Posted on 11/09/2005 5:14:39 PM PST by tuffydoodle
Pistol-Packing Grandmother Shoots Intruder
ARLINGTON, Texas -- A woman found evidence on her porch that someone might have broken into her house when she let her dogs out for a walk early Wednesday morning. The woman's granddaughter also said she heard noises from inside the house.
Susan Gaylord Buxton, 66, retrieved her .38 caliber handgun and searched her house. She found a man hiding in a closet, covered by a coat.
The man, 22-year-old Christopher Lessner, lunged for the gun, and, police said, Buxton shot him once in the leg. She fired a second shot, which missed, according to police.
"She had let her dogs out to go to the bathroom and noticed there were muddy footprints leading into her house," said Doug Depoma, with the Arlington Police Department. The woman "searched her house and located him inside a closet near the front door."
Buxton, who was a license for the weapon, said she feared for her safety and that of her 28-year-old granddaughter.
"He was 6 feet tall," she said. "He could have done something horrible my granddaughter and me. That's exactly the reason you need to learn how to handle (a firearm) and keep it with you."
Arlington police attempted to pull over Lessner near Interstate 30 and Fielder Road in briefly after 11 p.m. Tuesday. Lessner drove the car to a dead-end road and fled into a nearby neighborhood.
Police began canvassing the neighborhood near the 1700 block of Northhaven Court on foot as well as by air.
At about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, officers responded to a 911 call of a shooting at a residence. The homeowner told police she found someone hiding in her house and shot him in the leg.
Lessner ran from the woman's house and was found at about 3 a.m. a few houses away hiding underneath a patio deck, police said.
He was arrested and transported to an area hospital, where he is being treated for a gunshot wound.
Buxton was not injured in the incident.
Arlington police said Lessner is expected to be charged with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, evading arrest, criminal mischief and criminal trespass. Buxton was not expected to face charges.
Check your FReepmail
I'm sure he still does. HINT: You did it again. :)
Eaker, you've got temporary custody of TC's little baby don't you? Bet she hasn't shot one of those. :)
What would that be?
I bet you're right!
Again that's Eaker's then 13 y/o daughter at the controls.
Here's the owner, FReeper Texas Cowboy:
TC's ailing a bit right now. Y'all might want to drop by the Prayer Thread and maybe the former prayer thread, now Celbration and Thanksgiving Thread of TC's Little Punkin Known to the rest of us as little FReeper Texas Termite, whose Nana does his typing for him, but maybe not for much longer!
I guess for Halloween he was Texas Tigger. :)
Great graphic.
Go, Granny, Go!
I knew it was TC you were talking about...I just wasn't sure what his baby is. You are right...I've never handled one of those!
I ping the prayer warriors to his thread quite often...and he is always in my prayers. Gotta love that COB! (I believe he once told me that stood for Cagey Ole B@stard) :)
TT was also in my prayers for the time he was hanging on by a thread! It was a real celebration when we found out he was going to make it!
She said she had been trained to shoot in the torso - but she really did not want to have to think of having killed someone.. she shot him in the leg on purpose.
The two shots fired were one when she shot him in the leg in the house - then the second after he got out the door and fell on the ground - she shot over his head to try to keep him on the ground.
All in all she really sounded like she knew EXACTLY what she was doing ... and did it with purpose - I was very impressed with her.
I heard her this afternoon on Hannity's show ( I NEVER listen to it - but happened to be driving) Then SAW her on Hannity/Colmes tonight - she sure didn't look like 66. She was really a character!
Was she one of yours?
LOL!!
Excellent! Thank you for posting that.
I heard her on Hannity too.
Her exact words were that she was taught to shoot the head.
At no time did she have things "under control". Proof is that he escaped. You would be embracing shooting center mass if he had limped to a car, retrieved a weapon then came back and killed her.
On this thread alone you have a former Navy SEAL, a Police Officer and numerous CHL holders recommending center mass. However you side with an untrained individual.
Before you bring up her "training" understand that a CHL class is 8~10 hours of law discussion and literally a few minutes of shooting static targets.
I have been to this "training" and they teach shooting center mass and to continue shooting until the threat has been terminated. Terminated threats do NOT escape.
Take her side because she is a woman or because she is a grandma or because she got damned lucky, but do not defend her judgement and training as the former was poor and the latter is non-existant.
Would you shoot a "rabid dog" in the leg?
She is lucky that this "dog" didn't bite her.
My ccw class was 10 hours of class instruction and 4 hours of practice!
It was the most interesting class I have ever taken!
I took mine in very late December and for Houston it was cold. Being a smart guy I took the class at an indoor range. When we did the shooting part we didn't go to the heated range. We went to the unheated range. I am apparently not that smart. I of course did not have a jacket and was freezing. The instructor told us to load 10 rounds into our mags. I had a brand new Glock 27 which holds 9 rounds in the standard factory mag. It was so cold I could only force 8 rounds into it because the spring was new and I was shaking.
In other words I had to pass with access to only 80% of the ammo available. I still made a perfect score. It isn't that I am a good shot; the test was just that easy.
I am glad that your class was better!!
During WWII, the Gurkhas in the service of the British Army would very quietly slip behind enemy lines and find a snoozing sentry or two, or a small group of enemy soldiers secure in their belief that their guards were doing their jobs. And then they would slit their sleeping enemies throats, sometimes beheading them and rearranging the heads on different bodies when they were in a particularly mischievious mood.
But they would leave one or two having a particularly good deep sleep alive to find his companions upon waking...and to spread the word to others, doing more widespread damage to enemy morale than just the loss of a few sleepy troops. And after a few evenings of such diversions, the Gurkhas could either move on to other areas where the nighttime sentries had not yet learned how the game was played, or could just get a few evenings reast themselves.
I think the same principle will work nicely in this Texas instance as well....
Hannity played the tape of the 911 call today with the grand-daughter on the phone and granny in the background shouting, "How dare you break into my house, you "son of a b!tch"!.
Sh!t for brains was out in the yard by that time still threatening granny.
I was watching CNN (Paula Zahn) because my cousin was on it, and I caught their segment on this story. I couldn't believe it, but they still got their subtle message in.
They closed the segment by saying something like:
"She's not being charged because it was self-defense--she said...and the police say...I have to say...leg-shooter or not, I love that woman. Of course CNN didn't mention her other quote: "He could have done something horrible my granddaughter and me. That's exactly the reason you need to learn how to handle (a firearm) and keep it with you."
and the gun was legally registered, and she'd even taken a course on how to use it."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.