Posted on 08/21/2002 8:01:27 AM PDT by Bubba_Leroy
Father subdued intruder quickly Burglar was caught in 9-year-old's bed and held for police
By Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News August 21, 2002
CENTENNIAL - The father who caught an intruder in his 9-year-old daughter's bed Sunday morning said he was in shock when he saw the man, but reacted quickly.
"I grabbed him by the throat with one arm, and grabbed my daughter with the other arm and pushed her to the door, to my wife," the 32-year-old father said Tuesday. "She (my wife) took her to another bedroom and called 911."
Early Sunday morning, Erik Scott O'Connell, 22, of Conifer, allegedly went inside a home on East Dry Creek Place through a window in the lower family room, took money from a wallet left on the kitchen counter, and went upstairs.
He allegedly made his way into the 9-year-old girl's bedroom, stripped off all his clothing except for a T-shirt, and slipped into the girl's bed.
The girl's father said he and his wife had gone to bed shortly after midnight. He is not being identified because the case involves charges related to sexual assault.
They were awakened about two hours later by their 4-year-old dog, a Labrador-terrier mix, barking and growling in their second floor bedroom.
He said he checked the bedroom of two sons but found nothing. But when he got to his daughter's room, he was shocked at what he saw.
"I saw a man lying in the bed with my daughter," he said. "She was asleep."
Although the girl was closer to her father, he said his first reaction was to grab the intruder before shoving his daughter to safety.
"He was fighting me to get out," the girl's father said. "My objective was to keep him there. I grabbed him by the throat and suffocated (sic) him."
He said he could smell alcohol on O'Connell, whom he managed to detain until Arapahoe County Sheriff deputies arrived about two minutes later.
"Although (the father) denied it, I consider him a hero," said Arapahoe County interim Sheriff Grayson Robinson. "I consider his daughter and his wife heroes. They took appropriate measures to remove the child from a dangerous situation."
The girl's father said his family hasn't decided whether to move from the home, where they have lived for two years. Both his daughter and wife are doing relatively well, considering what happened.
"It has been very difficult for me and my family," he said. "We never experienced anything like this. I should not have to deal with a situation like this."
O'Connell remains in the Arapahoe County Jail on $50,000 bail. He faces one count of first-degree burglary, which was upgraded Tuesday from a second-degree burglary charge; two counts of criminal intent, sexual assault on a child; one theft charge; and one misdemeanor assault charge.
Sounds more like a shotgun orgasm.
I agree 100%. In this situation, the father would have been entirely within his rights to beat the intruder to death, to rip out his throat, or to get his gun and shoot him between the eyes. No policeman would arrest a father who killed a naked intruder he found in his 9 year old daughter's bed. Most policemen that I know would thank him.
While I agree with the sentiment, executing rapists gives them an incentive to eliminate the witness/victim.
Sending rapists to prison also gives them an incentive to eliminate the witness/victim. They already have an incentive to kill the victim. The point is to give them an incentive not to rape.
True, but we're talking about incremental effects here. The question is whether the increase in penalty from a long prison ssentence to a death sentence deters rape more than it increases the incentive to kill the victim so as to eliminate the witness. I tend to think that when one sentences rapists to death, the act of killing the victim doesn't carry any additional penalty and may facilitate escaping punishment altogether. That means, in my view, that you're likely to get a lot more dead victims. Your mileage may vary.
Liberals hate to be corrected, and have done their very best to shape the world around their lusts, whether it's redefining the word "is", killing inconvenient babies, or insisting the "evil rich" owe them something. By making perversity legal, they think they can escape guilt for evil behavior. (They can't.)
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.