(Wilmette)Homeowner to face gun charges

A Wilmette homeowner who shot and wounded an intruder succeeded in driving the burglar out of his house and may have ended a series of cat burglaries on the village's east side, but this week he faces weapons charges that include a local ordinance banning handgun possession.

The incident also could lead village trustees to revisit an issue which has received relatively little attention since board members passed the handgun ban nearly 15 years ago in the wake of the Laurie Dann school shootings.

Morio L. Billings, 31, was hospitalized at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston Dec. 29, after he fled the Linden Avenue neighborhood with two bullet wounds and a stolen sport utility vehicle police said he had stolen from the same house the night before.

After a Tuesday bond hearing, he was transferred to Cook County Jail, where he was held on a $3 million bond charged with two counts of residential burglary and one count of possession of a stolen motor vehicle.

The homeowner and victim of the break-in, 54-year-old Hale DeMar, will not face charges in the shooting, which prosecutors determined was justified.

But police on Tuesday said they planned to charge him with failing to have a current Firearm Owners Identification Card, a misdemeanor, and with violating Wilmette's 1989 handgun ordinance, which carries a fine of up to $750 and permanent loss of the weapons. He is to appear in court on both charges Feb. 6.

Police said they confiscated the .38-caliber revolver used in the shooting as well as a .380 automatic pistol from the home. They said DeMar had a FOID card but that it expired in 1988.

Although statements in the days after the incident seemed to indicate that police might not press the ordinance issue in the case, police said they were not wavering on the issue but waiting for facts and dealing with the more immediate issues surrounding the burglary suspect.

"It was not due to indecision but a desire to have complete information before coming to conclusions. Our strategy was to address the forcible felony charges first," said Police Chief George Carpenter.

Police said Billings has an extensive criminal history and came to the Chicago area from Coon Rapids, Minn. On the night before the shooting, he entered DeMar's house near the Bahai Temple by reaching through a dog door to open a deadbolt lock. At that time, police said he took a small television and a set of keys to the house and a BMV sports utility vehicle, which he used to flee the area.

When DeMar discovered and reported that crime early the next day, he was not able to get the locks changed and had his 8-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son stay in his upstairs room.

Shortly before 10:30 p.m., police said, Billings returned to the home, apparently seeking a computer monitor he believed to be a high-end flat screen television. When he used the stolen keys to open a kitchen door, DeMar was alerted by an alarm panel near his bedroom and went downstairs armed with the revolver.

He found himself across from a man masked with a hat and bandana. Instead of leaving through the nearby door, police said Billings ran farther into the house in a circuitous motion.

At that point DeMar fired four of the six bullets in the gun. Billings was struck twice, once in the shoulder and once in the leg. After crashing through a window and running back to the stolen SUV, he drove through a yard and knocked down two fences to escape.

Wilmette police found Billings shortly after that when St. Francis Hospital reported the arrival of a man seeking treatment for gunshot wounds. Billings' injuries were not considered life-threatening, but the bullet that struck his shoulder caused extensive damage lower in his arm.

Since mid-October, police have been investigating a pattern of cat burglaries in the area, break-ins or attempts by someone who knows or believes the home to be occupied at the time.

DeMar, who owns the Oak Tree Restaurant in Chicago, said he could not comment on specifics of the case but said he is not someone who wanted a confrontation.

"I don't think I acted any differently than a lot of people would have with two small children in the house. I'm a strong believer in the Second Amendment. I'm not a criminal, I'm a 55-year-old businessman," DeMar said.

"I think it's strange you're allowed to have a shotgun or semi-automatic rifle, but those aren't things you'd reach for when somebody breaks in," he said. "Those aren't things I'd have in the house."

Legal aspects aside, Carpenter said keeping handguns in a home and confronting intruders is a dangerous gamble

"We want to give good information to Wilmette residents about what we advise them to do if they ever find themselves in this situation. Lock the bedroom door and call 911. Protect yourselves and your children first," Carpenter said.

By confronting a burglar, homeowners take the risk of being overpowered or surprised by more than one intruder or by someone who is better armed, faster or just lucky.

The homeowner can end up wounded or killed in a struggle over their own weapon, Carpenter warned. Out of confusion and fear, some people trying to defend their home have accidentally shot their own family members returning late at night.

Beyond the immediate danger of a struggle, Carpenter said a handgun in the home can facilitate suicides, accidental shootings and can turn domestic arguments into homicides.

The choice of burglary alarm also affects the outcome of incidents such as this one, Carpenter said.

The alarm notified DeMar of the intrusion, but a loud audible alarm usually sends burglars running. As with many home systems, the alarm goes first to a remote monitoring center before police are notified.

That delay can run as long as 10 minutes and in this case gave Billings enough time to get into a confrontation, run back to a stolen vehicle and begin his escape before police learned there was a problem. Some systems notify the Police Department directly.

It's not clear whether the incident will lead to calls to change or repeal the handgun ordinance, but it is possible that trustees will review the law or seek to remind people that it's still on the books and being enforced.

Wilmette is one of a few suburbs to enact local handgun bans, including Morton Grove and Oak Park.

Village President Nancy Canafax said the law had been considered before the 1988 Winnetka school shootings, but that incident helped overcome opposition to the ban and it seems to still enjoy broad support. It has not been scheduled for discussion at a meeting but could come up in trustee discussions or public input.

"I've gotten some e-mail from people saying it's a horrible thing and it's unconstitutional, but I don't think any of them were from Wilmette," Canafax said.

Illinois Freepers were ably represented at the Wilmette gun hearing by Chicago farmer and myself. We were joined by hundreds (over 200) other like minded people, both Wilmette residents and others.

What I saw there was a body (Wilmette trustees) who embody the new face of tyranny, the benevolant nanny. The first item on the agenda was a smoking ban at an AMERICAN LEGION hall, the upshot of which is to negate private property rights under the guise of health concerns. The owner of the hall passionately spoke to that concern and pointed out that he would have to move the Hall or lose buisness.

When the attention turned to the gun ordinance, the slaughter began. One trustee opened the meeting by piously intoning that he had an open mind about this issue and then in almost the next sentence admitted that there was no intention to change the law. In other words, don't bother me with facts, my mind is made up. The trustees looked like a bunch of deer in the headlights as they were barraged by an avalanche of fact, history lesson, law, and common sense that to this observer clearly shook their insular sense of security and self rightousness to it's very core.

To be sure there were several speakers in support of the ordinance, some even were Wilmette residents. They were clearly outnumbered by residents opposed to it and utterly swamped by non residents who unanimously opposed it. In attendance were the honorable Terry O'Brien and Eileen Byrne from WLS, both of whom made passionate, and coherent remarks that bought forth applause from the listners, along with a gathering of other media. Eileen expressed interest in our nascent firearm training course, which is still under development.

I read the E-Mail to Chief Carpenter that I posted here, and Chicago farmer pointed out that cops were mostly "armed historians" who inevitably show up after a crime has been comitted. He detailed the reality of the laws that shield Wimette from civil liability for the failure to prevent crime.

There were a host of second amendment supporters who passionately and eloquently made their points. One speaker made a particularly cogent point when he highlighted a dismaying trend of constitutional inversion, that of legit constitutional rights, (Bearing arms, private property, freedom of speech, equal protection) being demoted to privleges, and bogus ones (health care, illegal alien driver's licenses, abortion, welfare, etc.) are becoming hallowed US constitutional rights envisioned by James Madison.

Comic relief was provided by a Wilmette resident who proudly proclaimed himself estatic over the fact that he was victimized without the legal right to a handgun for self defense. The guy looked like he was right out of Central Casting for the role of nebbish victim.

www.suntimes.com

Gun owner: I, not cops, got bad guy
January 22, 2004

Three days after Christmas, someone broke into the DeMar family home in Wilmette through a dog door, stealing a television, an SUV and the keys to the home.

The next night, Hale DeMar was prepared for a return visit. With his children upstairs, DeMar, 54, shot burglar Morio Billings, 31, in the shoulder and calf, police said.

Billings was caught at a nearby hospital and charged with felony residential burglary and possession of a stolen car, authorities said.

And, in a move that has drawn criticism, DeMar was cited with breaking Wilmette's ban on handguns and with failing to update his firearm owner's identification card.

The misdemeanors are unlikely to bring jail time. Wilmette Police Chief George Carpenter did not criticize DeMar for protecting his family but said homes are safer without handguns.

DeMar, in a letter sent to the Chicago Sun-Times, is now speaking out:

Village Trustees ... Stick to Parade Schedules & Planting our Parks

Many of us have experienced a sense of violation upon returning to our homes, only to find that someone else has been there. Someone else has trespassed in our bedrooms, looting and stealing that which is readily replaced. Many of us, still haunted by that violation, will never again have a sense of security in our own homes. Few, however, have awakened to realize that they had been violated as they slept in their beds, doors locked, as family dogs patrolled their homes. For me, the seconds until I found my children still safely tucked in their beds were horrifying. The thought that a young child may have been hurt or abducted was incomprehensible.

The police were called and in routine fashion they came, took the report and with little concern left, promising to increase surveillance. Little comfort, since the invader now had keys to our home and our automobiles. The police informed me that this was not an uncommon event in east Wilmette and offered their condolences.

What is one to do when a criminal proceeds, undeterred by a 90-pound German shepherd, an alarm system and a property ... lit up like an outdoor stadium? And now, he had my house keys and an inventory of things he'd like to call his own. Would the police patrol my dead-end street as effectively the second time as they had the first? Would my small children be unharmed the next time? Would the career criminal be satisfied with another automobile, another television or would he feel the need, once again, to climb the staircase up to the bedrooms, perhaps for a watch or a ring or a wallet, again risking little?

Would my children wake to find a masked figure, clad in black, in their bedroom doorway, a vision that might haunt them for years? Would the police come again and fill out yet another report, and at what point should I feel comfortable that the 'bad guy' got everything he wanted and wouldn't return again, a third time?

I went to the safe where my licensed and registered gun was kept, loaded it for the very first time and tucked it under the mattress of my bed. I assured my frightened children ''that daddy would deal with the bad guy ... if he ever returned.'' Little did I imagine that this brazen animal was waiting in the backyard bushes as I tucked my children into bed.

Fifteen minutes after bedtime, the alarm went off. Three minutes after the alarm was triggered, the alarm company alerted the police to the situation and 10 minutes later the first police car pulled up to my home, but only after another call was made to 911, by a trembling, half-naked father. I suppose some would have grabbed their children and cowered in their bedroom for 13 minutes, praying that the police would get there in time to stop the criminal from climbing the stairs and confronting the family in their bedroom, dreading the sound of a bedroom door being kicked in. That's not the fear I wanted my children to experience, nor is it the cowardly act that I want my children to remember me by.

Until you are shocked by a piercing alarm in the middle of the night and met in your kitchen by a masked invader as your children shudder in their beds, until you confront that very real nightmare, please don't suggest that some village trustee knows better and he/she can effectively task the police to protect your family from the miscreants that this society has produced.

This career criminal had been arrested thirty times. He was wanted in Georgia and for parole violations in Minnesota. How many family homes had he violated, how many innocent lives were affected, how many police reports went into some back office file cabinet, only to become some abstract statistic? How is it that rabid animals like this are free to roam the streets, violating our homes and threatening the safety of our children?

If my actions have spared only one family from the distress and trauma that this habitual criminal has caused hundreds of others, then I have served my civic duty and taken one evil creature off of our streets, something that our impotent criminal justice system had failed to do, despite some thirty odd arrests, plea bargains and suspended sentences.

Hale DeMar, Wilmette

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