Posted on 11/28/2013 5:45:24 AM PST by Uncle Chip
after ringing his doorbell when he became lost and confused after wandering off in the middle of the night
A 72-year-old man with advanced Alzheimer's has been shot dead by a homeowner after he rang the bell at the stranger's house when he became lost and confused in the middle of the night.
Ronald Westbrook rang the doorbell of a home at 4am on Wednesday after wandering around in the dark for almost four hours in rural Walker County, Georgia. He had walked around three miles from his home by the time he approached the door.
The shooter was identified as Joe Hendrix, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to Sheriff Steve Wilson said.
Mr Westbrook rang the door bell and turned the door handle of the home in the new development where Hendrix had just moved in with his fiancée. The woman, who has not been identified, called 911 and was on the phone with a dispatcher when Hendrix confronted the elderly man in the yard with a 40-caliber handgun.
Mr Westbrook, an Air Force veteran, did not respond to the commands that Hendrix issued to him because Alzheimer's Disease has left the72-year-old practically mute.
Hendrix fired four shots with one bullet striking Mr Westbrook in the chest and killing him. The victim's body was removed from the scene at 10.30am on Wednesday.
It is unlikely that Hendrix will be charged with any crime, according to The Chattanoogan.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
It is difficult for me to imagine a scenario wherein a 72 year old man wandering around the front yard in a semi-responsive condition represents a potential deadly threat that justifies armed response.
You say that now, but I still believe that if you ever become disabled you will stop advocating murdering people for being disabled.
It sounds like it was likely a only one caregiver situation and the man simply got out. Families dealing with this do not get outside help in the way of others to watch the person if no other family is there. In other words caretaker is on their own.
If the facts in the story are accurate, this looks like a BAD shooting and the shooter should go to prison for a LONG time!
Not unless the 72 year old man dragged the 34 year old man to the ground and beat his head against the pavement.
So he wasn’t the homeowner — just the boyfriend of the homeowner.
Whose handgun was it — his or his girlfriend’s???
He was probably upset that the old guy ringing the bell interrupted his orgasm and he was going to teach him a lesson.
From today’s newspaper:
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/nov/28/wandering-man-with-alzheimers-shot-killed/
An Ooltewah man who shot and killed what he thought was a middle-of-the-night prowler — actually a 72-year-old man with advanced Alzheimer’s disease — Wednesday in Walker County, Ga., hasn’t been charged but he might be later, authorities said.
The slain man, Ronald Westbrook, had walked about 3 miles to the shooting scene from his home on Carlock Circle, Sheriff Steve Wilson said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference. When Westbrook was shot, he was clutching letters he had taken from a mailbox on Marbletop Road, where he had lived previously, the sheriff said.
A deputy had stopped and questioned Westbrook at about 2:30 a.m. at the mailbox, Wilson said, but Westbrook said he was getting his mail and lived up the hill.
Westbrook then rang the doorbell and turned the doorknob of a home at 188 Cottage Crest Court at 3:54 a.m., awakening Joe Hendrix, 34, of Ooltewah, and his fiancee. They had rented the home in the new subdivision about two weeks ago, next-door neighbor Brandi Wallace said.
Wilson said Westbrook was lost, confused and possibly exhausted. He had wandered for about four hours in the night with his two dogs, wearing a light jacket and straw hat as the wind-chill temperature hovered around 20 degrees.
“This one house at the end of the cul-de-sac had a porch light on,” Wilson said. “I tend to think [Westbrook] was drawn to that light.”
Hendrix’s fiancee, whose name Wilson declined to give, called 911 and stayed on the phone with an emergency dispatcher who sent two sheriff’s office patrol cars en route.
After a nine- to 10-minute wait — and before deputies arrived — Hendrix went outside armed with a .40-caliber handgun and saw the elderly man in silhouette behind the house, the sheriff said.
“There was no light except for the front porch light,” Wilson said, explaining there are no street lights at The Woodlands, the subdivision off North Marble Top Road west of Chickamauga.
“[Hendrix] gave several what he described as verbal commands,” Wilson said. “[Westbrook] continued walking toward him after he told him to stop.”
Westbrook was slow to talk, Wilson said, because of his advanced Alzheimer’s disease.
Fearing for his safety, Hendrix fired four shots, the sheriff said. One bullet hit Westbrook in the chest, killing him.
‘Should have stayed inside’
No charges were filed Wednesday against Hendrix, who drove himself away from the shooting scene around 10:30 a.m. as investigators were wrapping up their evidence gathering.
Hendrix and his fiancee were fully cooperative, Wilson said.
“Both [their] stories matched completely,” the sheriff said.
However, Wilson said that Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert “Buzz” Franklin, whom Wilson called to the shooting scene, might bring charges after reviewing all the evidence. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation helped the sheriff’s department on-scene with its investigation.
“We reserve our options and rights to file charges once the investigation is complete, if we feel like Georgia law warrants charges being filed,” Wilson said.
Georgia’s 2006 “stand-your-ground” law that allows people to use deadly force to protect themselves “may apply to this case,” Wilson said.
The dispatcher who stayed on the phone with Hendrix’s fiancee wasn’t aware Hendrix went outside the house with a handgun, the sheriff said.
“In my personal opinion, I believe that he should have stayed inside the house,” Wilson said. “Did he violate any laws by exiting the house? No.”
“Mr. Hendrix is clearly saddened and heartbroken,” the sheriff said. “Mr. Hendrix has to live with his actions for the rest of his life.”
Westbrook ‘a fine man’
Wilson said he knew Westbrook and they attended the same church.
“Just a fine man, fine family,” Wilson said. “I really hate it for his wife and his children.”
Westbrook’s family didn’t realize he had wandered off until around the time the shooting occurred.
“You can’t watch them 24/7,” Wilson said of people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, which he said got progressively worse for Westbrook after he was diagnosed two years ago with dementia.
Contacted at their Carlock Circle home, Westbrook’s family declined to comment.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6651.
More likely he was a rotten shot as well as being reckless.
You ignorant f***. No one on FR thought that shooting that kid was a good shoot except for a couple of cop apologists.I believe they are missing a idiot over at DU, you had better get back there.
I have a relative with Alzheimer's who is in her eighties. Once when I took her for a ride, she started hitting me, and attacking me while I was driving the car. Luckily, I was able to safely pull over.
I had a neighbor with Alzheimer's. She was in her seventies. She climbed up on my roof one year, and took all my Christmas Lights down, and over to her house. She could easily scale my 6 foot wooden fence, and get in my backyard. She was very strong because she was basically a perpetual motion machine..always walking, climbing, never still.
Sadly, this retired LTC should have been under custodial care. If he was, this can be prosecuted as reckless neglect.
An advanced Alzheimer’s patient, taking his dogs for a walk at midnight, while lightly dressed in very cold weather, possibly freezing temperatures, could be a death sentence in its own right.
Just the opposite is true in Arizona, with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia patients, usually aged, going for a walk in the heat of summer. Several die each year from this.
The homeowner made a fatal mistake by not bringing a flashlight with him, in that if at all possible, you do not fire a gun without first identifying your target. It was mentioned that the homeowner’s wife had already called 911, so it was just as possible that he could have shot a police officer, had one arrived quickly.
In this case, as a minimum the homeowner should be charged with a misdemeanor, for reckless endangerment, even if that is not the exact charge.
As sad as this situation is, I think I'm with you. Technically, he met the criteria of being a threat but...
While I'd have no remorse about shooting anyone who was a threat to me and my family... I'd have a hard time seeing an unarmed 72 year old guy as a threat. Sure, I'd hold my weapon on him (finger off the trigger!) and maintain my distance from him... But as long as I could see he didn't have a weapon in his hands I would not take his life.
And yes I have been and continue to be very pro defense. (there's a loaded G19 on the desk in front of the keyboard as I type this) And yes, if it were a 20 or so year old punk busting into my house I would shoot a heck of a lot sooner. (like maybe after one command to stop, or even without a command) A younger, fit person is much more of a physical threat.
It's not that easy to distinguish a realistic looking toy gun from a real one. A 72-year-old man who's not armed on the other hand, is not a threat, if all he's doing is ringing a doorbell.
I hope I can end my days knowing that all my shooting was at the range.
there is a way of asking without words coordinator smartie pants
I bet he is charged and should be
You sound an awful lot like my liberal sister.
Let's see, 4 AM and the person/personnel/facility responsible for Mr Westbrook... How is it he managed to wander off on his own for several miles? Do you support free-range Alzheimer patients?
Do we know whether his behavior might have looked threatening? I'm not saying it did. I'm simply saying we don't know.
Was that the “girl” who had a car accident but was still able to drive her car and showed up at the guys door under the influence of drugs and alcohol at 3 AM “looking for help?”
He probably ordered him to tell him his name and he couldn’t — so he shot him.
Or maybe the guy was walking towards him and he told him to stop. My speculation seems a bit more likely than yours.
Just declare the homeowner guilty and be done with it. If we’re lucky he’ll get Zimmermaned by the President and the Media.
But your understanding of the meaning of the word "mute" is not.
A "mute" is someone unable to speak -- not someone unable to hear.
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