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Man shot to death in Thunderbolt(GA)
savannahnow.com ^ | 18 September, 2011 | Constance Cooper

Posted on 09/19/2011 5:57:09 AM PDT by marktwain

Police say a Savannah man killed his co-worker’s ex-boyfriend Friday night after giving the woman a ride home to Thunderbolt.

Vernon Michael Rich Jr., a 30-year-old resident of the 400 block of Al Henderson Boulevard, has been charged with murder. Police say he shot 35-year-old Troy Wells to death in Bonaventure Place Townhomes, located off Bonaventure Road.

It was Thunderbolt’s first homicide in nearly a decade.

According to Thunderbolt police, Rich and a female co-worker finished their shifts at Lab Corp, located off Southern Boulevard near Chatham Parkway, about 9 p.m. Rich offered to give the woman a ride home, and they stopped by a store on the way, according to statements given to officers.

When the woman got home, Wells was there, police say. Wells was her ex-boyfriend and was supposed to have moved out that day.

The woman told police Wells walked up behind her as Rich was turning his car around to leave. Wells started arguing with her, demanding to know who Rich is. Wells tried to hit the woman, police say, but she backed away and sprayed him with mace.

That’s when Wells allegedly walked over to Rich’s car and started hitting him as he sat in the driver’s seat. It was 10:47 p.m. The woman said she heard a gunshot.

Police say Rich called 911, admitted to shooting Wells in his upper torso and gave them the gun used to do it.

Thunderbolt Chief Irene Pennington wouldn’t comment Saturday on whether the shooting might have been self-defense except to say the investigation is ongoing.

Rich wasn’t injured in the altercation, according to Thunderbolt Lt. Sean Clayton, who is investigating the case with the help of the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department’s forensics and violent crimes units.

The last time someone was killed in Thunderbolt was Nov. 22, 2001, when Hemant Sheth, the 44-year-old owner of Discount Chevron, 2301 Victory Drive, was shot in the chest and head with a handgun as he stood behind the counter of the convenience store.

Police found the man who allegedly killed Sheth three days later, dead under a Georgia Lottery billboard off Interstate 95. Rostan Christopher Pierre, a 31-year-old Brooklyn, N.Y. man, shot himself in the face in a car he stole from the Chevron, according to police. His father told officers Pierre was schizophrenic. He was in Savannah for a wedding.

The 2010 U.S. Census count gave Thunderbolt a population of 2,668. Pennington said the most serious crimes she typically deals with are thefts.

“This is usually a very nice, quite community,” Pennington said of Thunderbolt.

But residents of Bonaventure Place, many of whom bought their townhomes brand-new, say crime has been on the rise in their development.

Bonaventure Place includes row after row of nearly identical three-bedroom tonwnhomes, with brightly colored fronts of vinyl siding or stucco. Residents said the development is only about three years old, but mold grows on several banisters.

The original developer of Bonaventure Place pulled out of the project when the economy went bad, residents said, and things haven’t been the same since.

“I just put my place on the market last week because of everything that’s been going on in the neighborhood,” said Thomas Powers, who lives in a Bonaventure Place townhome with his wife and toddler.

“It’s pretty scary,” Powers said of the homicide.

Thunderbolt Mayor Anna Maria Thomas said she’s reassuring residents startled by the killing that it was an isolated, domestic incident, and officers are on top of the case.

“The police are taking care of it, and we’re dealing with it,” Thomas said.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Georgia
KEYWORDS: banglist; defense; domestic; ga
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Domestics are always nasty.
1 posted on 09/19/2011 5:57:13 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Sounds to me like the ex-boyfriend didn’t want to accept the “ex” part.


2 posted on 09/19/2011 6:03:30 AM PDT by from occupied ga (your own government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: marktwain

This is gaw-damned self-defense. SHAME ON THUNDERBOLT FOR CHARGING THE MAN WITH MURDER!


3 posted on 09/19/2011 6:04:41 AM PDT by Lazamataz (If Hitler had been as lazy as Obama, the 1940's would have been a very nice decade!!)
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To: Lazamataz
This is gaw-damned self-defense.

To most police and prosecutors self-defense is a serious crime. After all if you can defend yourself, then you might get to thinking you don't need so many police and prosecutors sucking down taxpayer dollars from the public trough. Wonder if the guy were a cop if he would have been charges (ha ha).

4 posted on 09/19/2011 6:22:01 AM PDT by from occupied ga (your own government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: Lazamataz

Exactly. This is well within second amendment rights and this man should be commended for a quick solution to an issue that doesn’t tie up local government or cost tax-payer money. Take a look at Oblammos “justice department” sometime!


5 posted on 09/19/2011 6:27:01 AM PDT by DelanoSAlways (The Obamas: Truly Something Awful)
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To: marktwain

New sex partner kills former sex partner

People are so sleazy


6 posted on 09/19/2011 6:29:19 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Lazamataz

It doesn’t appear to me that he was charged with murder. The police chief said that the “investigation was ongoing”.


7 posted on 09/19/2011 6:38:30 AM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: Durus

“Vernon Michael Rich Jr., a 30-year-old resident of the 400 block of Al Henderson Boulevard, has been charged with murder.”


8 posted on 09/19/2011 6:42:10 AM PDT by Bigh4u2 (Denial is the first requirement to be a liberal)
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To: Durus
It doesn’t appear to me that he was charged with murder. The police chief said that the “investigation was ongoing”.

From the article:

Vernon Michael Rich Jr., a 30-year-old resident of the 400 block of Al Henderson Boulevard, has been charged with murder.

9 posted on 09/19/2011 6:51:20 AM PDT by Lazamataz (If Hitler had been as lazy as Obama, the 1940's would have been a very nice decade!!)
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To: yldstrk
The woman told police Wells walked up behind her as Rich was turning his car around to leave.

Doesn't sound as though Rich had reached the "New sex partner" stage yet since he dropped her off and was leaving.

10 posted on 09/19/2011 6:54:22 AM PDT by from occupied ga (your own government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: marktwain

It’s women and their sexual needs and their constant need to control men sexually and reject them through withholding sexual favors that ends up being the root cause of so much death, violence, and destruction in our society. Attractive women control men through their bodies and doling out sex. Any woman can have sex with just about any man they fancy while men cannot have just any woman. Women stoke the fires of passion and lust and desire then withdraw their affections in an instant and leave a man out in the cold literally and figuratively. Two years ago in the subdivision just south of ours a man walked into the home of his ex-wife (the front door was unlocked) went out to the patio behind the house and point blank shot her, her female lover and her male lover (who completed the sexual menage-a-trois) to death. The man was subsequently caught by sheriff deputies and shot and killed in a car chase after he began shooting at the deputies. Clearly he had decided his life was worth nothing after being sexually rejected. Bottom line: the ex wife drove the man crazy with jealousy and having another guy with “better equipment” and another attractive woman satisfying her. She made sure he the ex husband knew about it. Women and their often pathological need for bigger and better orgasmic pleasure are the cause of 95 percent of the evil in this world. And who is it who is responsible for the societal trend toward “feminizing” white males in America? We just won’t admit it. Instead we foist all of these myths and fairy tales on our boy children about how nice and sweet and gentle and loving women and girls “really” are. Then when the boys grow up and experience cold reality— the excruciating physical and emotional pain a woman can inflict on a man—it’s all over. Most women are cruel hateful creatures underneath all of the chimerical physical attractiveness they command. It’s there for a reason.


11 posted on 09/19/2011 6:56:10 AM PDT by 4Runner
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To: from occupied ga

yeah right


12 posted on 09/19/2011 6:56:58 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: 4Runner

How long ago did she break up with you?


13 posted on 09/19/2011 7:00:13 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: 4Runner

You are a certifiable nut case. It’s the men that can’t keep “their equipment” in their pants.


14 posted on 09/19/2011 7:00:19 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: 4Runner

Wow. No bitterness in that post at all.


15 posted on 09/19/2011 7:03:43 AM PDT by Sans-Culotte ( Pray for Obama- Psalm 109:8)
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To: 4Runner
Any woman can have sex with just about any man they fancy while men cannot have just any woman.

Well, I call BULLS--T on this one, pal. I'm a woman, and I've taken plenty of rejection from men. Cuts both ways.

It hurts a woman too when the guy dumps her for another woman, whether or not you will acknowledge it.

And the reasons? Wow, she's too bright for the guy (wow, maybe she's even better at MATH than he is). Too tall. Nose too long. Boobs not big enough. Butt too big. Uh-oh, she's got wrinkles and gray hair! Or whatever. Any reason at all or none.

I've also seen some women get away with some pretty nasty stuff simply because they were oh-so-cute (especially if they're petite)... sometimes I've got sympathy for the guy, sometimes not.

I know of a couple of women who have physically attacked men, but the men, I guess, are too embarrassed to report it.

I even know of a couple of foreign women (you know, the ones who are supposed to be oh-so-much-better than American women ) who pulled stuff on men that I wouldn't even dream of doing to a guy.

Bitter much? Yeah, sometimes I am. But fortunately I'm not on the market any longer. I've been in a long-term relationship. I hate the "meat market" approach to dating.

16 posted on 09/19/2011 7:21:24 AM PDT by pbmaltzman
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To: 4Runner

So basically your saying that you haven’t been getting much lately?


17 posted on 09/19/2011 7:51:37 AM PDT by mmanager
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To: 4Runner
Most women are cruel hateful creatures underneath all of the chimerical physical attractiveness they command. It’s there for a reason.

Sounds like Oscar Wilde's description of a cat being a snake with fur.
18 posted on 09/19/2011 8:03:44 AM PDT by aruanan
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To: Lazamataz

I guess my eyes blurred when I got to that part. It’s inexplicable how this guy could be charged with murder.


19 posted on 09/19/2011 8:07:46 AM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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To: 4Runner

You need to have a long talk with your priest or pastor. If you can’t do that, seek therapy. Generally I would suggest finding a church before a therapist but either way you need to talk to somone stat.


20 posted on 09/19/2011 8:12:54 AM PDT by Durus (You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality. Ayn Rand)
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