anything from the night.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

From Albuquerque‘s KOBtv.com of September 13, 2005

Attempted truck theft ends with gunshot wound

A man who drew his weapon on a suspected thief attempting to steal his pickup from in front of his house wound up shooting and critically injuring a third person.

The incident happened Monday afternoon on Ricardo Road south of Belen. Deputies say a homeowner went outside and pointed a gun at the car thief and told him to get out of his truck. That’s when deputies say an accomplice drove another car directly at the homeowner at a high rate of speed.

“Our calling party, our victim, turned around with his gun and fired a round into the windshield of that vehicle, striking the driver of it,” said Valencia County Sheriff’s Department Spokeswoman Shannon Brady.

The man who was shot was in critical condition Monday night following surgery. The man who reportedly was trying to steal the homeowner’s truck ran away from the scene when the shooting occurred and hasn’t been found. Deputies haven’t released the names of any of the people involved.

Acworth, Georgia

From Atlanta’s 11Alive.com of September 13, 2005

Carjacker, Victim Killed in Cobb

An armed bystander shot and killed a carjacker Monday morning in Acworth, Ga., after the suspect caused an accident that killed his female victim.

Late that evening, police were continuing to piece together details of the carjacking and accident that shut down Cobb Parkway (U.S. 41) at Acworth Drive.

According to police, sometime after 9 a.m., 30-year-old Kimberly Boyd of Acworth stopped at a gas station at Highway 41 and Upper 92/Lake Acworth Drive in Cobb County. A man there approached Boyd and carjacked her, taking her with him.

Some witnesses said the woman struggled with her assailant, who also beat her before speeding away in her vehicle. Other witnesses said the woman struggled with the man after the carjacker drove off with her in tow.

Traveling down the roadway, the sport-utility vehicle ultimately struck a guardrail before the carjacker tried to turn eastbound onto Lake Acworth Drive from southbound Cobb Parkway. He veered the sport-utility vehicle directly into the path of a large green cement truck traveling northbound, police said.

The cement truck T-boned the Sequioa, killing the young mother when the truck struck the passenger side of her vehicle, police said.

Still carrying a handgun, the carjacker fled from the SUV on foot, running toward the Raceway gas station on the northeast corner of the intersection.

A man who had witnessed the carjacking and followed the Sequioa in his black 2004 Dodge Ram truck confronted the gunman in the intersection. According to police, the citizen – identified as Shawn Roberts – shot the suspect three times, killing him.

Roberts, of Acworth, was taken into custody for questioning by Cobb County police. Via telephone, he later told 11Alive’s Kevin Rowson he had no choice but to shoot the carjacker because he was turning his gun toward him. Roberts said it was him or the carjacker.

Rebecca Porter, who says she saw the shooting from her nearby business, says Roberts’ actions might have actualy prevented another loss of life.

“He didn’t have a chance,” she said.

“He pointed his gun and the other guy started shooting, which is a good thing because if he had gotten away, somebody else could have gotten hurt. So, I feel bad for him, but I’m kind of grateful. That I’m normally here alone, it’s really scary.”

Cobb County police said it appeared the citizen acted lawfully and, quite possibly, prevented another crime from taking place.

(More)

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of September 14, 2005

Suspect in carjacking a molester

Acworth police link man to rape there last week

The carjacker-kidnapper shot dead Monday by a passer-by in Cobb County had a conviction for sex crimes and has been tentatively connected to a rape last week in Acworth, police said Tuesday.

Despite his conviction for child molestation and statutory rape, Brian O'Neil Clark, 25, does not appear in the state's database for sexual offenders, and state officials were at a lost to explain why.

As details came out about her abductor Tuesday, so too did a picture of the victim. Kimberly Boyd, 30, was kidnapped at gunpoint shortly after leaving her office Monday morning, police said. She died when Clark turned into the path of a cement truck, causing a collision.

Friends say she was considering a shift from working mother to stay-at-home mom.
Investigators also revealed that Boyd had been shot as she struggled with her abductor. The coroner did not detail the extent of her wound, but police believe she was alive when the cement truck hit her Toyota Sequoia broadside.

As Clark was fleeing that accident, he was shot dead by motorist Shawn Roberts, who had seen Boyd and Clark struggling and followed as the car careened down U.S. 41 in Acworth. Cobb police Lt. Kevin Flynn, said Tuesday that Roberts, 31, was cooperating and appeared to have acted lawfully.

Roberts said he believes that killing Clark probably saved more lives.

Clark had a history of criminal offenses in Cherokee and Cobb counties, according to police and court records.

In April 2002, he was arrested in Illinois and returned to Georgia to face child molestation, statutory rape and burglary charges in Cobb, where he received an 18-month sentence, jail records show.

In Cherokee, Clark was convicted in 2004 of first-degree forgery and was released June 13 after a year in state prison.

Family, friends mourn

Clark had been placed on the sexual offenders database operated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigations after his conviction in Cobb, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said. He was removed from the list while serving time for the forgery conviction, but should have been added after his release three months ago, Bankhead said.

"It's very peculiar that he isn't" on the list, Bankhead said Tuesday. "We're investigating to find out why."

(More)

From Atlanta’s WSBRadio.com of April 18, 2006

A Cobb County grand jury has cleared a Kennesaw man who shot a carjacking suspect last september. Grand Jurors decided Shawn T. Roberts was justified in shooting Bryon O'Neil Clark, who had been released from [sic] just three months before he abducted and carjacked Kimberly Boyd.

Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head says the Grand Jury ruling means there will be no charges filed against Roberts. It was found that Clark had raised a gun and pointed it in Roberts direction when he was killed.

The assailant had already shot his carjacking victim before Roberts arrived on the scene. The Mother of two was killed when her stolen car being driven by Clark was hit by a cement truck.

New Orleans, Louisiana

From the September 10, 2005 Austin American-Statesman:

NEW ORLEANS -- The Algiers Point militia put away its weapons Friday as Army soldiers patrolled the historic neighborhood across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter.

But the band of neighbors who survived Hurricane Katrina and then fought off looters has not disarmed.

"Pit Bull Will Attack. We Are Here and Have Gun and Will Shoot," said the sign on Alexandra Boza's front porch. Actually, said the woman behind the sign, "I have two pistols."

"I'm a part of the militia," Boza said. "We were taking the law into our own hands, but I didn't kill anyone."

She did quietly open her front door and fire a warning shot one night when she heard a loud group of young men approaching her house.

...

Another afternoon, a gunfight broke out on the streets as armed neighbors and armed intruders exchanged fire.

"About 25 rounds were fired," Harris said.

Blood was later found on the street from a wounded intruder.

...

There are gas lamps on the columned porch that stayed on during the storm and its aftermath. The militia rigged car headlights and a car battery on porches of nearby houses. Then they put empty cans beneath trees that had fallen across both ends of the block.

When someone approached in the darkness, "you could hear the cans rattle.

Then we would hit the switch at the battery and light up the street," Pervel said. "We would yell, 'We're going to count three, and if you don't identify yourself, we're going to start shooting.' "

They could hear people fleeing and never fired a shot.

During the days, the hurricane holdouts patrolled the streets protecting their houses and the ones of evacuees.

"I was packing," Robert Johns said. "A .22 magnum with hollow points and an 8 mm Mauser from World War II with armor-piercing shells."

Bristol, Connecticut

From the September 9, 2005 Hartford Courant:

BRISTOL -- A woman was killed and two men were injured - one critically - early this morning in an attack in the Loveland Lane neighborhood.

Details are still sketchy this morning, but police said the woman ran from her Valmore Road home after an attacker began beating her around 2:30 a.m. She escaped to a neighbor's house on Loveland Lane and pleaded for help, but the attacker followed her into that home and killed her, police said.

The attacker was shot in the head; police are not saying whether he was shot by the Loveland Lane homeowner or someone else.