Dante, Virginia

From the Bristol Herald Courier of December 28, 2006

Maples: 'Now I’m glad I didn’t kill him'

Jim Maples woke early to the sound of breaking glass and knew trouble had come to his store.

He never expected, however, that within minutes, he’d have to shoot his wife’s second cousin and then stand guard until police arrived.

Maples sleeps in an apartment at the back of Midway Grocery, and just after 2 a.m. Wednesday, he heard one of the building’s front windows shatter.

When he got to the front of the store, 12-gauge shotgun in hand, he saw Jason G. Pruitt standing over the safe, trying to open it.

"I told him to put his hands on the window so I could see them," Maples said in an interview.

Pruitt complied but then quickly turned back toward Maples.

"So I fired a warning shot," Maples said. "Then he came at me, and so I shot him."

He later found out that he and Pruitt were kin, although they’d never met before.

"Now I’m glad I didn’t kill him," said Maples, 61.

The blast caught Pruitt in the shoulder, police said. He dropped the hammer and knife he’d been carrying and fell to the floor, Maples said.

The store owner stood over Pruitt and told him to lie still until police arrived. Having tested Maples’ mettle once, Pruitt decided this time to follow instructions.

The would-be robber did have the gall to ask for a cigarette while he waited, Maples said.

"I said, ‘fat chance,’ " Maples said. "I ain’t giving nobody who broke into my store a cigarette."

By the time deputies arrived, Pruitt’s two accomplices had fled, but he fingered them in an interview. Steven Hurd, 26, of Dante, and Kari Breeding, 24, of St. Paul, were arrested Wednesday and charged with conspiracy to commit vandalism and breaking and entering, Dickenson County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Scott Stanley said.

Pruitt was airlifted to Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport for surgery. He was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon and arrested immediately, Stanley said.

He faces charges of breaking and entering, vandalism, felony possession of burglary tools, conspiracy to commit vandalism and conspiracy to break and enter.

Stanley said Maples is unlikely to face any charges because he shot Pruitt in self-defense.

"He saved us a little bit of work," Stanley said.

Maples has operated the store since July and sleeps there as a means of protecting his investment, he said.

"We’re not in the best neighborhood," he said.

He just hopes he won’t develop a reputation as a quick draw.

"It’s like the Old West," Maples said. "You shoot somebody and then everybody has to test you.