Posted on 06/29/2007 6:11:33 AM PDT by Happy Valley Dude
Some are calling a former U.S. Marine a hero for shooting two men — killing one — during the botched robbery of a sandwich shop in Plantation. But the men's friends and family want to know how he could gun them down and not be charged.
John Lovell had just finished dinner at about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday when, Plantation police say, two men armed with guns rushed inside a Subway shop and demanded cash. After robbing the store, the men turned to Lovell. They wanted his money, police said.
But like his attackers, Lovell was armed.
The retired military man opened fire, shooting dead Donicio Arrindell, 22, of North Lauderdale, and critically injuring Fredrick Gadson, 21, of Fort Lauderdale.
Lovell, 71, of Plantation, has a valid concealed weapons permit and is not expected to be charged in the shooting, said police spokesman Detective Robert Rettig. Gadson, however, faces multiple felony charges that could include murder, he said. Under Florida law, anyone who commits a felony such as armed robbery resulting in a death can be held accountable for the capital offense.
"He feared for his life," Rettig said of Lovell. "And if he's in fear for his life, then he has a right to defend himself, even if it means severe bodily injury or death."
Florida law gives people the right of "self-defense without the duty to retreat." That means individuals can use deadly force virtually anywhere to prevent death or serious injury.
Lovell could not be reached for comment despite calls and visits to his home.
(Excerpt) Read more at sun-sentinel.com ...
71 year old Marine! There was another Marine, 70 years old, on a tour bus in Costa Rica who killed one armed robber on a bus with his BARE HANDS, two total armed robbers, one with a knife and one with a gun! The marine took out the robber armed with the gun, the other seniors then chased away the guy with the knife.
http://www.articleblotter.com/Article/Once-a-Marine-Always-a-Marine/66356
This the standard sound bite after a Florida punk gets caught or killed in the commission of a major crime: “It’s such a shame. He was trying so hard to turn his life around.”
“how he could gun them down and not be charged...”
sounds like there are people who are getting used to being authority figures who can do whatever they choose and not call it a crime. (in some places they call it the peoples’ revolutionary guard.)
that ex-marine stood up to tyranny. (thank goodness there are people around who can still recognize it)
= = = = = = = =
But the men's friends and family abetters and enablers want to know how he could gun them down and not be charged.
They said their grandson sometimes hung with the wrong crowd but never got into legal trouble caught.
They said Gadson, who never finished high school, got tired of low-wage jobs and was pursuing his GED easier illegal ways of making money.
He was a man with past troubles, including a 2004 arrest for carrying a concealed weapon, but he was improving his life getting better at crime, they said. He recently bought stole a car and had a girlfriend ho.
= = = = = = = = =
There. That's more accurate.
“I would answer your question, but I would be labeled a racist and banned from the forum.”
My answer to that question is the same. Take the family of the monster sentenced to death for a spree murdering and raping people. “My baby ain’t never hurt nobody”. Certain people seem to think they have the RIGHT to prey on others, like were were so much cattle.
Because it was an armed robbery, meaning the robbers were armed, and they were endangering the lives of others. Mr. Lovel was NOT committing armed robbery and endangering the lives of others, he was PROTECTING CIVILIANS.
Thank God Mr. Lovell was there and that there are some people in Plantation using the sense they were born with.
With veterans, the principles don't disappear then they take off their uniforms for the last time...unlike most politicians, who's "principles" slide right into the manure pit at soon as the votes are counted.
Finally, some good news.
Lovell, a retired Pan-Am and Delta Airline pilot, has held a concealed weapons permit since September 1990. Three months earlier, Plantation police had arrested him for having a loaded .9 mm and three extra clips behind the driver's seat of a Corvette without proper permits for the gun. The Broward State's Attorney's Office declined to file charges in that case.
Mrs Rose is Gadsden's grandmother. I understand believing your kids and grandkids are good kids "for the most part", but once they commit Armed Robbery with a weapon then they have crossed the line.
Once someone pulls a gun on you then all bets are off.
Now, a Marine who pulled Presidential detail probably is not the sort of guy that you want for a victim, especially if he has a CCP.
And a Corvette! At 71, driving a "pick-up-babes" mobile like a Vette. Yeah, give the guy a free cruise.
I'm conflicted on that. I agree that piling on to the family at this point is cruel - unless they keep making stupid (ok, naive to give them the benefit) statements like the one they made.
However, just about anyone who frequents this forum can readily spot the recipe for disaster that is outlined in the last part of that article. The adults didn't have a clue? Well, probably so, and thus they failed their children and grandchildren miserably.
Will the pastor take the end of the story to his pulpit and instead of bemoaning the loss of the grandson, berate the parishioners that this is what could happen to their children if they don't straighten them out while still in school, to provide the moral guidance desperately lacking in today's youth culture? because THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HE NEEDS TO DO!!! Otherwise, his flock is lost. All are punish-ed, said the bard.
There is a certain type of black down here in certain inner cites, that don’t believe that carrying a gun and using it to commit a felony is any big deal.
I suppose there may be other races and ethnic groups that feel this way, but the black community has this subset within it, and it is heavily invested by several semi unknown churches/church groups where pastors, or whatever they are, give flaming sermons about the death penalty and penalties of blacks in general, and those under 18, well hell, they can’t be punished for anything.
I don’t really know if these are simply race baiting caricatures of the Reverends Sharpton and jackson - reverends of what church? - or if they are advancing a political agenda itself, but the result is the same.
Hey, when that child took a pistol into school and shot his teacher - a nice guy, BTW - DEAD and ON video tape, nobody raised a big stink about that, but the sentencing of him was all everyone talked about.
They have zero shame and do not believe that real punishment extends to them, since they are all “victims” of being black.
-—But the men’s friends and family want to know how he could gun them down and not be charged. -—
The parents should be charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery.
He was trying to turn his life around. He was hoping to commit crimes and not get caught. Guess he won’t get to practise his trade anymore. Ah well, another robber succumbs to an occupational hazard.
And murder.
Ok, who has the picture of the little violin?
great work Marine..OUTSTANDING!!
Actually, it is funnier than all get out, and is one big reason I won’t buy one!
Now we will have to deal with Fredrick Gadson sometime in the future..we can all hope that Fred don't kill any innocents in the mean time.
‘It’s a way of life.’ Yeh, it was his dream career of choice, don’t you know.
‘It’s a way of life.’ Yeh, it was his dream career of choice, don’t you know.
The Broward State's Attorney's Office no doubt wants as many law-abiding armed citizens as possible to be out there helping with crime control.
She and her husband, Ivory Jones, pastor of a Fort Lauderdale church, . . . They said their grandson sometimes hung with the wrong crowd but never got into legal trouble. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, he has no arrest record.
Well he's sure as heck in some legal trouble now. And something tells me he had no ADULT arrest record, which is very different from having no arrest record.
Gadson was hit in the chest and ran from the store. Police dogs found him in the hedges of a nearby office building and bank.
Shoulda left him there til he was good and dead.
Arrindell, friends said, found himself in a similar situation: no high school diploma and working odd jobs. So he went back to school. He was a man with past troubles, including a 2004 arrest for carrying a concealed weapon, but he was improving his life, they said. He recently bought a car and had a girlfriend.
Maybe if his friends and family had asked a few more questions about where he got the money to buy that car, they could have doen some aggressive intervention in his life then, and he'd still be alive now. They need to take a long look at themselves in the mirror.
On a very serious note, it's WAY past time the RKBA movement got to work removing the "SELF" from laws permitting shooting in self-defense. Mr. Lovell shouldn't have had to wait until the perps turned on him to legally shoot them. He should have been perfectly free to shoot them while they were focusing on the cashier, without fear of prosecution.
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