Posted on 04/24/2007 6:32:15 AM PDT by Fudd
Damon Wells is the man gun supporters were imagining when they fought for the right to carry concealed weapons.
He had a permit to carry his gun, and he had the gun on him when a pair of teenage thieves approached him Saturday night on his front porch in Cleveland.
When one of the youths pulled a gun, Wells drew his and shot one of the boys several times in the chest, police said. Arthur Buford, 15, died after stumbling away and collapsing on a sidewalk near East 134th Street and Kinsman Road.
City prosecutors decided Monday that Wells, 25, was justified and would not be charged for what appears to be the first time a concealed-carry permit holder has shot and killed an attacker.
Nonetheless, the shooting reignited the debate that flared three years ago when Ohio's concealed-carry law took effect.
Gun supporters said the weapon saved Wells' life. Opponents said it took Buford's - that the 15-year-old might be alive if a citizen had not been armed.
An angry throng of about 30 youths gathered Monday and set up a memorial at the intersection where Buford, a freshman at John F. Kennedy High School, died.
His cousin, Tameka Foster, 21, questioned why police did not punish Buford's shooter.
"They let that man run out freely," Foster said. "My cousin is dead."
Buford's accomplice disappeared after the shooting and had not been caught as of Monday night. Police found a .38-caliber handgun in the mail chute of a nearby house. They believe it belonged to Buford or the other suspect, Lt. Thomas Stacho said.
Police took a .40-caliber Smith and Wesson firearm from Wells as evidence, the police report shows.
Both sides of the gun debate said it was sad that a teenager died.
"It's tragic," said Jim Irvine, chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association. "Anytime somebody dies, it's tragic, but it's hard to have any sympathy when he chose to have a gun and go threaten somebody's life." Irvine said it was "great that a potential victim is able to continue his life instead of having a criminal take it."
Toby Hoover, of the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, said she had not heard of any other fatal shooting involving a concealed-carry permit holder.
"This is one of the few where they actually used it to stop a crime," Hoover said.
But, she said, "there's still a dead kid here."
A man who answered a phone number for Wells refused to comment and hung up. No one answered the door at Wells' home.
Plain Dealer reporters Jesse Tinsley and Brie Zeltner and researcher Cheryl Diamond contributed to this story.
Some people are just retards.
Your cousin pulled a gun on the wrong guy. It's a new game now, with new rules...the rules that should have been in force all along.
Somebody always volunteers to be the example.
Two people committing a robbery, and they pull out a gun ... chances were pretty good that someone was going to get shot. And everybody's crying because the robber is the one who got shot. Crazy world.
“there’s still a dead kid here.”————————Or....A future wannabe thug/killer is dead and will not cause suffering in the future?
What’s to DISCUSS?
Clear case of justifiable self-defense!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j73SsNFgBO4
BTW, this is a reason to have multiple guns. When you own “a” gun, and then use it, it gets taken for evidence. Then you have nothing to use against those seeking to retaliate.
That should of read that there is still a Dead Kid here with a .40 Smith and Wesson in his hands. What if the Dead Kid had decided to shoot a roomful of unsuspecting students in a classroom... It happens.
“Gun supporters said the weapon saved Wells’ life. Opponents said it took Buford’s - that the 15-year-old might be alive if a citizen had not been armed.”
How can a reporter in all honesty write a sentence like that.... well I guess my mistake is presupposing he would be writing “in all honesty”
A turd pulls a gun on a citizen...the citizen pulls his own and ends the perps criminal career and they have a problem with this???
Idiots!
He shot Boo.
}:-)4
If you rob the wrong fellow, you could get shot ping.
Some people would certainly be happier if that were the case.
jw
PING
"Justice for Just Us," says the spokesman for the miscreant.
This whine from the left (just like the "shock and outrage" over the USSC decision on part-birth aborts..) is what responsible society sounds like. Hopefully, we'll hear more of it.
I have a beer later toasting the close combat skills of Mr. Wells.
But I hope the police give him his pistol back soon. He'll probably need it to protect himself from some of the "angry youths" who were memorializing the violent predator.
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