Posted on 06/05/2015 11:21:02 AM PDT by Gamecock
Doug London fired one shot at the man who came to his front door to kill him and his wife, but a spent shell casing lodged itself in the gun, rendering it useless, according to newly released court documents.
First responders found the bodies of London and his wife, Debbie, just inside the front door of their Lake Wylie home a short time later, according to the documents, which were unsealed Wednesday. Debbie had been shot in the face. Her husband was shot in his face and chest, and twice in his back.
Prosecutors said Malcolm Jarrell Hartley killed the Londons in October to prevent Doug London from testifying in court about an earlier robbery of their Charlotte mattress store by members of the United Blood Nation gang.
Details of the killings were released in a criminal affidavit for Jamell Cureton, a leader in the Charlotte cell of the gang called the Valentine Bloods. Cureton was shot by Doug London during the May 2014 robbery attempt at the Mattress Warehouse on South Boulevard, court documents say.
Cureton, Nana Adoma and David Fudge were arrested in the ensuing weeks and charged with the robbery.
Cureton later communicated with other members of the gang in phone calls and letters from jail, saying they needed to discredit the Londons or stop them from testifying altogether, according to the documents.
Cureton was later arrested in connection with the Londons’ killings. He faces almost a dozen federal charges; six carry the death penalty. A federal indictment charges him and five other UBN members with the Londons’ killings.
The federal government took over the case a week after the Londons were killed. In all, a dozen members of the Bloods were charged in the racketeering case.
After the robbery, the Londons showed up to court appearances for Cureton and the other alleged robbers, frustrating Cureton, according to documents.
In a letter to Adoma after the robbery, Cureton said the Londons were causing hassles by showing up to the court appearances and needed to be discredited, according to the documents.
In the letter, Cureton suggests that the two come up with matching stories about the robbery.
They should say Doug London “smoke crack & owed 1 of us some money – we (came) to collect,” the letter said, according to court documents.
In the letter, Cureton said Doug London was “gunning” for him, according to the court documents. “Hunt for blood and blood gone hunt for you.”
For weeks, members of the Valentine Bloods plotted the couple’s killing, according to the indictment in the case.
Cureton played a leading role, despite being in jail at the time, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Green said in April.
Cureton – a midlevel gang leader known as “Murda Mel” and “Assassin” – called meetings, made phone calls, even wrote orders on how he wanted the killings carried out, court documents state.
At one point, Greene said, a gang member asked Cureton if he wanted “One or two weeks?”
Translation: Did he want one or both of the Londons silenced?
“Yeah, two weeks,” Cureton replied, Greene said.
Near the end of the letter released with court documents this week, Cureton indicates that their plans needed to stay secret.
“I need you to destroy this letter. … I got something in store for our friend. (And I don’t) need nobody searching (and) finding nothing incriminating.”
Thanks FRiend and especially Johnny_cash. I was never aware of this. (Guess I or my wife do not have limp wrists as this has never been an issue for either of us)
I did a little research and understand now.
Thanks, it’s a good thing to learn something new and this is the best place to do it!
Asking most people to do maintenance checks is asking too much, they won't do it.
The slide still has to rebound with enough force to fully extract the case, toss it out of the way, and move sufficiently back to pick up the next cartridge.
There is not a lot of extra energy to lose, as that batters the mechanics of the gun, so remove enough resistance and the slide doesn’t fully cycle. It really doesn’t matter whether it is blow back or delayed blow back.
When you fire a semi-auto, the slide blows back to eject the shell and reload the next round. If your wrist is "limp," your hand moves back with the recoil of the gun and the moving slide going in the same direction. As a result, your hand and wrist and arm absorb some of that recoil energy. If you absorb enough, the amount of energy left to move the slide back - which is moving against a spring trying to push it forward, decreases so much that the slide doesn't go all the way back before the spring starts to push it forward again. Under the right conditions, this can happen when the spent shell casing is only halfway out of the chamber, in mid-ejection. So then the slide slams forward and traps the empty shell casing and stops the slide completely. At that point you're screwed - the gun has not reloaded, and the the slide is jammed solid with the empty shell casing sticking halfway out of the chamber.
I bet you can get whatever semi-auto you shoot to fail to cycle properly by very loosely holding it. It may not stove pipe, it may just fail to pick up another round.
Of course anything obstructing the slide would have the same effect, such as clothing, other hand, etc.
Also, maybe for some:
6. Revolvers don’t jam.
An excellent summation of the problem.
Thanks you for taking the time to explain it!!!!
Looks like a great pair of Folks,
sorry for their passing.
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The pharmacist got nailed for shooting after the perp was down and no longer a threat. If he had shot him multiple times FAST, before the perp fell, then he would have been harder to convict.
And a perp with a gun is still a deadly threat even if he’s collapsed on the floor.
Limp wristed it. Too bad. RIP.
If you carry a semi auto or depend on it you should train on clearing malfunctions.
Of course, the chilluns would probably have to convert to Islam, to be just like dear old Dad Barack...
Repeat after me:
REVOLVER, REVOLVER, REVOLVER...................
..........unless you are a gun geek and willing to pour lead downrange by the TON.
Obama is proud...
You forgot perhaps the most important! CLEAN REGULARLY.
That too!
38 Special,,
outdated,over-rated but very reliable.
I started with semi-auto, Like them. Then I bought a Ruger GP100. Love it. When I took several guns to a church group shoot, they started with the semi-auto. When I brought out the GP100, one newbe said, “Ah, a real gun.”
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