Posted on 12/04/2012 7:43:47 AM PST by marktwain
BIG LAKE — A bail-jumping burglar may be feeling lucky at the possibility of spending the next several decades in jail after an armed confrontation that nearly left him shot.
Joshua Beaty, 25, was in the process of robbing the Big Lake area home of James Conner Oct. 26 when Conner and a couple of his friends caught Beaty in the act.
“He already had the TV loaded up and some other stuff,” said Jim Bowe Jr., owner of Mark’s Big Lake Repair and friend of Conner. “He came out of the house and tried to sneak into his truck, and Conner grabbed him.”
Beaty managed to get into his vehicle, threw it in reverse and attempted to run Bowe down, Bowe said. That’s when Bowe trained a handgun on Beaty.
“I pulled a gun and almost shot him,” Bowe said, adding that Beaty made a move to retrieve a.44-caliber handgun he had stolen from the home from beside his seat. That’s when Bowe said he fired a warning shot. “I popped one up over his head, then he knew I was for real. If he would’ve got that .44 out of the holster, he would’ve been dead.”
(Excerpt) Read more at frontiersman.com ...
Glad to see Mr. Bowie didn’t bring a knife to a gun fight.
I admit, I wouldn’t have shown such restraint.
I expect that in the next few years there is going to be a lot more than this. Because of the national crackdown in prescription opiate and synthetic opiate painkillers, there has been an explosion of heroin use.
The black market pills run from $80-100 each, but heroin is about $20-30 a dose, about equivalent. And there has been a huge flood of cheap brown heroin up from Mexico for two decades now. Junkies start by smoking or snorting heroin, but rapidly move to injected.
Until the crackdown, heroin use was very limited for a decade, but is now jumping drastically.
And junkies are renowned for both their despair and desperation in getting money to get more junk. They are also terrified of jail because it would deprive them of their drug.
Bullets may be necessary to stop them.
There’s another thread about Oxycotin junkies. It’s not just heroin & cocaine anymore.
Guess I now know where all the zombies are coming from.
Pills become harder to obtain, especially as the need/dosage increases. They begin to do things that they would not do before, become familiar with people and places that a short time ago would frighten them.
Smack becomes easier to obtain as they descend the class/social ladder and is definitely cheaper.
Once the transition is made, the path is clear, straight down.
A few years ago a couple of dirtbags thieves broke into a church at Big Lake, the pastor shot both of them down and killed them. The pastor faced trial and was exonerated even though one of them was shot in the back. Rumor was that the locals were so tired of thievery in the Big Lake area that the jury let him go. I guess there are a few more dirt bags that need airing out there. My partner has a lake cabin there and has had multiple thefts including snow mobiles. Good riddance.
Why do I think that the self-described “warning shot” was simply a miss? Thief was going for .44 handgun so he fires a warning shot?
A warning shot makes a much better story and better bragging rights, does it not?
Mr. Bowe is a better and certainly kinder man than I am. I think an appropriate warning shot in this situation should enter just aft of the ear to make sure the thief hears it.
Up here on the Yukon, really no crime at all; many communities are that way too. No locks on doors, keys outta any vehicles, or taxes, or any controls; all kinds of freedom. Nearest State LEO is over 200 miles away and everybody likes it that way too. You'll see the Govt assistance family's that have 8-10 kids; as their kids get in their teenage years; one will start breaking int empty cabins, looking for change, booze, guns, ect. They always get caught. When you see the family they come from, you think: Why ain't the parents just locked up and get the kid some help? Nobody would ever shoot any of these local screwed up 13 year olds anyway. It's harder them livin it down for most of them even though they do usually straighten out.
What surprises me in these rural places that there hasn't been more murders with everybody armed to the teeth. We haven't had a murder in 30 years here, and that guy was drowned in the river by his drunk buddies.
Agreed...
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