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A mother out with her two children to go shopping became the victim of would-be purse snatchers, but a good Samaritan armed with a gun came to the rescue.

A 30-year-old mother is lucky today after the quick-thinking of a stranger helped save her from a mugging. The mother of two who was dragged across a Texas shopping center parking lot this week, clinging to her purse while two suspects in a sedan tried to snatch it. That’s when the stranger, who was armed, stopped the would-be thieves and forced them to lie on the ground while they waited for the police to arrive. ( The stranger who helped the woman retrieve her purse, pointed a gun at the suspects while he made them lie on the ground, waiting...

HARTFORD — A Newbury Street resident shot at two men — hitting one — after they menaced him, rammed his car and pulled a gun on him early Saturday, police said. The wounded suspect was hospitalized and the other was charged with several crimes. The Newbury Street man who fired the shots is considered a victim and will not be charged, police said. He was not injured, and had a valid permit for his pistol, according to investigators. The man, a National Guard staff sergeant who requested his name not be used to protect him and his family, tells Fox...

ANTIOCH -- An Antioch jewelry store owner shot and killed an armed robber Friday afternoon and police said a customer was also shot during the heist, police said. The robbery at the Hardy Nix Jewelry store at 3600 Delta Fair Boulevard shut down a major street as authorities swarmed the surrounding area looking for a second suspect who escaped the store after the 4:27 p.m. robbery. The female customer who was shot was taken to a hospital with a non-life threatening wound, according to Antioch police Lt. Robin Kelley. The woman "just happened to be in the way" as the...

On April 5 an 83-year-old Huntsville, Alabama, man retrieved a handgun and shot a home intruder in the chest. According to WAFF 48, the homeowner heard a knock at his back door "around 12:45 a.m." and a man saying he needed help. The homeowner "turned to call police when the burglar kicked in the glass door and entered the home."

WINTER HAVEN (FOX 13) - A man breaking into a Winter Haven home Monday morning was shot and killed by the family living there, Police Chief Gary Hester said. It happened at a little before 7 a.m. on Lake Marriana Road Drive. A mother, father, and son woke up to the sound of someone, identified by police as 40-year-old Mitchell Large, trying to get in through a porch door. Chief Hester said one of the family members fired a warning shot. "[A resident] fired a warning shot above the door. That warning shot did not deter the intruder. The intruder...

An Alabama woman shot and killed a young man when he tried to break into her home, saying his car had broke down. Mikel Steven Smith, 18, was reportedly armed with a knife when he tried to break into a home located in the Booth community, close to Prattville, WSFA reports. ‘He knocked on the door and tried to gain entrance by saying he needed help that he was broke down,’ Autauga County Chief Deputy Joe Sedinger told the station.

Dori thinks it should be legal to use deadly force to protect your property, but Spokane prosecutors disagree. They announced Wednesday that they are charging Gail Gerlach, who shot and killed a carjacker, with First Degree Manslaughter. According to reports, 56-year-old Gail Herbert Gerlach had left his Chevy Suburban running in his driveway to warm it up on a cold day in March when Brendon Kaluza-Graham tried to drive away with it. Gail fired his gun, hitting Brendon in the head and killing him. Gail said he saw Brendon raise his arm in his direction; he thought Brendon had a...

The city of Detroit went into bankruptcy last summer, citing a whole slew of financial and municipal problems including the Detroit police’s average response time to calls for the highest-priority crimes coming in at an absurd 58 minutes — but that didn’t stop the firestorm of criticism in store for Detroit Police Chief James Craig when he started vocally advocating for more responsible citizens to take up the task of self defense by arming themselves.After an incident last week, however, in which a northwest Detroit homeowner fatally shot two men he said were trying to break home, the number of...

Sad but true, this is the way it works in the United States. Two men entered a convenience store, pointed their guns at the clerk, and robbed the store. As they exited the store, an armed citizen confronted them. The robbers pointed their guns at the honest citizen and he shot and killed both of them. Now the family of one of the dead robbers wants “justice.” They want to sue the honest citizen. And leave it to the media to give the families of armed robbers a forum. In what has become a cliché, the mother of an armed...

Another story crosses our desk, courtesy of Rationality Rebooted. I’ve gone through a few reports of this story and it’s still not clear why Kevin Mclaughlin went into the Dollar General in Orrville, Alabama last week, but it certainly wasn’t to find a good deal on tube socks. He began shouting and waving a gun around, herding customers and an employee into a back room. Things were looking bad, but that’s when he ran into Marlo Ellis. One person is dead after a customer at the Dollar General in Orrville began shouting and waving his gun in the air.Dallas County...

DETROIT (WJBK) - Thursday afternoon a Detroit homeowner fatally shot an intruder. A second intruder was also at the scene but ran away and is still being sought by police. Police say the homeowner heard glass break around 12:30 p.m., ran to the back of his house and saw a person climbing in the window, so he grabbed his gun and fired. Police say the 17-year-old suspect then collapsed on the driveway, appearing to have died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The other suspect is in his 20s. Police continue to question the homeowner about the incident, and...

The shooting occurred on October 19, 2012, at about 2:44 am and was a classic case of self defense and castle doctrine.   The deceased was a violent convict that had a long history of crime and fighting, and had alcohol, cocaine, and Oxycodone in his system when he was shot. His relatives complained vigorously when they found out that he was shot, claiming that "they did not have to shoot him". On June 27, 2013, it was reported that Jack Dillon would not be charged.   A grand jury had determined that his decision to shoot Jeffrey Carson fell within...

FBI Report: Early 2013 Crime Decrease Coincides with Gun Sales Boom The FBI released the Preliminary Seminannual Uniform Crime Report for the first six months of 2013 on Tuesday. According to the statistics found in the report, all of the offenses in the violent crime category—including murder, forcible rape, assault, and robbery—showed a significant decrease in early 2013 from the same period in 2012. This drop in violent crime coincided with one of the largest booms for gun sales in recent history. The FBI report was compiled with data submitted by 12,723 law enforcement agencies in the United States for...

The owner of a Rocky Mount convenience store shot and wounded one of three men suspected of trying to rob the store Sunday night, according to Rocky Mount police. Three men entered Mix Mart at 1522 S. Church St. about 9 p.m. police said. Two of the men were armed with handguns while the third suspect attempted to rob the 43-year-old man, but the store owner pulled a handgun and the two groups fired multiple shots at one another, police said. The three suspects then fled the scene.

When a DeKalb County woman returned home early Tuesday to find two teenagers in her home, she knew she needed to protect herself. She grabbed her gun. The woman, who asked not to be identified, told Channel 2 Action News she walked into her Tucker home as one teen ran out the back door and the other tackled her to the ground.

BLOOMFIELD TWP. (WWJ) - Police say a home invasion suspect is on the loose after his partner in crime was shot by a quick-thinking homeowner in Oakland County. The situation unfolded around 9:30 p.m. Monday in the 1600 block of Bloomfield Place Drive, near West Square Lake and Telegraph roads in Bloomfield Township. The homeowner told police that two men forced their way inside his home and demanded money. The man told police he agreed to give the intruders all of his money and took one of the suspects into his bedroom. Once in the bedroom, the homeowner grabbed a...

A 44-year-old man on crutches fatally shot one of two intruders who came charging at him Friday morning in the Heart of Chicago neighborhood, according to police. Mario Viramontes, 31, was declared dead on the scene in 2000 block of West 21st Street at 9:22 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Police were called to the scene about 9:10 a.m. for a burglary, and when they arrived, they found that a “male offender” who had been trying to commit a burglary had been shot by the homeowner, said Police News Affairs Sgt. Antoinette Ursitti.

Three would-be burglars were stopped by a Fairbanks resident with a gun Sunday morning, according to an Alaska State Troopers news release. Fairbanks-area troopers got a call at 8:02 a.m. from a man who said he caught three suspects taking items out of his vehicle. He told troopers he was holding the suspects at gunpoint. The suspects were arrested for misdemeanor theft and criminal trespass. Troopers identified them as Shannon Kiehl, 26, of Fairbanks, Felecia Martinez, 31, of Fairbanks, and Vitaliy Gayvoronsky, 33, unknown town of residence. Gayvoronsky pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to 15 days in jail, according...

Prosecutors are not pursuing a gunman, who shot and killed a man who was attacking a young boyscout. Carmen Reyes Jr., 58, was initially booked for murder after shooting and killing Sergio Wilms, who allegedly attacked the young boy and his mother as they were packing their family’s van for a camping trip around 5 a.m. on Saturday, according to police. Reyes, who lives with the family and is the caretaker of the boy’s father, reportedly ran outside after hearing the boy scream, at which point a violent altercation ensued.