Huntsville, Alabama

From the Huntsville Times of January 7, 2006

Man shoots teen intruder

Two greeted by gun after bedroom door kicked open

A 22-year-old man confined to a wheelchair shot one of two teenagers who broke into his Boxwood Court apartment Friday.

A 16-year-old boy was in surgery at Huntsville Hospital late Friday for multiple gunshot wounds to the leg, said Sgt. Michael Walker of the west precinct. Investigators say the teen will be charged with first-degree burglary upon his release from the hospital.

Walker said a 15-year-old boy also was charged with first-degree burglary and taken to the Neaves Center, a juvenile detention facility. Police did not release the name of the burglary victim. No charges will be filed against him for shooting the intruder, Walker said.

The burglary victim told officers he had just returned home from work at the University of Alabama in Huntsville about 5 p.m. The man said he was in his bedroom when he heard a noise and looked outside the window to see two people climbing through another bedroom window, Walker said.

The man called 911 just before the two teens kicked open the bedroom door, police said. When the teens kicked open the door, the man opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol, Walker said.

The 16-year-old boy was hit and the 15-year-old boy ran out the front door, he said.

Tristan Hayden, 21, was in the apartment complex office when he saw a police officer chasing one of the suspects through the courtyard.

"I looked out the door and saw an officer chasing a guy and told him to stop but he kept on running through here," Hayden said. "Then what seemed like 10 police officers showed up."

Officers caught the 15-year-old suspect on Boxwood Court, just outside the complex.

Tacoma, Washington

From the January 4, 2006 News Tribune:

An unpaid bill for $20,000 worth of sex acts apparently led to a confrontation Monday that injured a Wollochet Bay-area man and left one of his suspected attackers hospitalized with a gunshot wound.

Pierce County prosecutors Tuesday charged two men with assault and burglary for going to Terry Riggs’ home and beating him because he hadn’t paid his escort service bill, court documents say.

Prosecutors said Riggs, 57, was acting in self-defense when he shot one of his intruders, but likely will face a felony charge today for a marijuana-growing operation sheriff’s deputies say they found in his home.

...

Riggs told detectives he had been paying a woman for sex for more than a year. He said the woman came to his house on New Year’s Eve and gave him a $22,000 bill for services rendered. He refused to pay and called the woman’s mother.

The woman told Riggs if he didn’t pay, her friend “Smokey” and another man would make him, he said. The woman left, but called Riggs later and warned him never to call her mother again, or “those guys” would get him.

Riggs told deputies that sometime after 8 a.m. Monday, he heard a knock on the door and saw two men in ski masks, one with a handgun. He said he grabbed his own gun and fired a shot after the door was forced open. Riggs said he was pushed to the ground and beaten, court documents say.

“Something is ridiculous about the whole thing,” Sorensen said. “There’s something obviously unusual about the dollar amount that we’re talking about here. It is hard to believe that someone in that line of work would be willing to extend that kind of credit.”

Spokane, Washington

From KXLY 920 AM:

Police say last week, two men muscled their way into Bob Bowjuhlee's home in North Spokane, but before they could take anything or hurt Bob and his wife, the 65 year old shot at the pair.

Police say the gunfire prompted one of the thieves to run out of his shoes. A fake snakeskin sneaker recovered at the crime scene is now on it's way to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab for DNA analysis. Detectives are also submitting the blood left behind when the burglar cut himself on broken glass or was actually shot by homeowner.

Bartow, Florida

From the Lakeland Ledger of January 6, 2006

Woman Cleared In April Shooting

The State Attorney's Office concluded Thursday that Vickie Gershenson was justified in fatally shooting 27-year-old Jessica Buchanan of Lake Wales in April 2005.

Assistant State Attorney Paul Wallace wrote in a letter that criminal charges would not be filed against Gershenson, 49, in the shooting death.

Buchanan was shot on the evening of April 23, 2005, at the mobile home that she stayed in with Gershenson at 4553 Scenic Highway in Lake Wales.

That night, Buchanan was upset with Gershenson for going into a bedroom that Buchanan was staying in, Wallace wrote. The argument between the women intensified into a physical confrontation with Buchanan beating Gershenson and threatening to cut her throat, Wallace wrote.

Gershenson fled to her bedroom where she tried to call for help but couldn't because her cellular phone's battery was dead, Wallace wrote.

Gershenson retrieved her revolver and shot Buchanan when she came at her with a knife, Wallace wrote.

Fresno, California

From the Fresno Bee of January 6, 2006

Fresno man kills intruder

Confrontation ends when 80-year-old man shoots through his front door.

An 80-year-old man said he feared for his life when he shot and killed a man who was trying to break into his central Fresno home early Thursday.

Fidencio Garcia Sr. said he ordered the man to leave numerous times before he fired one shot from a .38-caliber revolver through the front door of his house at 448 E. Andrews Ave.

"I had no choice," Garcia said.

"It's your life or mine," Garcia said he told himself as the man stood on the porch kicking the screen door and appeared to be on the verge of breaking it down.

The man collapsed on the porch, where he was declared dead when officers arrived.

The shooting was reported shortly before 4:30 a.m.

Garcia, a retired automobile generator repairman, was taken to police headquarters, interviewed by detectives and returned to his home about 2 p.m.

Detectives said the case will be forwarded to the Fresno County District Attorney's Office to determine whether the shooting was justified or whether criminal charges should be filed.

"Preliminary indications are that the elderly homeowner believed an assault was imminent and that he was incapable of defending himself against a much younger assailant," Lt. Randy Dobbins said.

Garcia said he was not worried about charges being filed against him.

"I told them the truth," he said. "I can't deny I shot and killed somebody, but I had a good reason."

(More detail)

Harris County, Texas

From Houston’s ABCLocal.Go.com of January 6, 2006

Robbery victim fights back and shoots suspect

A man tells police he shot a suspect who was allegedly destroying his property.

It happened around 2am Friday on Antoine near W. Little York in northwest Harris County. He spotted a group of men breaking out the windows of his Suburban. He scared them off, but says they returned. The homeowner heard a gunshot and grabbed his gun. He shot one of the men and they all sped off.

The man gave police a detailed description of the suspects and the car. Police picked them up nearby.

The suspect who was shot was taken to the hospital. The other men with him were arrested.

Clearwater, Florida

From the St. Petersburg Times of January 6, 2006

No charges in shooting of three neighbors

A retired USF police sergeant told officials he fired six shots through the door, fearing people were trying to break into his house.

A man who shot through his front door at about 2 a.m., wounding three neighbors carrying tiki torches on his porch, will not be charged with a crime, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Jeffrey DeVries, 44, a retired University of South Florida police sergeant, told investigators he feared people were trying to break in when they brandished torches on his porch early on Nov. 18, Assistant State Attorney Mark McGarry said.

DeVries fired six shots from a 9mm handgun through his door, hitting three of the four people outside, authorities have said. He then called 911 at 1:51 a.m. before barricading himself inside his Beverly Circle home for more than seven hours.

"I had to shoot people on Beverly," were his first words to emergency dispatchers. "I just had four persons come to my house with torches. They were trying to break into my front door. They were yelling threats at me. . . . I'm the one being attacked. I'm the victim."

The indication that DeVries genuinely feared for his safety weighed heavily in the decision not to charge him, McGarry said.

"Everybody has their different levels of fears," he said, "but I think that he felt that he was in danger."

Efforts to reach DeVries were unsuccessful Thursday. His father did not return phone messages.

Prosecutors also questioned the credibility of the people wounded because their accounts changed under questioning, McGarry said.

The three people shot - Samantha Frances Sipka, 16, Jason Thomas Biaso, 19, and Mark Eric Hoover, 46 - initially told Pinellas County sheriff's detectives that they had been walking in the street shortly before 2 a.m. carrying tiki torches when shots suddenly rang out, authorities have said.

Their accounts prompted investigators to obtain a warrant for DeVries' arrest on four counts of attempted murder.

The warrant was later withdrawn because physical evidence at the scene contradicted those accounts and indicated that they had been on DeVries' doorstep when he fired, sheriff's officials say. Investigators also learned that a fourth person had been present.

Confronted with the discrepancies, one of the four admitted being at DeVries' door at the time of the shooting, reading signs he had posted on the door warning people to stay away.

All three have since been released from the hospitals where they were treated. On Thursday, a man who answered the door at 1820 Beverly, where Sipka and Hoover live, said he would not comment on the case.

McGarry said none of the four involved would likely be charged in the incident, in part because DeVries had not cooperated with prosecutors in the investigation into their conduct.

(More detail)