Posted on 01/29/2004 11:03:33 AM PST by george wythe
A man who fatally ran down a fleeing robber in his Ford Explorer moments after being held at gunpoint was charged with manslaughter on Tuesday, officials said.
Lawrence Storer, 33, was released from the Hillsborough County Jail on $7,500 bond Tuesday night, according to the jail.
Shantavious Wilson, 24, was killed Oct. 30 when he was hit by Storer's truck.
Storer was sitting in his Explorer outside the Thai restaurant he owns when man approached on foot, stuck a chrome handgun in his face and demanded money, Tampa police said.
The robber walked Storer inside the restaurant to get some money. When the man was distracted, Storer ran from the building and called 911 on his cell phone, police said.
When the man saw Storer on the phone, he ran from the business. Storer got in his Explorer and caught up with the man about two blocks away, striking him with the front of the truck.
A chrome-plated pellet gun, which police said was indistinguishable from a real weapon, was found near the body.
The State Attorney's Office and Tampa police did not return phone messages left after hours Tuesday.
When the law fails, what other choice do people have? You either take it into your own hands, or lie down and die.
What would our legal system have done with this guy? Not much. The bleeding hearts would've been there on his side talking about the rough life the poor kid had seen, and how it was all society's fault.
Or if the gun was real, the SUV driver could have died right there if he hadn't acted (no way for the driver to have known at the time, and I don't think it was his responsibilty to risk his own life trying to decide if the gun was real or not).
I'm sorry I was not clear enough in my post. By victim, I meant to say the victim of the robbery.
I would like to hear the store owner's side of the story. Did the robber threaten the store owner with retaliation if the cops were called? Did the robber run in front of the SUV trying to avoid getting caught?
Geez, too bad you didn't teach your son that.
Sadly but 100% correct.
I often wonder how cops can keep doing their job without feeling demoralized.
These perps are usually routine offenders. The evil few keep acting out over and over and over again.
Someone once told me about the 80/20 rule of thumb. 80% of the crime is committed by 20% of the criminals.
In other words, non-repeat offenders, 80% of the criminals, only commit 20% of the crimes.
I wonder if the 80/20 rule of thumb is close enough to the real statistics.
Wrong, wrong, wrong! Victim-response laws in most jurisdictions are based on the principle of proportional response. Stick a gun in someone's face, and your're threatening his life. So far as I'm concerned, the perp's life is forfeit at that point, and the victim has every right to eliminate a threat to society.
In Phoenix several months ago, three stickup men held up a small insurance sales office. The owner charged outside in his Hummer, chased the perps down the road, and simply drove over their small car. Squish!
Fortiunately this is Arizona, and no charges were ever filed. If they had been, we would have recalled the DA.
This was not vigilantism.
Vigilantism is where the person goes out LOOKING for trouble. In this case, the trouble came to him.
BIG difference.
My take: a combination of two names, Sean and Octavius.
The combination then is mispelled, and voila, you have a new 'cool' name.
He kicked her when she was on the ground and stole her purse. The gas station attendant also witnessed this and said not a word as we gave chase without paying for the fuel...
I caught up to the perp just as he was about to jump into a beater car full of his "Battos" (mexican for brothers). I had two choices, mow him down, or stop right there and hopefully not get shot as I tried to grab him. He got away as his battos drug him in the back door as they sped away.
We noted the cars make and plate number but did not pursue any further. When the police showed up (within minutes btw) we gave the info and they snagged a whole carload of illegals, wanted on various other felonies....glad I stopped when I did, the were packin heat!
When they came back to the gas station to get our testimony, the older sgt. told me I >b>SHOULD have ran him over! It was a felony in progress...just damn!
BTW...the little ol Lady came out of it fine, and got her money back to boot.
This was in North Sacramento back in '82, today they would probably have arrested me for some kind of hate crime!
Strange name.
Shantavious Wilson, a registered sex offender, was fresh out of prison on armed robbery charges last October when he held up a Tampa restaurant owner, but now the state says he was the victim.
According to Storer, he was sitting in his truck outside his restaurant at about 11 p.m. October 29 when Wilson robbed him at gunpoint and took off on foot. The restaurant owner told police he called 911, then set off in his truck to find Wilson.
He caught up with Wilson three blocks away, in front of the Federal Courthouse. Storer claimed Wilson raised his gun, so he ran him over and killed him in self-defense.
Though Storer would not comment Tuesday as he turned himself in, his attorney told Action News that Storer still insisted he was acting in self-defense, even though it turned out Wilson was only carrying a pellet gun.
"Lawrence did tell me that one of the things that kept running through his mind was his little daughter when the gun was pointed. He thought he was dead; he thought it was all over," attorney John Fitzgibbons said. "He didn't look for trouble, wasn't asking for any trouble, and gets a gun pointed at his head, asking for all his money. It was terrifying to him."
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