Posted on 05/23/2012 4:36:02 PM PDT by marktwain
A Stafford County man was shot and killed late Tuesday after he tried to stab a man who had refused to give him money, police said.
Christopher Rigby, 29, of no fixed address, was pronounced dead shortly after being shot in the chest in the parking lot of Earls True Value on Chatham Heights Road in southern Stafford about 11 p.m.
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Sheriff Charles Jett said a young couple were in a vehicle parked in the part of the lot farthest from the hardware store when they noticed a couple of men walking around.
The men eventually walked over to the car and one of them asked for a dollar. The man in the vehicle told him no and to leave them alone and the men left.
Later in the evening, Jett said, the two men returned. The one who had asked for the dollar went to the drivers side window and tried to stab the man with a knife. The driver got a gun from his console and shot the knife-wielding man in the chest.
The woman in the vehicle called 911 and two deputies who were in the area responded immediately. The man who was with the shooting victim fled when the gun was fired.
Jett said that Rigby, who was homeless but previously lived on Ringgold Road a few miles away, was pronounced dead at Mary Washington Hospital. The knife was on the ground beside him when police arrived.
Jett said police found a homeless camp behind Earls where the shooting victim had been staying and got information leading to Rigbys identity. Jett said his family was notified early Wednesday.
Police also found the man who was with him Wednesday morning and interviewed him. Jett said his story supported the ones told by the man and woman in the car.
He told police that after returning to the camp, the shooting victim became enraged about being turned down in his request for money. He told people in the camp that he was going back to get revenge.
The second man said he followed him but did not participate in the incident.
The couple in the car told police they were there having a conversation. The man has a valid concealed-weapons permit, Jett said.
No charges have been filed. Jett said police believe alcohol played a part in the incident.
Bringing a knife to a gun fight is never a wise thing.
I generally try to avoid being the interloper in such circumstances unless I am invited.
I knew a homeless young man who was smarter and more organized than the typical. At a coffee shop he complained that the two young homeless women he knew were very nice when sober, but turned into violent animals when drunk.
I had a solution for him in my car and offered it to him, a handful of high test nylon zip restraints. He was very grateful, and later said they provided great entertainment.
Typically, you would put one on each wrist and one between them as handcuffs, but he improved on the idea. One on each wrist as before, but the right wrist of one girl attached to the left wrist of the other, and the same on the other side. So the two girls were restrained back to back.
He said they kicked up quite a cloud of dust, but as long as you stayed out of kicking range you were okay. As he said, it was quite entertaining, and nobody got hurt.
(As an epilogue, I eventually browbeat him into taking his SAT, and his score was good enough to get him a scholarship to Stanford.)
My thought as well...what would a “young couple” be doing in a parked car over an extended amount of time in the farthest reaches of a hardware store?
I’m always surprised to learn about the locations of homeless camps. It seems that they are all over northern VA. Some of them are so well hidden that one could go hiking in the summer and not notice one...but once the trees lose their leaves... *poof* A bit scary.
I infer from that, that he was an illegal?
In my experience, robberies should be conducted in as expeditious a manner as possible. Ideally; they should be executed in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. As a rule, slow motion robberies that extend to hours, days, or longer spans are best left to governmental bodies equipped for extended larceny. This gentleman got in over his head and queered the deal in both temporal and spatial terms.
No, he was both white and an odd bird. An orphan, he found high school to be crushingly boring; but one of his teachers, realizing this, gave him a “book of professional tests”, to occupy his time. After a short amount of time studying on his own, he was able to get near perfect scores on these tests.
But by then he was out of high school, without a diploma, and no longer welcome to stay at his adoptive home. After he had been living on the street for a while, I met him and convinced him to take his GED exam, which he passed with flying colors.
So I got him two SAT training manuals at a used bookstore. And sure enough, he got a very high score. But the hardest part was to persuade him to go to a local university to see if he could get grants to go to university. It turned out that he was exactly the right kind of candidate, smart and poor.
And the best offer was from Stanford. He actually hitchhiked there. The only thing anyone ever heard from him again was a letter in which he complained that his fellow students were unmotivated and lazy and just wanted to party.
The probably thought that he, a former street punk, was a hardass and a wet blanket.
I know a few smarter-than-average homeless. They are quite capable people, but they know that until they are ready to give up the booze or drugs it’s a waste of their time to try and get their act together.
you’re sort of an insensitive pervert aren’t you?...advocating restraining girls....makes one wonder what other perversions you advocate...
I thought I made it clear that when these two got raging drunk, they were a threat to themselves and everyone around them. One of them had even had brain surgery before I knew her, after getting bashed in the head by a blunt object while brawling in the northwest.
These were not two shrinking little flowers, especially with a fifth of liquor bringing out their inner demons.
Yet when sober they were quite personable. The guy I gave the nylon ties to was their friend, not their boyfriend, and didn’t want to see anyone harmed while they were intoxicated.
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