DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus What The Hell Is Wrong With People!?

Okay, we all see mass shootings, gang violence and incidents that seem to be rather frequent. And those things have pretty much been beaten to death. And I have no idea if the type of things I'm posting about here are becoming more frequent or have simply been being under reported. But in either case I find them to be quite troubling.....

A 20-year-old woman was shot and killed after her friend turned into the wrong driveway in upstate New York, officials say

A 20-year-old woman was shot and killed Saturday after she and three others accidentally turned into the wrong driveway while looking for a friend’s house in rural upstate New York, authorities said.

The woman, identified as Kaylin Gillis, was a passenger in a vehicle when a man, 65-year-old Kevin Monahan, fired two shots from his front porch, Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy said in a news conference Monday.

Blake Walsh, Gillis’ boyfriend, said he was driving the car the night they drove up the wrong driveway. He told NBC Tuesday in a phone interview that he, his late girlfriend, and two friends were looking for a party. Four friends were traveling in another vehicle and also went up the wrong driveway.

“We thought we were at the right address,” Walsh told NBC. “We didn’t have any cell service to figure it out. As soon as we figured out that we were at the wrong location, we started to leave, and that’s when everything happened.”

“My friend said, ‘They’re shooting — go!’ I tried to step on the gas as fast as I could, and that’s when the fatal shot (that struck Gillis) came through,” Walsh told NBC.

“I want to believe it was instant. I’m hoping it was. I’m praying it was,” he said.

The sheriff said the shooting happened in “a very rural area with dirt roads” and poor cell service.

“It’s a very rural area with dirt roads. It’s easy to get lost. They drove up this driveway for a very short time, realized their mistake and were leaving, when Mr. Monahan came out and fired two shots,” the sheriff said.

Monahan has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death, Murphy said. He was arraigned Sunday on the murder charge, his attorney told CNN. A bail hearing is pending for Tuesday or Wednesday, the district attorney and defense attorney both said.

Walsh said he plans to be in court. “I need to see who took my girlfriend away from me. I need to look at him.”

The shooting happened just days after a Black teenager in Kansas City was shot twice by a White homeowner after going to the wrong address to pick up his siblings.

In that case, Andrew Lester, 84, opened fire on 16-year-old Ralph Yarl as the teen stood at Lester’s front door before any words had been exchanged, according to a probable cause document obtained by CNN. Lester, who told police he thought the teen was trying to break in, faces two felony charges in a case that touches on so-called “stand your ground” laws, the proliferation of firearms and racial bias.

In the New York shooting, both Monahan and Gillis are White. No one is believed to have exited the car, and there was no interaction between Monahan and anyone in the vehicle before shots were fired, Murphy said.

“There was clearly no threat from anyone in the vehicle. There was no reason for Mr. Monahan to feel threatened,” Murphy said.

After the shots were fired, Gillis and the rest of the group drove away from the house in the town of Hebron looking for cell phone service and then called 911.

They were found around 5 miles away from the home in the nearby town of Salem. First responders began administering CPR but Gillis was pronounced dead at the scene, Murphy said.

“This is a very sad case of some young adults that were looking for a friend’s house and ended up at this man’s house who decided to come out with a firearm and discharge it,” the sheriff said.

Walsh told NBC the drive to find cell service did not feel like a 5-mile drive. “It felt like 30 seconds. The adrenaline was rushing so bad.”

Shooting suspect’s attorney offers different version of shooting

Monahan’s attorney, Kurt Mausert, disagreed with the sheriff’s description of events.

“This was not a simple case of coming up a driveway and turning around,” he told CNN. “The description I was given by my client is there were multiple vehicles, including a motorcycle, revving engines, coming up the driveway at a high rate of speed.”

Mausert said Monahan felt that “created an atmosphere and a fear that there was menace going on.”

The sheriff confirmed there were several vehicles traveling together – a car with two passengers; a car with four passengers, including Gillis and her boyfriend; and a motorcycle – driving up and down the street looking for an address.

He said witness accounts from inside the cars and forensics prove the shots were fired as the group exited the driveway. The car in which Gillis was a passenger was the last vehicle to turn around and leave, he said.

“I don’t know how they could menace anyone with those type of actions, but they were clearly leaving the residence when the shots were fired,” Murphy told CNN. He also said no 911 calls regarding loud noises coming from vehicles were reported by Monahan or neighbors.

After the shooting, police officers responded to Monahan’s home and found him to be uncooperative, Murphy said, adding he “refused to exit his residence to speak with police.”

He was taken into custody hours later with help from the New York State Police Special Operations Response Team, according to a press release from the Washington County Sheriff’s office.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, Murphy said Monahan had not made any statement about the shooting and obtained a lawyer before he came out of the house.

“(He), quite frankly, has not shown any remorse in this case,” he said.

However, Mausert pushed back against the notion that there was a standoff with police when he was asked to surrender.

Monahan had no idea that the bullets he fired had struck someone, and he called Mausert to report there were four sheriff’s deputies on his road and had “no idea” what they wanted, the attorney told CNN’s Brynn Gingras.

Mausert said he got in touch with law enforcement and was informed of the fatality and charge, at which point he arranged for his client to lawfully turn himself over to police.

“This was not a standoff,” the attorney said. “This was my client and I not knowing what was going on in terms of the charges that were pending.”

Monahan’s driveway is 1/8th of a mile long and has no trespassing and private driveway signs, the attorney said.

Kaylin Gillis was soon to start college

Gillis’ family issued a statement praising her as a “kind, beautiful soul and a ray of light to anyone who was lucky enough to know her.”

“She was a big sister, much loved daughter, devoted friend and partner to her loving boyfriend. She was just beginning to find her way in the world with kindness, humor, and love,” the family said. “Kaylin was a talented artist, an honor student, a Disney fanatic and loved animals. She was looking forward to starting college in Florida to pursue her dream of becoming a marine biologist.

“She was taken from us far too soon, and we are devastated. Our family will never be the same but we will be guided by Kaylin’s positivity, optimism, and joy as we learn to live with her loss.”

The family also thanked those who have expressed support and asked for privacy. “Your well wishes and prayers are deeply appreciated, have been heard and will carry us through this difficult journey,” the family said.

Gillis graduated from Schuylerville High School in 2021 and held the position of “flyer” on the school’s cheerleading team, her former cheer coach Charlene Deming said.

“She was always smiling and laughing, and trying to make others laugh,” Deming told CNN.

Walsh told NBC Tuesday that he and Gillis had been together for over four years. “I had high hopes, and I had plans,” he said adding, “I didn’t want to be with anybody else, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.”

“I want the world to know how good of a person she really was and how much she impacted everybody who had the fortunate opportunity to be in her life.”

“My world was taken from me Saturday,” he told NBC, adding he will miss her smile, eyes and how happy she made him.

Murphy, the sheriff, said he was a friend of the victim’s family and lamented the killing. “A case like this is absolutely senseless,” he said.

More than $97,000 has been raised for Gillis’ family in a GoFundMe raising money for the “Gillis family for use toward Kaylin’s funeral expenses and any immediate financial needs,” according to the page.

Chuchay Stark, a woman who lives in the county where this happened and took high school senior portraits of Gillis, said the community is going through a spectrum of emotions “from disgust to being heartbroken.” She recalled Gillis as one of the few kids who “knew exactly what she wanted” and was sweet to work with.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/18/us/woman-shot-wrong-driveway-upstate-new-york/index.html

Andrew Lester, 84-year-old Kansas City man accused of shooting Ralph Yarl, is in custody

Yarl, a 16-year-old who is Black, was shot after he mistakenly went to the wrong address to pick up his brothers. He told police he rang the doorbell and was shot.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An 84-year-old Kansas City man accused of shooting a Black teenager who mistakenly rang the doorbell at the wrong home surrendered to police Tuesday, officials said.

"Andrew Lester, charged in the shooting of Ralph Yarl, has surrendered at our Detention Center and is in custody," the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. "He is in the booking process right now."

Lester, of Kansas City, was charged Monday with first-degree assault and armed criminal action, both of which are felonies, in the shooting Thursday night of Ralph Yarl, the Clay County prosecuting attorney has said.

Lester was released Tuesday evening after he posted bail, which had been set at $200,000, the sheriff's office said.

Yarl, 16, had gone to gone to the wrong address to pick up his siblings around 10 p.m., and he was shot through a glass door after he rang the doorbell, according to a probable cause statement filed by police.

Lester told investigators that he had gone to bed when the doorbell rang and that he went to the door armed with a .32-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver, police wrote.

Lester said he saw a Black male he didn’t know pulling on the exterior storm door handle and thought his home was being broken into, the probable cause statement says.

Lester said he fired twice through the glass door, it says. Then, the male ran away, he told police, and he used his home phone to dial 911. He said he saw a car in the driveway of his home that he believed belonged to the male but didn't see anyone inside it.

No words were exchanged, Lester told police.

Lester said firing his weapon "was the last thing he wanted to do, but he was 'scared to death'" because of his age and the male’s size, police wrote.

Lester said he lives alone. A police detective wrote in the probable cause statement that he noticed a security system in the home and took the hard drive to preserve any evidence but later found the equipment had last captured video in June and was no longer functional.

Yarl was interviewed at the hospital the next day and gave a different version of events, according to the probable cause statement. He told a detective that he did not pull on the door and that he was waiting at the door after having rung the bell when a man opened the door holding a firearm.

Yarl “stated he was immediately shot in the head and fell to the ground,” police wrote. He told police that he was shot again, this time in the arm, and ran, according to the document. Yarl reported to police that he heard a voice say, “Don’t come around here,” police wrote.

Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson said there was a racial component to the case. Lester is white.

Even though Thompson said there was a racial element, Lester won’t be charged with a hate crime because it would be a lesser degree of felony than what he has been charged with, Alexander K. Higginbotham, a prosecutor’s spokesman, said by email Tuesday.

“Our office has charged the defendant in his case with an A felony, which is four classes higher than a hate crime enhancement could take a charge,” he said.

That is also why Lester wasn’t charged with attempted murder, Higginbotham said, because “the charge would be a lower level of offense than Assault in the First Degree and carry with it a lower range of punishment.”

Thompson said he “understands the racial components and context that surround a case like this,” adding, “However, legally speaking, there is not a racial element to the legal charges that were filed.”

Yarl has been released from the hospital, an attorney for his family said.

Police said in the probable cause statement that they tried to reach Yarl's family Sunday and Monday to conduct a formal interview but had trouble making contact.

“I just want justice to be served, so whatever is the right amount of justice for this situation should be granted out to him. Nothing more, nothing less, just the right amount, that’s it,” Cleo Nagbe, Yarl's mother, told NBC News outside the Clay County Courthouse Tuesday afternoon.

Lee Merritt, who is representing Yarl's family, said that he was satisfied with the charges and that the family “want to see it through to a conviction and appropriate sentencing.”

But Merritt took issue on several fronts, including why Lester was released within two hours of having been taken in for initial questioning and saying prosecutors still haven’t clarified whether the shots were fired from inside or outside the house.

“We’re frustrated with law enforcement and their failure to take responsibility for the denial of this family’s due process. No one has owned up to it,” Merritt said. “This 16-year-old unarmed boy didn’t actually pose a threat. But far too often in America, his skin alone is his weapon."

Merritt added that Yarl has some permanent injuries from a cracked skull, loss of brain tissue and scarring but is expected to make close to a full recovery.

The shooting sparked protests in Kansas City. Actor Halle Berry was among those who spoke out.

"This could be your child. This should NOT happen," Berry wrote Monday on Instagram.

President Joe Biden called Yarl and his mother on Monday, attorneys for Yarl's family and a White House official said.

At a rally in Kansas City on Tuesday, demonstrators called for justice, as well as safe communities for Black people.

Keturah Gibson said she babysat Yarl when he was younger. She said that as a Black woman who delivers for DoorDash, and who is the mother of a 7-year-old daughter, the shooting hits close to home.

“That could easily have been me that night,” Gibson said.

The night of the shooting, Lester was taken into custody after the shooting and later released. Police wrote in the probable cause document that the prosecutor's office advised that he be released pending further investigation.

It was not immediately clear Tuesday whether Lester had retained an attorney.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...ed-shooting-ralph-yarl-custody-rcna80147

Man arrested in shooting of two Texas cheerleaders after one mistakenly got into the wrong car

One of the victims was critically injured in the shooting that unfolded early Tuesday outside an H-E-B supermarket in Elgin, Texas, police said.

A man has been arrested after two Texas cheerleaders were shot, one critically, after one of them mistakenly got into the wrong car, according to police and the owner of the gym where they trained.

Officers in Elgin, about 25 miles northeast of Austin, responded to reports of shots fired outside an H-E-B supermarket around 12:15 a.m. local time (1:15 a.m. ET) Tuesday, the Elgin Police Department said in a news release.

"Information suggests that an altercation occurred in the parking lot of H-E-B, and multiple shots were fired into a vehicle," police said. Two of the car's occupants were struck by gunfire, with one victim sustaining serious injuries and transported by helicopter to a hospital, where they were listed in critical condition, police said.

The suspect, Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, has been charged with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony, police said.

Lynn Shearer, owner of Woodlands Elite Cheer Co., told NBC affiliate KXAN of Austin that the two people shot were cheerleaders who were on their way home from practice.

Shearer said the cheerleaders typically carpooled from the Austin area to her gym. On Monday night, she said at least four cheerleaders were on their way back to the Austin area and had to stop at an H-E-B, where some of the members had parked their cars.

One of the girls accidentally tried to get into the wrong car, Shearer said. That's when, she said, a "guy got out and they saw that he had a gun. And so they tried to speed off and he shot his gun, like five times or so into the car." Woodlands Elite did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment. The Elgin Police Department also did not immediately respond to an overnight request from NBC News seeking to confirm these details.

According to ABC News, Heather Roth, a cheerleader with the Woodlands Elite, said in an Instagram Live post that she was the one who got out of her friend's car and opened the door of another vehicle she thought was her own, only to notice a man was in the passenger seat. She said she got out of the car and back into her friend's vehicle, the report said.

Roth reportedly said the man approached their vehicle and she rolled down a window to apologize. That's when the man started shooting, she said, according to ABC News. The Instagram Live post was no longer available early Wednesday, but Roth shared a number of posts that appeared to be related to the incident. She did not immediately respond to overnight request for comment.

Victim critically injured known as a 'role model'

Shearer identified the cheerleader who was critically injured in the shooting as Payton Washington, of the Round Rock Independent School District.

“She’s won every title there is to win in all-star cheerleading. She’s literally a role model for the kids in this industry throughout the country,” Shearer said. “Everybody knows her. She’s literally one of the very best that’s ever done this sport.”

Messages of support for Washington have poured in on social media in the wake of the shooting, with a prayer organized by Woodlands Elite held Tuesday. Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page organized by the Woodlands Elite Generals to help raise money to cover her hospital costs had raised more than $60,800 as of early Wednesday.

The GoFundMe page said Washington was "stable in the ICU and will have a long road to recovery."

Shearer said the cheerleaders had "grown up" in her gym. "We’ve known them for years, some of them literally, since they were, you know, 8, 10 years old,” she said. “So they’re like our family.”

The shooting, she said "was unfortunate. These girls were just trying to get home."

As Washington faces a long road to recovery, Shearer said, she and the Woodlands Elite team would be there to support her and others affected by the shooting every step of the way.

“Our goal right now is to take it one day at a time and be there for them,” Shearer said.
Shooting comes following 2 similar incidents

The shooting comes on the heels of two other eerily similar high-profile incidents in which the victims were allegedly shot after mistakenly approaching the wrong addresses.

Last week, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot and seriously injured after mistakenly ringing the wrong doorbell in Kansas City, Missouri, while trying to pick up his siblings in an incident that sparked national outrage.

Just days later, Kaylin Gillis, 20, was fatally shot by a homeowner after the car she was riding in mistakenly turned into the wrong driveway in upstate New York.

The two incidents sparked a national conversation around gun violence and “stand your ground” laws, according to which a would-be shooter defending life or property does not have to retreat before taking violent action. The shooting of the cheerleaders is likely to further fuel the discussion.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-cheerleaders-shot-wrong-car-practice-rcna80366

6-year-old girl, 2 adults shot after basketball rolls into North Carolina neighbor's yard

By Caitlin O'Kane

April 20, 2023 / 9:49 AM / CBS News

Two adults and one child were shot in Gastonia, North Carolina, after a basketball rolled into a man's yard and he allegedly opened fire on them. The suspect, Robert Louis Singletary, was still at large as of Wednesday, according to the Gaston County Police Department.

The incident unfolded around 7:44 p.m. on Tuesday when Gaston police received a call about a man firing a gun outside homes in his neighborhood. Singletary, 24, of Gastonia, North Carolina, was determined to be the shooter.

An adult male and his child were seriously wounded during the shooting spree and taken to a Charlotte hospital. One adult woman was grazed by a bullet and another man was shot but not injured.

Detectives secured warrants for Singletary on four counts of attempted first degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

The police department is offering a $1,000 reward for information that aids the investigation, which is ongoing. Singletary was last seen with a gun and should be considered armed and dangerous, the police department said.

Chief Stephen M. Zill of the Gaston Police Department said in a news release that his agency has partnered with the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force to assist in the search for Singletary.

"I want to say to the people of Gaston County — this sort of violence will not stand," Zill said.

Two of the victims have been identified as William White and his 6-year-old daughter, who spoke to CBS News affiliate WBTV. "The bullet came back and the bullet went in my cheek," said the girl, whose name is being withheld for her safety.

"I want him to go to jail forever," she said.

A neighbor who witnessed the shooting said it was shocking.

"They were playing basketball and a ball rolled into his yard and they went to go and get it," Jonathan Robertson told WBTV. "It was just crazy."

This shooting is the latest involving violent consequences after ordinary mistakes, reigniting debates about stand your ground laws.

A white man claimed self-defense after he shot a Black teenager this week when he rang the doorbell of his Kansas City home and a 20-year-old woman looking for a friend's house in upstate New York was fatally shot by a homeowner when she went to the wrong address.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/6-year...-neighbors-yard-robert-louis-singletary/

these incidents cross over all notions of having race or gender as a common cause. They seem to span the spectrum. But they are all quite disturbing.

The good ole boy mentality. Anyone black is a threat. “My property and I got the god given right to use me gun and ask questions later.”

This is exactly what republicans want.. The wild wild west where everyone carries a gun and shoots anyone that wrongs them... perceived or real.

Can't begin to tell you how many times I've pulled into the wrong driveway... I wonder how many times a Doordash or Uber Eats driver went to the wrong address? This is dumb

How soon we forget. A black Amazon driver was brutally shot and killed not to long ago. Let’s face it, if you’re black, you better calculate your movement to perfection, or POW you’re dead.

Is that REALLY how you feel? I'm a republican.

Not sure if you realize but the "wild west" was chock full capricious gun control laws. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gun-control-old-west-180968013/

https://apnews.com/article/north-ca...parents-61dda7685d1b0a9bcfde5655f753be1c


GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man shot and wounded a 6-year-old girl and her parents after children went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into his yard, according to neighbors and the girl’s family — another in a string of recent shootings sparked by seemingly trivial circumstances.

Gaston County Police Chief Stephen Zill said at a news conference Wednesday that his department and the U.S. Marshals Service’s Regional Fugitive Task Force were conducting a broad search for 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary, who fled after the Tuesday night shootings near Gastonia, a city of roughly 80,000 people west of Charlotte.

Singletary, who has been out on bond in a December attack in which authorities say he assaulted a woman with a hammer, is wanted in Tuesday’s shootings on four counts of attempted first-degree murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Singletary remained at large Thursday, county spokesman Adam Gaub said in an email.

Zill declined to say what sparked the attack, explaining that the investigation was ongoing.

However, neighbor Jonathan Robertson said the attack happened after some neighborhood children went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into Singletary’s yard. He said Singletary, who had yelled at the children on several occasions since moving to the neighborhood, went inside his home, came back out with a gun and began shooting as parents frantically tried to get their kids to safety.

“As soon as I saw him coming out shooting, I was hollering at everybody to get down and get inside,” Robertson said.

A 6-year-old girl, Kinsley White, was grazed by a bullet in the left cheek and was treated at a hospital and released, she and her family said. Her father, Jamie White, who had run to her aid, was shot in the back. He remained hospitalized Wednesday with serious wounds, including liver damage, according to Kinsley’s grandfather and neighbor, Carl Hilderbrand. The girl’s mother, Ashley Hilderbrand, was grazed in the elbow. Authorities say Singletary also shot at another man but missed.

“It was very scary,” Ashley Hilderbrand said Wednesday. “My daughter actually got to come home last night. She just had a bullet fragment in her cheek.”

It is the latest in a string of recent U.S. shootings that occurred for apparently trivial reasons, including the wounding of a Black teenage honors student in Missouri who went to the wrong address to pick up his younger brothers, the killing of a woman who was in a car that pulled into the wrong upstate New York driveway, and the wounding of two Texas cheerleaders after one apparently mistakenly got into a car that she thought was her own.

https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/group-of-teens-beat-and-rob-chicago-couple-170730565977


Teenager mob in Chicago riot, loot, vandalize, and assault people and mayor makes excuses for it.

Dem policies pfffft

https://www.cerescourier.com/opinion/editorial/walmart-closing-stores-due-rampant-theft/

Half of Chicago walmarts closing due to theft and security issues.

Dem policies pfffttt

https://www.foxnews.com/media/alvin...blish-racial-equity-agenda-crime-poverty

Chicago DA says he will no longer procesecute theft because its a "crime of poverty"

Dem policies pffft

Uh... I just can't.


Way to go Buttigieg!

Grandson ‘Disgusted’ With Man Who Shot Ralph Yarl

Klint Ludwig said his grandfather Andrew Lester, who pleaded not guilty in the case, had fallen down a "right-wing rabbit hole" in recent years.

A grandson of the Missouri man who shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl for mistakenly ringing his doorbell said on Thursday that he is “disgusted” by his grandfather’s actions.

“I was disgusted. I thought it was terrible,” Klint Ludwig told CNN’s Don Lemon. “Myself and my family stand with Ralph Yarl in seeking justice. This is a horrible tragedy, never should have happened.”

Yarl had gone to pick up his younger brothers from a house in Kansas City, Missouri, on the evening of April 13, but mistakenly went to the wrong address. The Black teenager rang the doorbell, only for 84-year-old Andrew Lester to shoot a revolver through the glass front door. Yarl was hit in the head and the upper right arm. He miraculously survived the encounter.

The teen was released from the hospital over the weekend, and is recovering at home with his family. Lester, who is white, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action, and he is currently free on bond. His next court appearance is June 1.

“Ralph Yarl did nothing wrong by showing up at the wrong house, which is an honest, easy mistake,” Ludwig told The Kansas City Star. “And the fact that it was almost a death sentence is disgusting.”

Ludwig said that over the past several years, he and his grandfather lost touch largely due to Lester falling down “the right-wing rabbit hole,” according to the Star. Lester engages in a “24-hour news cycle of fear and paranoia,” fueled by conservative networks like Fox News and OAN, that “reinforces and galvanizes racist people and their beliefs,” his grandson said.

“And then the NRA pushing the ‘stand your ground’ stuff and that you have to defend your home,” Ludwig told the Star. “When I heard what happened, I was appalled and shocked that it transpired, but I didn’t disbelieve that it was true.”

Lester also followed “QAnon-level conspiracies” about abortion and supposed election fraud, and appeared to believe in COVID-19 disinformation and racist stereotypes about Black people. According to Ludwig, “the warning signs were there.”

While Yarl’s physical health is improving, the teen’s family says he is still struggling emotionally and mentally. Friends and family of the high school junior have described him as academically talented and musically gifted.

“I’m proud of you, Ralph. I’m so sorry this happened to you,” Ludwig said on CNN. “I understand you’re an amazing kid and I think you’re going to grow up to be an amazing man. You didn’t do anything wrong. The outpouring of support that the country has shown to you, I think, says more than I ever could say.”

“Ralph, you don’t deserve to have your life fundamentally changed like you had it,” Ludwig said. “You deserve justice ― and my family stands with you.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gran...5pzR5EDUJi8uhVV3ra6A5TzMztfVZEUffymA-jCg

Wow, someone who speaks the truth, and not the typical, "He was a gentle man, never saw any signs of danger in him."

It’s a shame the family didn’t intervene with their cuckoo Goper grandfather before now. We’re seeing this right wing radicalized racist behavior infest our society unchecked.

It's expected from a defense attorney to stand up for and make excuses for their client at every opportunity to do so. I wish the story would have expounded what who all was included in "family members" though.

And j/c

Before anyone goes off the rails on what I meant in my post above in purple about whataboutisms, it was intended as a two way street. I posted a total of four stories. In one of the four stories the victim was actually black. In three of the four stories that was not the case. But as we saw it was quickly made into a racial thing. Then on the other side it became some "Chicago" thing about inner city crime which is quite common and in no way fit into the subject matter of such unusual occurrences of which I plainly spelled out was the topic of this thread.

Now both sides can go off about it.

Still no matter the race, it’s crucial for the family to intervene when they agree grampa’s gone off the rails.

I was speaking about the turns the thread had taken in the beginning and moving forward. I'm pretty sure you understood that. I agree these some such incidents might be able to be avoided in states where red flag laws exist. I'm not sure how much good they would do in states where such laws do not exist. I mean I doubt just saying, "Grandpa is watching FOX News and OAN. He gets worked up over it and sounds crazy", is going to get law enforcement to take his guns.

Florida police decline to make arrests after neighbor shoots at grocery delivery car

A man opened fire after feeling threatened by the driver's actions, police said, and the driver was justified in an erratic escape.

Police in South Florida said they will not charge a neighbor for shooting at a car being used by a grocery delivery worker who ended up at the wrong address.

Officials in Davie, a town about 26 miles north of Miami, announced Friday that charges would not be recommended against the gunman, Antonio Caccavale,43, because his actions were justified by his fear.

Likewise, police said, the Instacart driver will not be charged because he acted based on their own assessment of danger when the vehicle, moving erratically, struck a boulder and the shooter's foot.

Investigators said they did not have video of the incident and thus had to rely on the narratives of each side, which each had its own chronology and facts.

"Each party appear justified in their actions based on the circumstances they perceived," Detective Patrick Di Cintio said in a supplement to the police report on the matter.

It wasn't clear if the detective concluded the shooting was justified based on Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law, the first in the nation, which states that residents have no duty to retreat before using potentially deadly force to defend life, family, and property.

The police report stated that driver Waldes Thomas Jr. and companion Diamond Harley D'arville were attempting to make a grocery delivery on the evening of April 15 and were talking to the customer's wife on a cellphone for navigation help when the incident took place.

After the Honda Civic stopped on Caccavale's property, next door to the target of the delivery, the home of Instacart customer Daniel Orta, Caccavale's son came out at his father's behest to tell the pair in the car to stay off the property, according to the report.

It's not entirely clear what happened next, and in what order, but the driver and his companion said that Caccavale approached them aggressively, prompting their hasty exit, according to the document. The duo said Caccavale had grabbed or otherwise latched on to the vehicle as it was moving, the report stated.

Caccavale's foot was struck by the Civic, according to the police report, and Caccavale said he opened fire after that in order to prevent more injury and protect his family from the vehicle.

The resident said he had aimed his semiautomatic Smith & Wesson handgun at the vehicle's tires in an attempt to disable it as a threat, the report said.

"He stated that he shot out three rounds at the vehicle after the vehicle struck him," the police report stated. "He stated he fired his gun at the vehicle because he was in fear for his and his children's safety."

The Civic exited the property, and officers found it a few blocks away stopped on railroad tracks, the report stated. There were indications of round impacts on the car, and one tire was flat, it said.

Thomas and D'arville were clearly shaken, police said, but were otherwise were uninjured. The extent of Caccavale's foot injuries was not specified by police.

The duo said they heard gunfire only after they attempted leave as a result of what they called aggressive behavior from neighbor Caccavale.

“I had seen him pull out a gun and that’s when I said, ‘We got to go, we got to go,’” D’arville said. “I was scared, I’m not going to lie.”

Someone at Caccavale's phone number hung up when contacted by NBC South Florida.

Instacart said in a statement it reached out to Thomas and would cooperate with investigators if asked.

"The safety of the entire Instacart community is incredibly important to us, and we take immediate action when we receive reports of violence or threats of violence made against any member of the Instacart community," it said.

The San Francisco-based company, founded in 2012 and boosted by venture capital investment, helped establish contemporary grocery delivery that connects gig economy drivers with online customers, similar to Uber's platform that connects drivers with ride-seekers.

The state attorney for Broward County, Harold Pryor, told NBC South Florida he's requested a review of the case and of the Davie Police Department's conclusion that charges would not be warranted.

On April 13, a teenager mistook a very similar address in Kansas City, Missouri for the one where he was expected to retrieve siblings, police said. An elderly white resident, since charged with assault in the first degree and armed criminal action, opened fire and injured the Black teenager.

More cases of gunfire over mistaken locations, roadways, and vehicles have turned up in the wake of the the Missouri shooting of teen Ralph Yarl, helping to renew the national conversation on guns and equal justice.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...hbor-shoots-grocery-delivery-c-rcna81007

Isn’t that dandy. Lol….The next politician that steps onto my property who I deem threatening, I’m justified to shoot the bastard.

The only response republicans have for stopping senseless shootings is to arm more people, more armed guards, armed teachers, constitutional carry, etc... so until they come up with a plan that doesn't just involve adding more guns to the mix... what are folks supposed to think?

A lot of the "wrong place, wrong time" victims have been white so I don't think your argument is particularly valid... I don't think the real point has much to do with the victims at all..

If you look at the victims of the recent shootings, they range in age from 6 to early 20s, different races, different genders, different states, and completely different situations.. one rang the wrong doorbell, one pulled into the wrong driveway and started to back out, one 6-yeare-old chased his basketball into the neighbor's yard, and one got in the wrong car (that looked like hers) in the grocery store parking lot... which, if you are like me, is the only one that sounds reasonable. If you are sitting in your car waiting for your wife to come out and a stranger jumps in your car, that's threatening.. the only problem was he didn't shoot her in the car. She got out, acknowledged her mistake and walked to her own car and he followed her across the parking lot and shot her over there. The threat was long over..... so there is little we can glean from the victims...

But we can glean more from the shooters... older, angry, scared, white men with a gun nearby and an itchy trigger finger... consistently. Who have, no doubt, bought into the narrative that our society has reached some uniquely depraved state where somebody is always coming for them or for their stuff.... Pretty sure they all watch the news, follow the conspiracy theorists on social media, etc not to stay informed but to stay agitated and angry, to keep themselves in this heightened state of alert that they actually enjoy... In their own warped minds, they pull their guns not only to defend themselves but they believe they are defending the very essence of democracy itself.. that's how deluded these people are... and states all around the country are making it easier and easier for these people to obtain and carry guns all the time.... Oddly enough, most of them are probably very anti-gun control and, through their own actions, made themselves the poster child for why more gun control is necessary..

I think you hit it pretty good with the "wrong place" part. Depending on where you are race may play a much bigger role in you getting shot than if you were in another place. You know what they say and often times it rings true. "Location, location, location." In the case you are discussing I think the location and probably the overall mind set more than anything was a huge factor.

In the instances where the victim was black, it's quite possible that race was at least a contributing factor, but based on all of current events and the wide variety of victim, this is not specifically a race-based problem and we would be doing the debate a disservice by framing it that way. It's an angry-white-man-with-a-gun problem.

or as I have commented about football players... "Nothing good happens outside a strip club at 2:00 am"

Half the battle of life is not putting yourself in the position to have something bad happen. There is a larger economic (not just race DC) factor that cannot be overlooked. If you are in a poorer area, the crime rate will be higher. That is true regardless of race.

I'm not disagreeing with you about crime in general.. but I don't believe these same economic factors apply as neatly to these "wrong place, wrong time" shootings, they appear to be fairly random when it comes to location and economics.

Yes, I think framing the entire issue that way is most certainly a disservice to the overall topic. Yet at the same time I don't believe there is a single factor that encompasses the issue of mass shootings. I believe the reason for mass shootings can vary widely depending on the incident. So we certainly agree that you can't base it all on race, in certain instances race certainly plays a role. IMO to find a solution to mass shootings each one should be looked at on an individual basis. So while we agree that race shouldn't be the focus of being responsible for mass shootings as a whole, I also don't believe that race should be ignored in the cases where it most certainly applies. It's not the only cause of mass shootings but it is the cause in some mass shootings.

Edit to add; I think one of the reasons you see for this "angry white man with a gun" type of scenario is because it keeps being called "a good guy with a gun" by the other side. Until of course that "good guy with a gun" turns out not to be a good guy with a gun.

Agreed, and the instance described above, like the basketball or driveway shooting are examples where the shooting was totally unexpected.

And that is what makes things scary, between random shooting and mass shootings, we have to many shootings going on.

Pit, I know I haven't been here in a while, but this entire thread is about wrong place, wrong time shootings.. now you have switched to mass shootings (which there is already a thread discussion).. both tragic, both unacceptable, but completely different in their causes and circumstances...

True. However if you'll notice the shootings that I began this thread with, only one of those three had a victim which was black. Both the girl who was shot when she pulled in the wrong driveway and the cheerleader were white. Was the one where the victim was black race related? I believe so. So I'm not so sure you are correct in the cause part of it to some degree but I agree that you're certainly correct that in some cases the causes and circumstances are different. A lot more domestic violence cases are involved as an example.

Just get a dog. My doberman chased an intruder out of the backyard today. He's my guardian angel. Sweetest boy, until you are a threat.

Spiral when you get done whinning about Whites shooting Blacks lets talk about Blacks shooting Blacks which happens in 90% of cases.

Lol … I have no clue what you’re talking about. But please go on. It’s always entertaining.

Man allegedly shoots 14-year-old girl playing hide-and-seek on his property in Louisiana

A Louisiana man was arrested and charged with shooting and wounding a 14-year-old girl playing hide-and-seek on his property, officials said.

Deputies responded to a shooting early Sunday at a home in Starks, near the border of Louisiana and Texas, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

A 14-year-old girl was found with a gunshot wound to the back of her head on the property of David Van Doyle, 58. Further investigation revealed that several minors, whom the sheriff’s office identified as neighbors, were playing hide-and-seek in the area and hiding on Doyle's property.

Van Doyle told detectives he saw "shadows" outside his home, went inside to get his firearm and then "went back outside and observed people running away from his property, at which time he began shooting at them and unknowingly hit the girl," the news release says.

Van Doyle was arrested and charged with aggravated battery, four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm and illegal discharge of a firearm, the sheriff's office said. Bond is pending.

It was not known whether he has an attorney.

The girl was taken to a hospital for treatment of non-life- threatening injuries.

The investigation continues, the sheriff's office said.

The shooting is the latest of at least four similar incidents, sparking a national conversation around gun violence, as well as “stand your ground” and “castle doctrine,” both self-defense laws.

On April 13, Ralph Yarl, 16, was shot when he rang the wrong doorbell as he was trying to pick up his younger twin brothers from a friend’s home in Kansas City, Missouri. Andrew Lester, a white man in his 80s, was accused of shooting Yarl, who is Black, and charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action.

Yarl was shot in the head, cracking his skull and leaving him with a traumatic brain injury, his family's attorney said.

On April 15 in upstate New York, Kaylin Gillis, 20, was fatally shot after the car she was in with her boyfriend and two friends turned into the wrong driveway as they were looking for a friend's house. Kevin Monahan, 65, was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder.

On April 18 in Texas, two cheerleaders were shot, one critically, after one of them mistakenly tried to get into the wrong car in a supermarket parking lot. The suspect, Pedro Tello Rodriguez Jr., 25, was charged with deadly conduct, a third-degree felony, police said.

In North Carolina, also on April 18, a man allegedly shot and wounded a 6-year-old girl and her father after a basketball rolled into his lawn, a neighbor said. Robert Louis Singletary, 24, turned himself in days later in Tampa, Florida, after a manhunt.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-new...aying-hide-seek-property-louis-rcna83523

Kentucky man accused of shooting roommate for eating last Hot Pocket

Clifton Williams, 64, was charged with assault and pleaded not guilty in the Louisville case. His roommate survived.

A Kentucky man accused of shooting his roommate who ate the last Hot Pocket has been charged with felony assault.

The roommate, who has not been named, sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the weekend shooting, according to the Louisville Metro Police Department.

Clifton Williams, 64, was arrested early Sunday and charged with second-degree assault, police said. On Monday, he pleaded not guilty, according to NBC News affiliate WAVE of Louisville.

An attorney for Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to a police citation, the two roommates had a physical fight over the frozen sandwhich.

"Mr. Williams got mad he ate the last Hot Pocket," it states, and allegedly "began throwing tiles at him."

The victim "attempted to" fight back and threatened Williams, but he left, the document

Williams got a gun and followed the roommate outside, where he shot him in the buttocks, the police document said.

Williams is scheduled to be back in court May 30 for a preliminary hearing.

Under Kentucky law, a person convicted of second-degree assault conviction can be sentenced to five to 10 years in prison.

The state defines a second-degree assault convict as someone who "intentionally causes physical injury to another person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument"

https://www.today.com/food/news/ken...oommate-eating-last-hot-pocket-rcna85996

Anyone can see the extreme bias in this article. I mean who in the hell calls a Hot Pocket a sandwich for God's sake!!!?

Hot pockets are a calzone.

I consider that category to be much more accurate. A generic calzone but a calzone none the less.

Any self respecting Italian would cut your tongue out for comparing a hot pocket to a calzone.

Not if they are bringing a knife to a gun fight.