Posted on 07/19/2003 6:08:35 AM PDT by GailA
Sixth home shooting bloodies thief N. Memphis woman gives $200, then 2 shots from .32
By Bill Dries dries@gomemphis.com July 19, 2003
A woman gave a home invasion robber $200 before dawn Friday, then pulled a gun from her china cabinet and shot at him twice when the robber demanded even more money.
Police found a trail of blood inside and outside the house at 906 Meagher in North Memphis and were looking for a suspect at local hospitals Friday.
The shooting is at least the sixth incident since June in which a Memphis homeowner or resident has shot or shot at attackers. Like the other incidents, it will be reviewed by state prosecutors.
This is what happened about 2 a.m. Friday, according to a police report:
The robber took a screen off a back room window of the house, raised the window and crawled inside. He confronted the homeowner, Estella Schaefer, 65, and demanded money. He apparently was not armed.
It took Schaefer 15-20 minutes to look for money as he waited and she then gave him $200 in cash.
The robber told Schaefer, "'I know you've got more money than that. Someone told me,'" the police report says.
That's when Schaefer reached into her china cabinet and pulled a .32-caliber black revolver, shooting twice at the robber as he ran toward her to take the gun away from her.
He failed to get the gun, but Schaefer was cut on her left knuckle during the struggle. She declined medical assistance.
The robber ran out a side door and north on Meagher.
Police found a trail of blood going out of the house and for about half a block on a sidewalk on Meagher. They believe the robber was wounded.
Schaefer, who could not be reached by The Commercial Appeal for comment, told police that she didn't know if she hit the robber with either shot and had never seen him before.
Police described him as a black man in his mid- to late 20s, standing 5-foot-7 and weighing about 200 pounds.
A wave of shootings involving confrontations at people's homes began June 13 when David Ronald Washington, 44, was shot to death after breaking into a home at 3980 Wildwind Cove. He was the man police have identified as the East Memphis "cat burglar."
That same day, Kevin Martrell Humphrey, 19, was shot to death and a second suspect was injured when they tried to force their way into a home at 2959 Lark.
On July 9, William Ronnie Payne, 45, was shot and killed after trying to force his way into a home at 4212 Warbonnet.
Ricky Ricardo Wilborn, 21, was killed and Ali R. Ford, 24, was critically wounded July 11 when a man police say they robbed at an East Memphis ATM shot them as they took him by force back to his house at 4555 Dunn to get more money.
All of those shootings were ruled justified after a case-by-case review by the District Attorney General's Office.
However, police on Tuesday charged Joseph Jones Jr., 22, with two counts of reckless endangerment after he fired six blasts from a 12-gauge shotgun at a man he caught breaking into his shed at 1427 Leflore Place.
Jones didn't hit the burglar, but one of the shotgun blasts shattered a bedroom window at the house next door, narrowly missing two children who had been asleep in the room.
Jones claimed the burglar was armed and that the burglar shot at him as he fled.
Ya think?
Maybe he had a nosebleed. << roll eyes >>
Please! A little decorum here!
That's "alleged robber" and "allegedly wounded".
On second thought, replace "alleged robber" with "alleged suspect".
Dang! I'm listening to too much "Cops".
Loooooosy! I've bean shot!
Hats off to the well-armed citizens of Memphis.
Now it will be interesting to see how long it takes the rest of the bad guys in the city to figure out that invading homes there may not be a good idea.
Dad always thought she was undergunned. So do I.
We are both 1911A1 fans, although now that mom & dad live out in the country he has his old 16 ga Parker close at hand.
THAT oughta cure whatever ails a home invader.
Well, it goes to prove the old saying "A .32 in the hand beats a .45 in the gun store."
Well-armed but under-gunned, I would say. But a good job, nonetheless. You gotta watch out for those pistol-packin' grannies.
Sounds like ol' Joe was spraying & praying. I'm sure his target was moving much faster after the first shot though.
Is this a racist anti gun statement?
Is the rate of burglar deaths approaching the number of Persian Gulf War I dead? It seems to be.
Brilliant Sherlockian deduction of the law-enforcement types. Just birlliant! (/Sarc.)
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