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Posted on 04/10/2006 8:22:04 PM PDT by DaveLoneRanger
When the man suspected of robbing a branch office of People’s National Bank hours earlier walked into Johnny Piper’s yard near Slabtown Thursday night, the 34-year-old Lamar County native says he first thought the man to be a dog-handler involved in the manhunt that was then ranging along the nearby Sulphur River bottom.
Minutes later, and after several warnings, Piper says he told Michael Paul Hammonds, 32, to “stop or I’ll shoot.”
“The dogs at that point got away from him and hunkered to the ground,” Piper recalled Saturday about the incident, explaining he followed Hammonds out his driveway from his back porch.
Piper pulled the trigger, sending a 20-gauge shotgun shell through both of Hammonds’ legs, ending a five-hour manhunt involving several law enforcement agencies, a Texas Department of Public Safety helicopter and tracking dogs from the Choice Moore State Jail in Bonham.
“When he heard me slide in the gravel to stop, he started turning and that is when I shot him,” Piper said. “I intended on shooting him in the leg, but his turning got him in both legs.”
Hammonds remains in good condition at Paris Regional Medical Center, according to Lamar County Sheriff B.J. McCoy. An accomplice in the robbery, Robyn Ann Bradford, 26, is in the county jail on a $300,000 bond.
Piper said he first knew of the manhunt near his house when his girlfriend called him at work about 8 p.m. to tell him a bank robber was loose in the area and police had instructed her to keep the kids in the house and the doors locked.
Events began to unfold about 4:45 p.m. Thursday when a Paris Police Department dispatcher received a 911 call from a Paris man who watched as a man run out of the bank at Lamar Avenue and Collegiate Drive carrying handfuls of bundled money.
Later that evening, as he neared his residence on FM 1498, Piper said he stopped at the Pickering Creek bridge where law enforcement vehicles were parked. He learned officers posted there believed the suspect to be in the creek bed.
Upon arriving home, Piper said he said “hi” to the four kids, got his shotgun out of the closet and proceeded to lock vehicles and secure outside buildings.
He returned to the back porch where he and his girlfriend watched a helicopter “flying over everywhere with a light.”
“I am standing there with my shotgun cradled across my arm when this man comes walking up the highway, (FM 1498)” Piper said. “He’s walking up the road with all these dogs, and I first thought it was the dog handler because the police said they had scent dogs.”
When the man came closer, Piper said he noticed the man was not wearing a shirt and had tattoos all over his body.
“He comes walking up, pockets are bulged out front and back with baggy pants and nasty, dirty hands and face,” Piper said. “His shoes were messed up and it looked like he had been crawling around on the ground.”
“He told me that him and his wife had gotten into a fight down the road and she kicked him out of the house,” Piper recalled. “I know every one of my neighbors. He was not one of my neighbors.”
“I told him, ‘you are not one of my neighbors, you are the bank robber,’” Piper said. “I told my girlfriend to call 911 and I told him to lay face down on the ground.”
Instead, the man threw his arms back and “started coming at me busted out like he was going to hit me,” Piper said. Piper then raised his gun and the man backed off.
“He raised his hands up and said, ‘no, no you ain’t going to shoot me,’ and I said ‘I don’t want to,’” Piper recalled.
The man turned around and started walking off, Piper said.
“I would walk behind him and he would walk,” Piper said. “He took off running and I took off running. When I would stop, he would stop and turn.”
At one point, Piper said he thought about hitting the man with the barrel of his gun, but had second thoughts about the man taking the gun away from him.
“I could have detained him, but him going at his pockets and not knowing what those bulges were and with little kids in the house,” Piper said, “I wasn’t going to take the chance to lay my gun down and physically detain him.”
Piper reflected on his children and shared that his 10-year-old daughter earlier in the day had watched “the high speed chase from a tree.”
“She watched the whole thing,” Piper said. “She watched the guy turn the corner and the tire come off the truck.” The family lives near the intersection of FM 1498 and CR 15650.
Piper’s account matches that of Department of Public Safety trooper Johnny Williams who e-mailed the newspaper an account of his involvement, which differed from an earlier report.
“I turned on the suspect vehicle and it ran, causing a high-speed pursuit westbound on FM 1498 then south down CR 15650, which dead-ends at the Sulphur River,” Williams wrote. “The suspect vehicle was driving so recklessly that it blew its right front tire off and still continued to flee.
“It left the county road and fled across a hay meadow to a tree line on a creek where the driver jumped out and disappeared into the woods before I was able to stop the patrol unit,” Williams continued. “By the time I did exit the patrol unit and initiate a foot pursuit, the driver was out of sight in the thick brush. Then and only then did I return to the suspect vehicle and take the female suspect into custody.”
Piper said if it weren’t for his children standing in the back door watching when Hammonds threatened, he might have shot the man point blank.
“Had that door been shut, I would have killed him, the way he had me backed up,” Piper said. “I was scared to death, but I didn’t want my kids to see a man die.”
Piper says he is anxious about possible charges being brought against him, but said he believes he was justified in what he did.
“I have to stop thinking about it,” Piper said. “I saw this guy get shot and saw his legs fly out beside him and him flopping to the ground and when I close my eyes that is what I see.”
“I guess you could say it’s horrific,” Piper concluded.
After an ambulance took Hammonds away and law enforcement officers left, Piper said he got into his truck and drove around for about an hour until he calmed down.
“Just up and down them dirt roads, listening to the crickets chirp,” Piper said of the drive.
We got one in Tennessee, too! home of the world's biggest fish fry. :)
This guy is cool beans, by the way. And a family man, obviously. I'm glad it turned out for the best.
I hate it when the 20 gauge shotgun shell flies out like that. /S
Hey dumb arse reporter type, was he firing a 20 ga. shell in a 10 bore?
"Mary,"
"I just read this story on the Free Republic site (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1612835/posts)."
"I just wanted you to know that this is one of the best written armed citizen stores that I have read in some time. You captured lots of detail including the thought process of Johnny Piper as he deliberated the balance between fear, protecting his family from harm and protecting his kids from seeing something that would truly bother them for a long time."
"Great coverage! Thanks for the article."
Only by a liberal definition. It's not exactly the traditional family unit.
...happy andings should always included the peaceful chirping of crickets in the background.
God bless this man and his family. Stay safe. Stay Armed.
Happy Trails
Some trails are happy ones,
Others are blue.
It's the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here's a happy one for you.
Happy trails to you until we meet again.
Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy trails to you 'till we meet again.
(Repeat)
Written by Dale Evans
(in less than an hour on the back of an envelope)
From the same website today: http://theparisnews.com/story.lasso?wcd=26153
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