Posted on 08/15/2007 7:15:35 AM PDT by Dr.Syn
By DON STACOM And LARRY SMITH
Courant Staff Writers
August 15, 2007
ENFIELD
Taking a break from work at his roadside farm stand, Richard Ouellette Jr. walked into his Washington Road house early Tuesday afternoon and suddenly faced a genuine nightmare: a 6-foot-8, 280-pound stranger aiming a gun at his head.
The intruder demanded Ouellette open a small wall safe, but the 40-year-old produce farmer - who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 170 - wasn't going to oblige.
"Basically I was in shock. I don't know if I did the right thing or the wrong thing, but I thought, `He's not telling me what to do in my home.' I pushed his arm away," Ouellette recalled from his parents' home Tuesday evening.
Even after the hulking man tried to shoot him three times - the gun misfired - and then opened a deep wound on Ouellette's head by whacking him with a heavy glass, Ouellette fought back.
"He tried to shoot, then he grabbed me, I grabbed him and we fought. We finally fell down a full flight of stairs, breaking everything in the way. Then he hit me with this thick glass, I saw stars. He was choking me, he had a fork and he was going to stab me, I couldn't take much more," Ouellette said.
The attacker finally ran out of the house - and Ouellette ran after him, climbed into a golf cart and followed the man toward the woods.
"I was stopping traffic, yelling to everyone to call 911," Ouellette said. Within three minutes, police cars were screaming up Washington and officers began chasing the man. Ouellette had nothing but praise for them: "They were right on it. I'll tell you, all my taxes are worth paying this year."
William V. Marks, a 30-year-old Chicopee, Mass., man, was arrested without a fight, police said. He was being held with bail set at $1 million, pending arraignment this morning on charges of attempted felony murder, first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, third-degree larceny and illegal possession of a handgun.
Lt. Duane Tompkins said Marks apparently had broken into the home and was trying to force open a safe when Ouellette returned. Marks hid behind a refrigerator until Ouellette walked into the kitchen, then held a .25-caliber gun to Ouellette's head and ordered him to open the safe, police said.
Police are investigating why the house was targeted. Someone had burglarized the house a day earlier, police said, and Ouellette suspects Marks learned of the safe and figured it had valuables. It didn't, Ouellette said.
"I'm a family man, a normal farmer. I grow corn and tomatoes - it's a living, but I work for everything I have," he said.
Police believe the gun involved misfired because it was loaded with the wrong ammunition and jammed.
"I'm just happy and blessed," said Ouellette, who needed several staples to his scalp to close the wound from the fight. He said he was relieved that his wife and young children weren't home.
"We've lived here 22 years; it's a very normal, simple life. I'm just dumbfounded this happened. I guess you've got to keep your guard up all the time," he said. "I was a musician, I lived in New York for 10 years - Manhattan, the Bronx, subways at 3 a.m., and nothing happened. Now this happens here?"
Is this Darwin List material?
Don't worry, Mr. Oulette. The Massachusetts Judicial has him.. He'll be given a prompt slap on release, stern talking to, and released before you can say "Do I need a gun to defend my home?"
No, not Darwin material yet. The perp is alive. To be Darwin material the fool must be dead and not have contributed to the gene pool.
The Massachusetts Judicial has him.. He’ll be given a prompt slap on the wrist, astern talking to, and released before you can say “Do I need a gun to defend my home?”
Bad timing for him in the wake of the Petit home invasion murders in Cheshire. There is a new "get tough" attitude on home invasions that should last long enough to get this guy in real trouble...until he gets "early parole".
Just another example of why a dog is the best alarm system known to mankind, and is also the single best deterent to burglars on the planet.
The bottom line is somebody that thinks breaking into a home is a good idea will always take the ‘least path of resistence’ and hit the home without an alarm system, canine or Alarm Force, it doesn’t matter.
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Wow. What a mensch.
To get a Darwin you have to remove yourself from the gene pool. If you accidently castrate yourself in a tragic hedgeclipper incident or get yourself incarcerated during your prime breeding years then that should count : ).
Question for you Mass. Freepers: I thought the town of Enfield is about 100 feet under the Quabbin reservior. Wasn’t it one of the towns flooded in the 1930’s (?) to create Quabbin?
Oh if only the homeowner had complied with the intruder’s demands this arrest could have been avoided.
Enfield was a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, location 42°19′N, 072°22′W. The town was incorporated in 1816 from portions of Greenwich and Belchertown. It was named in honor of one of its early settlers, Robert Field. General Joseph Hooker, Union general during the American Civil War, was once a resident, and his grandfather was once a town leader.
It was centered at the junction of the east and west branches of the Swift River, and the Athol Branch of the Boston and Albany Railroad ran through the town. The town was disincorporated on April 28, 1938 and portions of the town were annexed to the adjacent towns of Belchertown, New Salem, Pelham, and Ware. (Not all of the former town is presently in Hampshire County; the portion ceded to New Salem is now in Franklin County.) The headquarters of the Metropolitan District Commission during the construction of the Quabbin Reservoir was located in the former town, and was the last building razed in the Swift River Valley, in 1940. The majority of the town center now lies submerged beneath the reservoir, although the Quabbin Observatory and Enfield Lookout, located on scenic Quabbin Hill, as well as the main entrance and headquarters of Quabbin State Park, a popular tourist destination with an emphasis on state history and nature, are all within the former town's limits.
Looks like the attacker was black. So if the gun had fired and the home owner had been killed, I guess this would have been a big story for a few hours then they would quietly drop it.
Criminals are generally not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
The headline would have been “Racist Homeowner Causes Arrest of Innocent Black Man.”
I don’t have a barking dog, but I have a Tomcat, loaded with hollow points.
CASTLE DOCTRINE AND SELF-DEFENSE
Last I knew NYS still had its duty-to-retreat law on the books.
A far more satisfying head line would have read....
HOMEOWNER SHOOTS CALIBER IMPARED HOME INVADER TO DEATH WITH HIS OWN CORRECTLY LOADED WEAPON.
I don’t have a barking dog, but I have a Tomcat, loaded with hollow points.
That works great....if you are home. When you aren’t however, the dog trumps the inanimate object every time.
How is a sincere criminal, trying hard, going to get ahead in his profession if his victim fails to cooperate?
Almost all crime depends on the cooperation of the victim.
If the victim refuses his assigned role, the criminal is placed at a disadvantage, one so severe that it usually takes an understanding and compassionate judge to set right.
LAZARUS LONG
Oh man, this made my morning.
“Police believe the gun involved misfired because it was loaded with the wrong ammunition and jammed.”
Thank God many criminals are dumb.
If the robber had been an illegal he would have gotten a free trip home!
Since this is being reported by the Hartford Courant, I believe the Enfield in question is Enfield, CT, a town about 20 minutes north of Hartford on I-91, across the MA state line from Longmeadow.
My father's family lived in the town when it was being dismantled. My grandfather worked for the MDC and his was one of the last families to move. He and my father dis-assembled a house he bought for $10 and moved it to Belchertown.
I have been to the lookout tower but didn't know it is/was part of the town.
There are still hard feelings about the destruction of all the towns so that Boston could take their water.
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Yes. I can understand how they feel.
I think you are correct. Google Maps show a hit for the Conn. address, and not for Mass. It does show Enfield in Mass right on the shore of the reservoir though.
I love the description of the scum perp..
6’8”, 280 pounds... White guy? Black guy? Hispanic guy? I wouldn’t want to investigate EVERY 6’8” 280 lb guy.. want to get the ethnic group at least....
pssst, plenty of farmers out my way pack heat...
oh I see this happened in Assachusetts...
you'll forgive me, but i have been embroiled for the last three days with the cop-hating militia men around here.
good for this guy. he should have been carrying, though. would have made short work of this loser.
Now why would the "militia men" around here hate cops?
Also, I live in the People's Republic of Kalifornia, where most county sheriffs will refuse to issue a permit to carry and will jail those who do so without a permit. Isn't that a shame?
Enfield MA is under the Quabbin. This story was from Enfield, Connecticut!
We took our two younger kids out to the Quabbin several years ago. From the top of the wall at the Visitor’s center, you can see the railroad tracks disappearing into the water. Creepy.
well, i did say he should have been carrying. i think all law-abiding citizens should carry. people allow themselves to be victims, and criminals don’t give a rats patoot about gun laws. i am pro legal gun all the way. my issue with the montana militia was mostly over the war on drugs and execution of search warrants.
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