All join in the chorus!
(sorry . . . couldn't resist!)
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.
Jones deserves to have the book thrown at him.
Is this a racist anti gun statement?
That's what I was wondering, although it could simply be a way of showing the beautiful diversity of firearms available to the American consumer. This country isn't ALL stainless steel, you know.
As far as a .32 goes, even Julian Hatcher didn't pooh-pooh the thing for self defense (FWIW, he even thought a .22 rf Colt snubbie loaded with hi-speed hollowpoints was not something to be dismissed outright). I depend on a Ruger SP101 with +P .38 Specials, but I am getting less recoil-friendly as I age, and I can understand the reluctance of older and smaller folks to use a boomer.
Keep cool enough to place the shot, and even the little stuff can ruin a jerk's day.
Ahhh... one of those evil black revolvers.
The only mistake this lady made was not using something bigger than a .32
Did they pick the guy up in two pieces, or what?
My dad's rifle of choice is the Model 71 Win in .348, an old brush-busting bear gun. It delivers a 250 grain pill at rolling slow velocity - and might be more of a punisher than the Weatherby, even. We can't get the 250s any more, so he'll have to be satisfied with 200s at a slightly higher velocity once our current reloads run out . . .
My dad once shot a burglar with his daddy's 16 ga. Parker - but all he had in it was bird shot at the time. Fellow probably slept on his face for awhile though, and apparently the word got out on the street, because nobody ever bothered my parents' house after that - in the City of Atlanta even.
Even a .22 short that you have with you is always better than a .45 back home in the nightstand . . . but a .308 Weatherby! << shakes head and whistles >>
Most home invasion robberies go unreported as the victims are immigrants who won't call police for fear of being arrested and or deported. Since they can't have bank accounts, the illegals keep their cash on hand. The home invasion robbers, typically neighborhod gang members know this and periodically stage one of these invasions.
Persons on means based public assistance having side cash jobs are also the victims as they too have to keep their cash on hand and will be reluctant to notify authorities.
Only occationally do the robbers accidentally storm into the home of people who are clean in the eyes of the law and it is those few cases that actually make it to the evening news.
All that having been said, I always thought a compact .22mag revolver would be a good ladies gun or backup weapon.
You of course could do much better.
The other or others probably dragged him off in the article of death so to speak, and then got to thinking about all the embarassing questions they would have to answer if they showed up at a hospital with a very dead buddy with a volleyball-sized hole in his midsection . . . so they dumped him in a quarry hole or in a pond somewhere . . .
I hope they had nightmares for years.
Was your dad the local police chief?
All join in the chorus!
(sorry . . . couldn't resist!)
Dad always thought she was undergunned. So do I.
Indeed. My wife pondered a .32 when I helped her pick out her first firearm, but I steered her toward the 9mm. (No amount of effort could get her to embrace the .357, .44 or .45 calibers.)
She ended up with a fine Beretta Brigadier. I'm okay with that. Me, I'll stick with my .45 and hollowpoint loads.
-Jay
Danged if I would confess to emptying my autoloader's magazine and not even scoring a wing. He must have had the shakes REALLY bad.
Which is why Colonel Colt's fine products give me peace of mind. I've recently added Uncle Siggy's P245 to the stable for DA . . .
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