Posted on 10/20/2005 8:17:16 AM PDT by SquirrelKing
Suspect still at large after failed carjacking at gas station
BY BEN CRITES, The Island Packet Published Thursday, October 20, 2005
Photo: Ron Woods of Hardeeville, in white shirt, describes the details of an attempted carjacking he was involved in Wednesday morning at a Kangaroo Express gas station in Levy. Woods suffered minor injuries during the incident, and the would-be carjacker fled into a nearby wooded area.
Erin Painter/The Island Packet
LEVY -- Using a fresh cup of coffee and a cell phone, a 36-year-old Hardeeville man fought off a gun-wielding carjacker Wednesday morning outside a Kangaroo Express gas station.
Two hours later, the Jasper County Sheriff's Office was looking for suspects in a carjacking in Savannah who may have been involved in the Levy incident. Their search continued Wednesday night, chief deputy Roy Hughes said.
Sgt. Mike Wilson of the Savannah-Chatham County Police Department said a blue Honda Civic was carjacked on Bay and Jenks streets in Savannah at 7:45 a.m. Wednesday. A car matching that description is believed to have been used in the attempted carjacking in Levy, Hughes said.
Ron Woods, who works as a hearing-aid dispenser, said he stopped at the Kangaroo station on S.C. 170 around 9:05 a.m. to grab a cup of coffee and some beef jerky before work. When he returned to his 1993 Lincoln Town Car and put the key in the ignition, a black man in his late teens or early 20s tapped on the passenger side window with a .38-caliber handgun.
Woods said he backed away from the car with his hands up while the would-be carjacker walked around to the driver's seat. As the man stepped into the car, Woods hurled the scalding cup of coffee at the man, kicked the driver's side door into the man's leg, and then threw his cell phone at him.
Photo: Evidence is collected from the car targeted in an attempted carjacking Wednesday morning in Levy.
After that, Woods said, he grabbed the gun with his left hand and repeatedly punched the man with his right. Woods said the gun's hammer pinched his thumb and cut his hand. The man punched Woods in the mouth.
Woods proceeded to put both hands on the gun and the two men wrestled for it, rolling around on the ground outside the vehicle. Then the gun went off -- about 6 inches away from Woods' head.
"It was very surreal up to that point," he said. "But when the shot fired, it became very real. I thought, 'If I don't get control of the gun, I'm going to die.' "
But Woods wrestled the gun free and a role-reversal ensued: The man who had held Woods at gunpoint now had the gun pointed at him. The man fled between the gas station store and a Dumpster into a nearby field.
"I'm glad he ran," Woods said. "I don't think I could have gone to bed tonight knowing I shot somebody."
Woods described his decision to struggle with the gunman for 45 seconds as baffling.
"It just infuriated me that the guy had the audacity to pull a gun on me," Woods said Wednesday. "It's probably one of the more knuckleheaded things I've done. I didn't think about my family."
The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office K-9 unit was sent to the scene but failed to find the man. Hughes said he thinks the man may have been picked up in the Honda by two black men who were observed dropping the man off at the station before the attack.
Woods was taken to the Coastal Carolina Medical Center, where he received treatment for minor cuts and scrapes. The front end of his Lincoln smashed into a concrete post when the car was shifted in gear during the struggle.
After Woods filed a statement with the Jasper County Sheriff's Office, he decided to go back to the Kangaroo station to prove to himself he wasn't afraid.
There he bought another cup of coffee and finally cracked open the beef jerky he'd bought earlier that morning.
"It was the best beef jerky I've had in a while," he said.
Contact Ben Crites at 706-8138 or bcrites@islandpacket.com. To comment on this story, please go to islandpacket.com.
I admire this guy's spunk. Goes to show all you morning Diet Cokeheads that Java may give you kidney stones but it could one day save your life.
Think about that. =)
S.C. Ping!
When coffee and beef jerky are outlawed, only outlaws will will have coffee and beef jerky.
Man, look at that damage. I have heard that they used to make cars out of metal and put bumpers on them. Too bad that guy got a bumper made of silly putty.
No one else, like store staff, saw any of this happening? Or are they the ones who called police? In any case, it is scary to think this can happen any time. I'm glad the article mentioned a description of the carjacker.
I suppose the victim will be charged with a hate crime now.
Those cops need to lay off the donuts.
They need to incorporate coffee and jerky into their diets. It worked for Woods.
LOL. They're quicker than they look! Trust me!
Never bring a gun to a coffee fight. (or something like that)
"Dude that was awesome" - Spicoli
Huh??? You still don't understand what just happened to you, do you? I would have taken joy in the fact that I killed this punk before he could cause harm to any others.
If that had been McDonald's coffee he had of thrown at the creep, the creep would have stopped in his tracks, fallen to the ground and begged for someone to poor anything cold on him (I'd have chosen gasoline). I had some McDonald's coffee back in mid August in Las Vegas, NM that was so hot, I could not drink a drop until driving as far as Tucumcari NM. That stuff doesn't cool down - it nuclear or something.
Ain't nothing like a hot cup of coffee in your eyes first thing of a morning to start your day off right!! Dude has real guts, and I think he is a hero...stopping some perp with java, now that's a special insult to the crooks of the world. He should have shot the s.o.b. about five times, and this would have been a great story with a happy ending too!!
I like this:
There he bought another cup of coffee and finally cracked open the beef jerky he'd bought earlier that morning.
"It was the best beef jerky I've had in a while," he said.
Better him than you, dude.
Maybe the guy was trying to prevent the driver from mixing coffee with beef jerky. What a snack combo!
Another wingnut ran out of money half-way to Florida. This one is lucky the local guy wasn't armed with anything more lethal than gas station coffee.
I would be extremely satisfied, but not joyful.
The victim fails to appreciate that the perpetrators are still on the loose and some other victim may get shot. If he had plugged the guy, chances are good they police could have detected who his accomplices were.
"...Those cops need to lay off the donuts...."
Man, you're not kidding!
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