MD - Man Shoots, Kills Armed Home Invader/Kidnapper

[Kevlar]

A maintenance man at a Forestville apartment complex shot and killed a home invader Monday morning after the intruder forced the man into his apartment and fired a gun at him, police and law enforcement sources said.

The maintenance man was able to retrieve his own gun inside his apartment and return fire, fatally wounding the intruder, law enforcement sources said. Police said that the maintenance man had not been charged criminally and that the shooting in the 4400 block of Rena Road appeared to be self-defense.

"The victim . . . had a weapon inside the home that he used to shoot the suspect," said Cpl. Mike Rodriguez, a spokesman for the Prince George's County Police Department. "We believe that the victim had every right to defend himself."

The shooting occurred on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling in an Illinois case, confirmed the fundamental right of all Americans to bear arms.

Law enforcement sources said the shooting appeared to be justified -- a classic case of an armed homeowner shooting an intruder. It remains unclear, however, how the maintenance man obtained his gun or whether he possessed it legally. Investigators said they were still exploring that.

>snip<

The incident started just before 9 a.m., when the maintenance man came upon the intruder trying to force a woman into her apartment, law enforcement sources said. Concerned for the woman, the maintenance man asked what was going on, and the intruder pointed a gun at him and forced him into his own apartment nearby, the sources said. Officers were called to the scene for the report of a home invasion, police said.
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What happened next remains unclear, but law enforcement sources said that the intruder fired at the maintenance man and that the maintenance man retrieved his own gun and returned fire.

>snip<

Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D) said the investigation was ongoing and he could not say whether authorities were likely to charge the shooter.

"Generally speaking," he said, "people do have a right to defend themselves and others in their homes, including deadly force in some circumstances."

The maintenance man declined to comment as he left Prince George's police headquarters Monday evening. While he was being interviewed by detectives, his mother granted a brief interview and said, "God had a shield of protection all around him."

"Hallelujah, praise God that no one else got hurt," she said. "Prayers been going up, and we just thank God."

The mother, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her family from the suspects who remain at large, said of her son: "You . . . write that he's a hero. That's all we know. That's all we have to say."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062805013.html.

 

[skiman305]

"Generally speaking"?

 

[Kevlar]

Adrenaline coursing through his body, Benjamin Jackson dropped to his knees and clasped his hands behind his head, forced to watch -- helplessly -- as the masked, armed intruder rummaged through his home.

This, apparently, was Jackson's reward for trying to help his neighbor. Just minutes earlier, the 29-year-old maintenance man had spotted what looked like two men forcing a screaming woman into an apartment across the hall from his. Uncertain of what he had just seen, he knocked on the door. A man with a gun answered and forced him to walk backward into his own residence.

"Is the young lady next door okay?" Jackson thought as he knelt on his own floor. "What is he attempting to do? Is he going to kill me?"

Then Jackson grabbed his own gun.

"I just couldn't allow it to go down the way it was trying to go down," Jackson said in an interview on Thursday, his first public statements since Monday's fatal shooting, which Prince George's County police say seems to be a case of self-defense. "I know pretty much he was capable of doing what he had to do. First chance, I had to go for it."

Jackson shot and killed Keith L. Fletcher, 20, a father of two young boys who lived in Southeast Washington and in Oxon Hill with his mother. Law enforcement sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because police are still looking for other suspects, said he was shot multiple times in the upper body -- but only after he squeezed off a shot at Jackson.

"It became a matter of life or death at that moment," Jackson said.

Officially, police will not say much about the case. They have not released even basic details, such as Fletcher's name and what happened inside Jackson's apartment. Jackson's account, however, was corroborated by several law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation. Family members confirmed Fletcher's name.

Shootings that are both fatal and justifiable are a rarity nationwide, which makes Jackson's case all the more astonishing. In 2008, FBI statistics show, there were 204 justifiable homicides by civilians using firearms. That compares with 9,484 criminal homicides involving firearms.

Fletcher's relatives questioned the preliminary ruling that the shooting was justified. Fletcher mentored youths and enjoyed sports -- and was not someone who was likely to participate in an armed robbery, they said.

They also questioned how Jackson was able to retrieve his gun so quickly, if he truly was being held at gunpoint by Fletcher. They said Fletcher was somehow set up by Jackson or others in the apartment building in Forestville.

"He not even that type of person," said Christina Anderson, 21, the mother of one of Fletcher's sons. "He's smart. He liked to work. He liked going out. He [was], like, all about his family. He's not no bad person."

>snip<

Investigators say Fletcher and the others may have been involved in another robbery in the area hours earlier, sources said. He also was facing an active arrest warrant related to a March incident in which he was accused of carjacking and robbing a man he had arranged to buy shoes from.

Fletcher had been arrested three times in 2008, twice on drug-related charges and once for robbery and assault. One of the drug cases was dropped for lack of evidence, the other because officers did not show in court to testify against him, said a spokesman for the Prince George's County state's attorney's office. The robbery and assault case was dropped when the victim could not identify Fletcher as his attacker, the spokesman said.

Jackson was convicted of misdemeanor charges for carrying a concealed gun in North Carolina in 1998 and 2001, court records show. He faced minor fines and was ordered to pay court costs in each case.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/02/AR2010070205316.html.

 

[RichM]

"No, he wadn't 'about to turn his life around', he didn't NEED to turn his life around [except for the alleged armed robbery earlier in the day, the alleged assult across the hall, the alleged assault with a deadly weapon, the alleged attempted murder (to wit, shooting at Jackson), and the alleged prior offenses]."

 

[vicpinto]

I'd like to bitch slap Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D).... general speaking of course.

 

[twogunwilly]

I'd like to bitch slap Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D).... general speaking of course.

of course!