Posted on 03/14/2002 7:01:38 AM PST by 2Trievers
SPRING HILL -- There were no courteous words or gallant waves when two disabled men decided they wanted the same handicapped parking space outside Oak Hill Hospital on Wednesday.
One honked. The other shouted a profanity.
One unsheathed a sword. The other raised a 9mm handgun.
Bystanders in the crowded parking lot watched. They saw the man with the sword turn around and race inside the hospital.
A nurse dialed 911.
By day's end, Lee Damron, 48, of Rim Drive in Masaryktown, was charged with aggravated assault and booked at the Hernando County Jail, without his sword.
Richard Cavalier, 59, of Bayshore Drive in Spring Hill, went inside the hospital for his appointment. He was allowed to keep his gun because he had a concealed-weapons permit.
Authorities said the duel began after Cavalier pulled near a parking spot outside the emergency room around 3 p.m. Cavalier said he had partly blocked the space so he and his wife could get his wheelchair out of their van.
About that time, Damron pulled near the spot and honked. Cavalier said he indicated to Damron that he planned to park there.
Damron pulled in anyway, Cavalier said.
"We exchanged a couple of F-yous," Cavalier said.
Then Damron walked toward him.
He held a black cane topped with a golden snake head. From inside the cane, Damron produced a sword, authorities said. He walked "in a rather menacing manner" toward Cavalier, authorities said.
Cavalier fingered his handgun and lifted it slowly.
Damron stopped, turned and ran through the hospital's sliding doors, authorities said.
When deputies found Damron, he said he had gotten into an altercation in the parking lot but with a buck knife. Deputies said they later found the cane/sword hidden in his brother's hospital room.
Hospital spokeswoman Nancy Kaminski said the incident took mere minutes and that no patients appeared to have been disrupted.
"We're a little shaken up," Cavalier said as he entered the hospital for treatment. "We were shocked."
Both men have criminal records.
Damron has various drug convictions, including possession of marijuana and narcotic equipment.
Cavalier was charged in 1983 with aggravated abuse and cruelty toward children and received one year of probation, state records show.
-- Jamie Jones covers law enforcement and courts in Hernando County and can be reached at 754-6114. Send e-mail to jjones@sptimes.com.
Obviously, he needs more practice in Mind Sword Path.
If you misread it, so did I.
I was wondering the same thing.
Hmm... 1983 conviction, no jail time. It must not have been too severe an infraction, and apparently his nose has been clean since. Just think of how this incident would have turned out without the legal concealed pistol's presence.
That's what I'm thinking. What'd he do, I wonder, kick a puppy in front of some kids...?
Cavalier said he had partly blocked the space so he and his wife could get his wheelchair out of their van.Does anyone else find it important that the guy with the CCW permit was in a wheelchair and was approached by the sword-wielding puke?
Oh, the conflicts of the anti-gun media: should they condemn a wheelchair-using CCW guy??
The clue was in the beginning of the article, when they just listed various events without any context, so that the reader is predisposed to imagine a situation far different from what actually happened.
Here's a much more accurate first paragraph, by me: A local man was getting into his wheelchair when he was menaced by another resident, who pulled a sword and approached the wheelchair-bound invalid. Tragedy was averted when Cavalier showed the sword-brandishing lowlife his registered sidearm. No shots were fired as the bully sulked away.
This is the first time in recorded history that all handicapped parking places at a location have been filled.
The police were called and he was arrested for something along the lines of child abuse, or cruelty to a child.
Don't remember how it turned out, though
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