Posted on 07/06/2002 1:21:55 PM PDT by Ranger
MOUNT VERNON, Mo. (AP) - Florists were hanging wisteria at Charlotte Ann Neely-White's home for her wedding when a stranger drove up, claimed there was a bomb in his car, and made the mistake of demanding her beloved pickup.
Neely-White had her fiance get her pistol, and while she fought with the man, the gun went off, wounding the man in the chest.
A few hours later, Neely-White got married as scheduled.
"It was a long day," the former public school principal said Friday.
"This lady was as calm as a cucumber. She can withstand anything. I admire her guts," said flower arranger Linda Cassidy. "I don't think I'd want to make her upset."
Lawrence County Sheriff Doug Seneker said he had no doubt that Neely-White acted in self defense.
Witnesses said the confrontation started about three hours before Neely-White's Fourth of July wedding.
The stranger "went rushing by and then he slammed on his brakes, and then he came into the yard, and he said 'Somebody call 911 quick, there's a bomb in my car,'" Cassidy said. "He was scared and excited, and just kind of wired."
Then he demanded that Neely-White give him her pickup.
She refused.
"Have you ever had anything you really love? Well, I love that truck," said Neely-White, 55.
She said the man threatened to set off the bomb if she didn't give him her truck. "I said, 'No sir, you go ahead and set the bomb off. My house needs work anyway.'"
Neely-White said the man attacked her with a riding whip, so she yelled for her fiance, who had gone inside to call police, to grab her .22-caliber pistol.
"I probably mowed my fiance over," Neely-White said. As a former principal, it was in her nature to take control, she said.
Seneker said Neely-White and the assailant struggled for the gun, and it went off, hitting the man once in the chest. He managed to grab the gun from her, break a window in Neely-White's pickup with a piece of firewood and open the door. With the gun pointed at her, Neely-White backed off.
Police later arrested Jorge Luis Cecenas, 30, after he allegedly abandoned the pickup. He was charged Friday, while hospitalized with a chest wound, with first-degree assault and other counts.
AP-ES-07-06-02 1517EDT
Bwwwaaahhhhaaa!!!!
Honey, while you're in thar, git my pistol for me! And bring me a beer, too! All this ruckus is making me thirsty.
Don't be silly,he was in the kitchen preparing the shrimp puffs;)
Ummmmm....... why didn't the fiance shoot the SOB himself.
If she can't get him to do a simple thing like that before they're married, she'll never get him to put the toilet seat down or pick his dirty laundry off the floor after they're married
A Riding Whip? Jeez, what kind of kinky nutcase is this guy?
Hmmm. Well, if this fella is the type of man that would just hand over the pistol while his wife was getting attacked- kinda like "Here honey! Shoot him! Shoot him!"- and his wife was the type woman that would close in for hand to hand combat with a nut on her wedding day because he threatened her pickup truck, I would venture to say that not only will she train him to put the lid on the toilet down, but to pee in the sitting position as well.
I wondered about that myself. He ain't good enough for you darlin. Ditch the loser and come on down to Texas and get you a real man.
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