Montgomery, Alabama

From the Montgomery Advertiser of February 9, 2007

Shootings leave 2 dead, 2 critical

Two men remained hospitalized in critical condition Thursday night after a rash of violence this week left two others dead.

Police have made one arrest, while one of the incidents is being investigated as a case of self-defense.
…

Police said Samuel Giles, 36, of the 4000 block of Figtree Drive in Jones, went to pick up his stepdaughter from her boyfriend's house, where the couple were arguing, police said.

Giles told police his stepdaughter called him Wednesday from Robert Bren's house at 546 S. Court St. and asked him to pick her up. Giles said Bren is his stepdaughter's boyfriend.

When Giles arrived at about 8:40 p.m., police said the two men argued. Giles drew a gun and tried to shoot Bren, but Bren shot him first with a 9 mm handgun.

Giles was taken to Jackson Hospital, where he remained in critical condition Thursday.

Bren was taken to police headquarters and questioned. The incident appeared to be one of self-defense, police said.

Sharpsburg, Georgia

From Atlanta’s 11Alive.com of February 8, 2007

Man Critical After Killing Intruder

A Coweta County man was hospitalized in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the chest after killing the intruder who shot him early Thursday morning.

Police said the two men were part of a domestic dispute that erupted in gunfire in the normally quiet Coweta County neighborhood. According to investigators, the victim, Kevin Went, and his girlfriend were inside the home on St. James Place near Sharpsburg at the time of a violent intrusion. The girlfriend's ex-boyfriend kicked down the door about 5:30 a.m. with a gun in hand. Both men started to argue and both started shooting.

"The old boyfriend followed her here, kicked the door in, forced his way in, confronted the new boyfriend with a firearm and they shot each other," said Major James Yarbrough of the Coweta County Sheriff's Office.

A neighbor said bullets were flying from the home. "I could hear him kick in the door and he shot and I think some of the bullets came out through the wall over there," said Curtis Scruggs.

The ex-boyfriend, who was identified as Vance Tanner, died at the scene. The homeowner was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center in critical condition.

Florence, South Carolina

From Florence’s MorningNewsOnline.com of February 8, 2007

Garden City Man Found Not Guilty

After nearly 12 hours of deliberation a jury found a Horry County man not guilty of murder.

Police say 76-year-old Henry Bramlett shot his neighbor, Robert Tomlinson, more than a dozen times after a property line dispute.

But prosecutors say the evidence solicited to the character of the victim showed he wasn’t a good neighbor in the minds of jurors.

Defense attorney Morgan Martin told the jury his client acted in self-defense.

The shooting happened in August of 2005 off Stanley Drive in Garden City. Bramlett was facing life in prison with no chance at parole. Today he is a free man.

Ann Arbor, Michigan

From the February 7, 2007 Ann Arbor News:

An accused intruder shot during a botched robbery attempt in Ann Arbor late Friday was arraigned Tuesday on six felony charges in the case. A second man also was arrested Tuesday and is expected to be arraigned today.

Ann Arbor Police Sgt. Jim Stephenson said this morning that detectives are seeking a third man but would not discuss his potential involvement in the shooting.

The three men are suspects in a late-night attempted robbery and shooting inside an Ann Arbor home in the 700 block of Miller Avenue. Police said several people were inside the home when two intruders forced their way in. Gunfire was exchanged, and a 19-year-old resident and one of the intruders were shot.

Stephenson said the intruders appear to have targeted that home, but he declined to elaborate. He declined to say who was firing shots and said police are still piecing together the case, but none of the residents inside the house is expected to be charged - "they are all victims and witnesses.''

Jackson, Mississippi

From the Jackson Clarion-Ledger of February 6, 2007

Auto repair shop robbed for 29th time

Owner says he fired shots, may have hit one robber early Sunday

Maybe he hit the guy when he fired his .38, maybe he didn't, but Eugene Miner is fed up either way.

On Sunday, the longtime Jackson business owner was burglarized again, the 29th time that has happened to his auto repair business, he said.

It was the second time in two days. He can't take it anymore.

"I think I hit one of them," he said Monday morning. "He was limping when he was going up that hill there."

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, someone broke into Miner Auto Repair on Fortification Street just east of State Street.

Eugene and Linda Miner had moved back to that location in August after less than a year on South Street. Their shop had been broken into 27 times there, they said.

And so it was sometime between 2 a.m. Saturday and dawn that someone broke into the new shop and made off with tools, a computer, dozens of purses that had been for sale and more.

They ate food in the cooler, left forks and soda cans on the floor, even took off with a trash can.

The Miners figured whoever did that was not finished. The place looked like they'd left in a hurry.

So at 3:30 a.m. the next day, Sunday, the Miners went to the shop, expecting trouble.

"We hadn't been in here 30 minutes when it happened," Linda Miner said.

What happened, according to both Miners, is this:

Two skinny guys in a white 1991 Ford Crown Victoria backed up to the same bay door that had been broken into the day before.

Eugene Miner said he'd fixed the door with metal and wood, and that he knew it was a 1991 Crown Vic because he's in the auto business and knows cars.

A short black man with light skin and a taller black man with dark skin broke through the door with a 2-by-4.

The Miners said they watched all this from the shop's office, adjacent to the repair bay where the burglars were but separated by thick glass.

Eugene Miner said the tall guy crawled on the floor next to an undamaged bay door. The other guy stayed where he was.

"That's when I started shooting," he said.

On that piece of glass between the office and the repair bays are now two small bullet holes with cracks leading from them like streams from a mountaintop lake.

After the gunfire, the men ran. The tall guy up the hill on Fortification, the short guy to the Crown Vic, which he drove away to where he could pick up the tall guy.

Jackson police detective James Cornelius is investigating the case.

He said Monday afternoon that he'd checked the area's hospitals and hadn't found anyone with a gunshot wound who fit the burglar's description.

Still, he said, that doesn't mean the man was not shot. Perhaps it was a minor injury, or maybe he went far away for treatment.

Cornelius said he had no leads he wanted to discuss publicly on Monday but might have some news today.

Either way, Linda and Eugene Miner are getting sick of this.

They said they appreciate the police and didn't want to sound like they were complaining, but something has to be done about crime.

"Right now," Linda Miner said, "we are at our breaking point. We feel like the city should step in and do something. ... We have just got to have some help. We deserve some help.

"You know it's gone too far when we have to take up arms to protect ourselves."

Greeneville, Tennessee

From Johnson City’s TriCities.com of February 5, 2007

Tri-Cities pharmacist stops armed robbery using her gun

Susong Pharmacy in Greeneville usually welcomes the sound of a person entering the store, but not lately. The pharmacy has been robbed twice in the last few months and employees have had enough.

"I hated it happened, but he asked for it in my opinion," a store employee who asked to remain anonymous said.

Police say an armed man entered the store wearing a ski-mask this afternoon, went to the front, and demanded hydrocodone. An unnamed pharmacy technician says the man confronted her.

"It was like deja vu, being that I was just robbed by what looked like the same gentleman back on December 27th," the woman said. "He thought he was going to walk in, walk back out, and he was very surprised. He got a little bit more than he asked for."

The woman says her co-worker pulled out her gun and fired a warning shot at the man. She says the first round didn't phase the robber, but the second did. She says the bullet hit the man in his chest and before the robber made it out, the employee fired one more shot.

The stores surveillance cameras caught everything on tape, but the video has since been locked up in evidence. Investigators now search for the man in that video. Capt. Terry Webb says he doesn't question the pharmacist's reaction, but he discourages anyone from taking matters into their own hands.

"We always recommend if you're put in an armed robbery situation, to go ahead and cooperate and give the person whatever they're asking for, and that way nobody gets hurt," Webb said.

That said, pharmacy employees say they're tired of being the victim. In fact, they hope two bullet holes in the wall send a message.

Police believe the suspect fled the scene in an early nineties model Dodge Dakota pick-up truck. They say the two-tone tan and possibly silver pick-up also has back bumper damage.

Kilgore, Texas

From the Tyler Morning Telegraph of February 5, 2007

WOMAN FOUND INNOCENT IN HUSBAND'S DEATH

Wanda Sue Gough, 54, can return to her home in Raleigh N.C., a free woman, after being found not guilty of murdering her husband in 1980.

A jury of three men and nine women deliberated for three hours Thursday afternoon before reading a not guilty verdict.

In 1980 Ms. Gough told police she shot and killed her husband, John Gough, in self defense. At the time, a grand jury failed to indict her.

In 1995, Kilgore Police reopened the case at the request of John Gough's family members.

The case was later submitted to the Texas Rangers Cold Case Unit.

Ms. Gough was arrested in May 2006, nearly 26 years after her husband's death.

Gregg County District Attorney Bill Jennings said he respects the jury's verdict and the effort they made in coming to a verdict.