Heroes...Alive and Dead

[Joey Bagadonuts]

I'm not sure of how big a deal the shooting of 2 deputy sheriff's in Florida was outside of Florida so I figured I'll tell you guys about some heros we have down here.

On Thurs. Sept. 28, Deputy Sheriff Vernon "Matt" Williams and his K-9 "Diogi" were both shot and killed while backing up another deputy, Deputy Sheriff Douglas Speirs, on a motor vehicle stop. Deputy Speirs was also shot and wounded.




The scumbag...now deceased...was identified as Angilo Freeland.
The scumbag shot Deputy Williams EIGHT TIMES....including one shot behind the deputy's right ear. Deputy William's K-9 may have bitten the scumbag in the encounter, in which the K-9 was shot and killed.

The scumbag also exchanged gunfire with Lakeland PD officers shortly afterwards but managed to escape.

Over the next 24 hours, more than 500 heavily armed officers engaged in a huge manhunt for this piece of shit. They used helicopters, horses, night vision gear, and just plain old beating the bush.

The next day, Friday, Sept. 29...while searching for this piece of shit, a group of SWAT team members discovered the scumbag hiding under a fallen oak tree. The scumbag chose to brandish a handgun after disregarding officers commands. The handgun that the scumbag brandished was a .45 automatic and was the stolen service weapon of Deputy Williams.

The 9 SWAT team members then fired at the scumbag. They fired 110 rounds in all. 68 of those rounds struck the scumbag.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd's reaction?

I suspect the only reason 110 rounds was all that was fired was that's all the ammunition they had. We were not going to take any chance of him shooting back. You have to understand, he had already shot and killed a deputy, he had already shot and killed a K-9 and he shot and injured another deputy"Judd said by phone Saturday.

"Quite frankly, we weren't taking any chances."

The Sheriff is basically telling anyone who may object to the number or rounds fired...."F-you". My hat is off to this guy.

The point of my story is just to salute ALL the heroes in this story.


Deputy Sheriff Vernon "Matt" Williams.....rest in peace.

Police K-9 "Diogi".....rest in peace.

Deputy Sheriff Douglas Speirs...get well soon, brother.

The Lakeland PD officers who traded shots with the scumbag

Those 9 SWAT team members who sent that piece of shit to hell.

Each and every one of the cops who participated in the manhunt. Some drove for HOURS to come to help find their brother's killer. God bless them all and keep them safe.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd..... I watched this guy on tv and radio right from the beginning and the people of Polk County and the Polk County Sheriff's Department can be proud of this man.




Tomorrow we'll lay Deputy Sheriff Vernon Williams to rest. Fittingly, the ashes of his friend , companion and partner K-9 "Diogi" will be interred with Deputy Williams.

Deputy Williams leaves behind a wife...daughter....and two sons. Deputy William's death must be extra hard for his wife because he was killed on his wife's birthday.

If there is anyone here who would like to help Deputy William's family....

Mail your donation check, made out to the "Matt Williams Family Trust Fund," to:



Wachovia Bank

c/o Marilyn Watson

203 Avenue A

Winter Haven, FL 33881

Here's some links:


http://www.polksheriff.org/

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs...9007/1078/news

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2512737


Please help the William's family....The family will appreciate it and so will I.


***

[Ryan Ruck]

Thread "stuck" at request of OP.

Also, although 110 rounds may sound like a lot, it in truth isn't. Consider that this was a 10 man SWAT team that came upon this guy. So, figuring that they were likely carrying either subguns or rifles with 3-shot burst, that doesn't add up to a whole lot of trigger pulling between 10 officers.

[American Patriot]

LEO needs YOUR help
Badlands Forum

Street Survival Newsline Extra
Ohio crimefighter and Street Survival hero needs our help!

One of the cornerstone's of the Off Duty section of the Calibre Press Street Survival Seminar is the inspiring story of Officer Tony Luketic. Now assigned to the fugitive unit of the Ohio State Parole Authority, Tony was a municipal police officer near Cleveland, OH when he was involved in the off duty shooting that nearly ended his life.

On November 30th, 1995 Tony and his mom Kathryn were in line at the Society National Bank in Cleveland, OH to make a brief transaction. Tony, a true "5%-er" who was never unarmed, had left home without his pistol (for the first and last time) because the bank was less than two minutes from his house. Ollie Tate, already a convicted bank robber in both Ohio and Georgia, entered the bank intending to rob it.

Since he was unarmed, Tony decided to "be a good witness" until Tate threatened to shoot one of the tellers. Luketic identified himself as a cop, intervened in the robbery and a struggle ensued. Tony was shot once in the leg but managed to knock the gun out of Tate's hand. Kathryn, age 51 at the time, tried to pick up the gun but the barrel was so hot that it burned her and Tate managed to rip it out of her hand, shooting Tony's mom in the stomach.

Luketic, who had attended his first Street Survival Seminar in 1993, saw the felon take a second aim at this mother so he reached out to grab for the gun a second time. Tate managed to shove the gun into Tony's left arm and fire, leaving Tony totally disabled, his arm held on only by his sweatshirt and leather coat. Ollie Tate stood over Officer Luketic, put the gun to his head, and pulled the trigger. The five-shot revolver was empty. Tate took the bag of stolen money and the "Cleveland PD K-9 Unit" hat off Tony's head, and exited the bank, leaving Tony and his mom to die.

Both mother and son faced long recoveries and many struggles, including the refusal of Tony's police department to pay him worker's compensation benefits because he was "off duty" during the incident, but they are both now recovered. (The Ohio Supreme Court later ruled that the department indeed owed Tony worker's comp benefits) Tony faced a three month depression, years of surgery and physical therapy, and recovered only partial use of his left arm. Katherine cannot discuss the incident without tears.

Now a parole officer for the state of Ohio, it's ironic that Tony's assailant, Ollie Tate, who was convicted on a plea bargain agreed to by Tony only to spare his mother the trauma of a trial, becomes edible for parole in February of this year.

Tony Luketic has allowed Calibre Press to tell his story countless times, both in the seminar and in print. He has made several guest appearances at Ohio-area seminars (Tony will be making a personal appearance at the Cleveland, OH Street Survival Seminar during National Police Memorial Week, May 16 and 17, 2007) and continues to inspire police officers to learn from his mistakes and to also Keep Fighting No Matter What!

Now it's our turn to help out Tony.

Ollie Tate, who at the time of his arrest was already a career felon and violent offender, was convicted of Attempted Murder and Aggravated Robbery and remanded to the custody of the State of Ohio. This is a man who failed at the cold-blooded execution of a man he knew to be a police officer only because he had run out of ammunition. Tate is now up for parole. If paroled, he may be assigned to the very region where Tony Luketic works as a parole officer.

"The stress would be enormous, especially if I have to see him," Tony recently told Newsline. A married father of two, he has one hope: that the Ohio State Parole Board does not grant Ollie Tate parole.

Law enforcement personnel everywhere can help by writing a letter asking that Ollie Tate's parole be denied. Send letters to:

Ohio Parole Board
1050 Freeway Drive North
Suite 300
Columbus, OH 43229
RE: Ollie Tate A321120

Please share this information with as many people as possible. Officer Tony Luketic is a law enforcement hero who deserves the respect and assistance of his brother and sister officers. You can read more about Tony's inspiring story and the lessons learned in the Street Survival Newsline #752

[American Patriot]

U.S. Tourist in Costa Rica Kills Mugger (by 70 yr military veteran)
Breitbart News ^ | 22 Feb 07 | MARIANELA JIMENEZ

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) -- A tour bus of U.S. senior citizens defended themselves against a group of alleged muggers, sending two of them fleeing and killing a third in the Atlantic coast city of Limon, police said on Thursday.

One of the tourists _ a retired member of the U.S. military aged about 70 _ put assailant Warner Segura in a head lock and broke his clavicle after the 20-year-old and two other men armed with a knife and gun held up their tour bus Wednesday, said Luis Hernandez, the police chief of Limon, 80 miles east of San Jose.

The two other men fled when the 12 senior citizens started defending themselves. The tourists then drove Segura to the Red Cross where the man was declared dead. The Red Cross also treated one of the tourists for an anxiety attack, Hernandez said.

The tourists left on their Carnival cruise after the incident and Hernandez said authorities do not plan to press any charges against them, saying they acted in self defense.

"They were in their right to defend themselves after being held up," Hernandez said.

Hernandez said Segura had previous charges against him for assaults.

In a media statement, Miami, Fla.-based Carnival Cruise Lines said the Wednesday incident occurred during an outing at a Limon beach which a group of a dozen passengers had arranged on their own.

"According to witnesses, while sightseeing at a local beach, the group of guests were approached by three assailants, one of whom was armed," the statement said.

"The victims struggled with the armed perpetrator, and were able to disarm him. During this process, the gunman's two accomplices fled the scene. In the course of disarming and restraining the assailant, he died from apparent asphyxiation."

Neither the Costa Rican police nor Carnival identified the man involved in the struggle with the mugger.

The cruise line said the guests were questioned by local law enforcement and then returned to the ship. The ship's departure from Limon was slightly delayed to await their return.

"All of the guests involved, who had booked the cruise together as a group, have opted to continue with their vacation plans. Carnival is providing full support and assistance to the guests," according to the statement.

The ship, The Carnival Liberty, continued on its scheduled itinerary, with a port call scheduled in Colon, Panama.

[American Patriot]

(On a side note, we just cancelled a Carnival cruise -- based on poor service and a lot of other crap in the news... I'm gonna go back to Jamaica. )

[American Patriot]

Man Re-joins Military After Son's Death

A Texas man has re-enlisted in the Army after his son was shot and killed in Iraq.

Francisco T. "Paco" Martinez, 43, felt guilt after his son, 17-year-old Paquito died in Iraq, because he feels he strongly encouraged his son to join the military, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

With advice from his father, Paquito joined the military and was deployed to Iraq. On March 20, 2005, Paquito was fatally shot in the back by a sniper in Ramadi.

A reporter who had been with Paquito and his brigade at the time of the shooting, described the teenager as very likable and lively.

Paco Martinez eventually, a former staff sergeant in the Air Force, persuaded his wife to support him in re-enlisting as a way to honor Paquito.

"I may not be able to end the war or end the atrocities such as Haditha or Abu Ghraib, but if I can positively influence one of those 20-year-old kids and help him, maybe somebody else is going to come home safe," he told the Star-Telegram.
© 2007 UPI

[American Patriot]

Apologies to HotAir for stealing the whole thing. Link here

A Bush moment you won’t see in the MSM

posted at 12:11 pm on April 3, 2007 by Ian
Send to a Friend | printer-friendly


President Bush helping the elder Sen. Robert Byrd take a seat at a ceremony honoring the Tuskegee airmen for their courageous service during WWII.


The only news outlet I can find publishing this photo and/or writing about what happened is the Charleston Daily Mail.
Dave Hinz at The HinzSight Report writes:

So why then did this President take the time and trouble to take the hand of his political enemy, a man who has said, “We have heard a lot about revisionist history from the White House of late in answer to those who question whether there was a real threat from Iraq. But, it is the President who appears to me to be intent on revising history.”


Why would this President show such deference and respect to a man who has suggested that he, the President, has been guilty of impeachable offenses?


The answer is as simple as the humility of this President. He took the hand of Robert Byrd, to help him into his seat, because Byrd is approaching 90 years of age, and this President is respectful of his elders. He took his hand because he needed help, and this President is not the type of person to turn his back on a fellow human being in need. He took his hand as an act of friendship, because this President does not take his politics personally. He understands that his political enemies are not his personal enemies.

Indeed.
(photo via Lucianne)
(Don Surber blogged about this last Friday, sorry I missed it.)

[American Patriot]

[American Patriot]

Boater rescues boy after Lake Erie crash
Yahoo/AP ^



Boater rescues boy after Lake Erie crash


KELLEYS ISLAND, Ohio - Chuck Herndon grabbed his boat when he saw the small plane crash into Lake Erie and quickly rowed out to try to help. A father and his two young sons had been aboard the plane when it took off minutes earlier from the island's airport.


"I heard this faint cry and followed it," Herndon recalled Tuesday.
About a half-mile off shore, a 7-year-old boy pulled himself into the boat.
"He said, 'My father and my brother were killed in a plane crash,' just like that," Herndon said.


The boy's father and 9-year-old brother were still missing Tuesday, a day after their single-engine plane went down around 9:30 p.m., said Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier in Cleveland.


Rescuers and divers from nearby communities and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources searched for the plane's wreckage Tuesday and any sign of survivors in an area where debris and floating oil were spotted. Divers had been in the water Monday night and went back in after daybreak Tuesday.


The Coast Guard said the 1962 Cessna 172C Skyhawk was piloted by a 46-year-old man from the western Ohio city of Lima, but officials did not release the occupants' names.


Kelleys Island is about 60 miles east of Toledo.

[American Patriot]

September 11, 2007 Richard Jewell: The Death of a Little Big Man

By Nicholas Stix | View comments


The story of the hero who saved countless lives, and of the first of many heels who sought to railroad him for another man’s crime.

Richard Jewell, 33, a former law enforcement officer, fits the profile of the lone bomber.
— Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 30, 1996.
I hope and pray that no one else is ever subjected to the pain and the ordeal that I have gone through. The authorities should keep in mind the rights of the citizens. I thank God it is ended and that you now know what I have known all along: I am an innocent man.
– Richard Jewell, at his press conference after being exonerated, October 28, 1996.

When people think of heroes, they typically think of a big man, and laugh at little guys. And while in seeking to subdue a violent character without recourse to a deadly weapon, bigger, as a rule, is better, there is no correlation between physical strength and physical courage.


For instance, I’m fond of the late John Wayne, who was the most popular actor in screen history. And yet, when World War II came, the 6’4 ½” Wayne got himself a deferment from the draft, and stayed home. Meanwhile, America’s most decorated soldier was 5’5, 110 lb. Audie Murphy.


Forty-four-year-old Richard Jewell, whose wife of six years, Dana, found him dead of a heart attack in their Georgia home on Wednesday, August 29, was barely taller than Murphy. Unlike Murphy, however, Jewell was fat. Aside perhaps from his mother, Bobi (Barbara) – when the public first heard of him, he had no wife or girlfriend – no one thought of heroes when they looked at Richard Jewell. And yet, being a hero was his dream . . . and his legacy.


July 26, 1996
On the evening of July 26, 1996, Richard Jewell was in Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park during the Olympics – the worst place in the world for an unsuspecting victim; the best for a hero. Stationed at the AT&T pavilion as a security guard working for the security firm Anthony Davis Associates (like so many firms, AT&T subcontracted out security), he spotted a large, military-style green knapsack, an “Alice pack” someone had left under a bench near the main stage.


Thousands of people from all over the world were milling about in the park, which functioned as the Atlanta Olympics’ village square. Hundreds were in the immediate vicinity of the pack, which was placed near the stage where, at 12:45 a.m., the band Jack Mack and the Heart Attack was due to perform.


Jewell immediately called in his discovery to Tom Davis of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI). Davis arrived and asked everyone nearby whether the pack was theirs. When no one claimed it, the matter became suspicious, and Davis and Jewell immediately cleared a 25-foot-square parameter around the pack.


Atlanta’s Keystone Cops
At 12:58:45 a.m., nine minutes after Jewell called in the knapsack to the GBI, a man called in to an Atlanta Police Department (APD) 911 operator, “There is a bomb in Centennial Park. You have 30 minutes,” and hung up, without identifying himself.


Police were then delayed for over eight critical minutes, because none of the operators (starting with “Sonya,” who took the call) at the 911 center or the police dispatchers they contacted at the APD’s Zone 5 knew the address, they assumed that their supervisors did not know and did not want to ask them, yet were concerned with passing the buck on the responsibility for finding the site of a bomb threat. The operator who answered at the APD’s Agency Command Center also had no idea where Centennial Olympic Park is.


Mind you, all Atlanta then revolved around the Olympics, whose social center the park was.


At 1:25 a.m., 27 minutes after the initial 911 call, but only 18 minutes after the Atlanta PD figured out where Centennial Olympic Park is, the pipe bomb inside the knapsack exploded.


The Casualties
The bomb turned the bench above it into a deadly weapon, and the metal shrapnel – nails and screws – that the bomber had filled the pack with flew out. The attack directly killed one person and wounded 111, some permanently. Forty-four-year-old Alice Hawthorne, of Albany, Ga., who was in Atlanta with her stepdaughter for the Olympics, was killed directly by the explosion. Melih Uzunyol, the chief cameraman for Turkish Television, ran to cover the scene, and suffered a fatal heart attack. Uzunyol, a mere 38 or 40, depending on the source, had survived wars as a photographer, but fell to his own heart condition.


Had Richard Jewell not already begun clearing the area, the death toll might have been in the dozens, with several hundred wounded. Thanks to him, we’ll never know.


The bombing was an act of domestic terrorism, but who was the terrorist?
For two days, Jewell enjoyed some well-deserved fame. Then his world would be turned upside down.


Whispers and Shouts: Ray Cleere
The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office had hired Richard Jewell as a jailer in 1990, and promoted him to deputy the following year. Marie Brenner reports that “he finished in the upper 25 percent of his class” at the Northeast Georgia Police Academy. (Brenner’s 19,000-word tour de force, “American Nightmare: the Ballad of Richard Jewell,” appeared in the February 1997 Vanity Fair.)


While he was a jailer, Jewell once arrested two neighbors for making too much noise in a hot tub, and was charged with impersonating a police officer. The charges were reduced, and he was sentenced to probation and counseling.


Jewell was wound a little tight. And yet, he was known for having a playful sense of humor, and he was also extremely polite. In other words, he was a man, not a profile.
In 1995, Jewell wrecked his department vehicle, and was demoted back to jailer; he resigned, rather than take the demotion. Then he worked a year as a campus policeman at little Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia, a predominantly Baptist private school that specialized in serving spoiled, often rebellious “‘P.K.’s’ — preachers’ kids.” Jewell’s year at Piedmont had some highlights – catching a suspected burglar, helping effect a number of other arrests, and “For his work on a volunteer rescue squad, he was named a citizen of the year,” according to Brenner. But following frequent complaints by students outraged that he was interfering with their on-campus illegal drinking (which interference was one of his main job responsibilities, as the school strictly forbade drinking on campus), on May 21, 1996, Jewell resigned.


The 33-year-old went to Atlanta to get a fresh start, bunking at his mother’s place until he got a solid position. He hoped the security job at the Olympics would serve as a resume builder.


According to Marie Brenner, on June 27, when Piedmont College President Ray Cleere learned from the TV news that Richard Jewell had heroically saved untold lives and achieved renown, Cleere immediately phoned in a “tip” to the FBI Hot Line, and thereby ruined Jewell’s life. Time’s James Collins wrote about Cleere’s role three months later, after the smoke had cleared.

The first specific tip about Jewell came on July 27, the day of the bombing, in a phone call from Ray Cleere, the president of Piedmont College in Georgia, where Jewell had worked as a security guard until last May. Cleere said he had seen Jewell on television being acclaimed as a hero. Cleere wanted to tell the FBI that Jewell had been “a little erratic,” “almost too excitable” and too gung-ho about “energetic police work.”

We don’t know all of what Cleere told the FBI about Jewell, but from what we do know, the signals he sent were unmistakable: ‘If you want to catch the bomber, look no further than your “hero.”’ After all, why else would one call the FBI, full of “concern” that a presumed hero was into overly “energetic police work?”


According to Marie Brenner, Cleere, formerly the Mississippi commissioner of higher education, felt that Piedmont College, a small, relatively obscure, rural school was a come-down.


Cleere is also image-obsessed, and apparently wanted to have a campus police force, but didn’t want it to do anything much, and said as much to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in a story by the late Kathy Scruggs and Ron Martz, Maria Elena Fernandez, and Kent E. Walker, that appeared in the July 31, 1996 edition.

Piedmont College President Ray Cleere said when he saw Jewell on CNN he contacted the GBI “because we felt he should be checked.”

“His behavior here had been a little erratic,” Cleere said. “He had been very sporadic and we felt he needed to be checked out further.”

Describing Jewell as “almost too excitable,” Cleere said they were worried that he would not fit in on a small college campus. “We're not really a police department. We're more of a public safety department, and Mr. Jewell is definitely interested in police work and investigative work.”

Jewell was certainly action and duty-oriented, and interested in serious police work. Cleere was right about those aspects, but those are virtues in police work, not red flags. What the hell do they have to do with being a terrorist? And why, if Jewell left an environment where he did not fit in for one in which he did, would he need to be “checked out further”? Cleere couldn’t even keep his rationalizations straight.
In Ray Cleere, we have a titled man who could not stand for a man without title, over whom he had once held power, to enjoy even a moment in the sun. Cleere felt he could hound Jewell, even after the latter had left the former’s orbit.
Marie Brenner’s account provides much of the backstory on Cleere and Piedmont. It seems that Piedmont students constantly complained to the administration about Jewell, as well as his colleagues, and when Jewell busted a student for smoking pot, Jewell wanted the boy arrested, but Cleere overruled him. Campus police chief Dick Martin “was fond of Jewell,” yet Jewell was “admonished” a number of times for controversial arrests, and the pot bust was a real sore point between Cleere and Jewell, and a major reason or the reason Jewell resigned.
Brenner reports that Jewell’s attorney, Lin Wood, claimed that Dick Martin got Cleere to agree to a “compromise,” whereby Martin would call a friend in the GBI, but that Cleere welshed, and went ahead and called the FBI. Perhaps Cleere was bitter that he had not had the opportunity to fire Jewell, and saw in calling the FBI his chance at revenge.
Brenner suggests that Cleere was jealous of Jewell’s sudden fame, writing, “According to [Brad] Mattear, ‘Cleere loved the limelight. He wanted public attention’ — the very trait he reportedly ascribed to Richard Jewell.” (Brad Mattear was a former resident director at Piedmont.)
According to one report, Cleere “provided a sworn statement saying he had been misquoted.” The aforementioned report stated, “If this were the case, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution would be at fault.”
But what about Marie Brenner? She didn’t just echo what the Journal-Constitution printed, she talked to people at Piedmont College, as well as to former employees, and her story – by the far the most thoroughly researched, most insightful, and best written on the Jewell case that I’ve so far seen – has never been discredited. And if Cleere didn’t want the FBI to hang the bombing rap on Jewell, what was he doing calling the Bureau in the first place – to get a weather report?
And Ray Cleere’s vindictiveness had a half-life beyond even his wild insinuations. When the FBI went to Piedmont, they came away with a new theory: That Richard Jewell was a homicidal homosexual who hated police, sought to murder them, and whose lover had made the 911 call. Brenner speculates that this nonsense was started as revenge by the Piedmont student whom Jewell had busted for smoking pot, and a couple of the pot-smoker’s friends. FBI agents wasted weeks trying to make the “homicidal homosexual” theory work, but the task proved too much even for their lurid imaginations.
For Richard Jewell, the year spent at Piedmont College proved to be the gift that kept on giving.
* * *
In Part II: The FBI vs. Richard Jewell.

---

New York-based freelancer Nicholas Stix has written for Toogood Reports, Middle American News, the New York Post, Daily News, American Enterprise, Insight, Chronicles, Newsday and many other publications.

[Brian Baldwin]

Leave it to a liberal to seek a petty revenge against an American Hero. There's no one they hate more.

[American Patriot]

Doctor dies to save her unborn daughter
News.com ^ | September 14, 2007



A MELBOURNE GP refused high-level chemotherapy, ultimately sacrificing her life to save her unborn daughter.





Family and friends farewelled Dr Ellice Hammond, 37, at a funeral service yesterday, the same day anti-solarium campaigner Clare Oliver succumbed to melanoma.


Sacrifice ... Peter Wojcik with daughter Mia. Picture: David Caird



Dr Hammond lost her battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma on Sunday, three weeks after daughter Mia Ellice was born nine weeks prematurely at the Monash Medical Centre, where she remains in neonatal intensive care, The Herald Sun said today.


Dr Hammond was diagnosed in the 22nd week of pregnancy and refused high-level chemotherapy that could have saved her but might have killed Mia, whose induced birth took place on August 20.


(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...

[American Patriot]

sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-flbgoodsamaritan0911nbsep11,0,1176566.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Fort Lauderdale waiter foils carjacking ... then gets fired

By Macollvie Jean-François
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
September 11, 2007
FORT LAUDERDALE

As the lunch rush started Monday, waiter Juan Canales stopped a carjacker from taking a woman's Honda CRV out of the parking lot where he worked.

Hours later he lost his job.

At about 11:30 a.m. Monday, Massiel Marquardt, 22, walked out of a Subway restaurant at the Southland Shopping Center in the 900 block of State Road 84. A man approached her from behind and pointed a 4-inch pocketknife at her left side, she said.

"He said, 'Give me your car keys or you're gonna die,'" said Marquardt, who moved to South Florida from Georgia two weeks ago. "Honestly, I don't know where he came from."

Marquardt said she handed over the keys to her 2007 Honda and ran back toward the shops, screaming, "Help me!"

Canales, 42, who was opening up 84 Thai Food for the lunch crowd, sprang into action. He said he caught up to the suspect, Albert Means, 46, and told him, "You're not leaving with this truck."

Canales said the suspect pulled out the knife to stab him but Canales grabbed a two-by-four piece of woodfrom a nearby truck. Canales said he swung at Means and threatened to hit him with the wood if he tried to get into Marquardt's Honda.

The man lowered his knife, and Canales brought him to the ground. Three other men in the crowd that had formed rushed forward to hold Means down until police arrived.

"It was a man's instinct," said Canales, a married father of three who has six sisters. "That's all it was. I saw a woman in distress."

Police said they arrested Means on aggravated assault and armed robbery charges. He had two arrest warrants out, one for drug paraphernalia possession and another for probation violation, Detective Kathy Collins said. He is being held in the Broward County Jail.

Canales, who worked at 84 Thai Food for three weeks, returned to work after spending an hour talking to police and the media. Once the lunch shift ended, his boss fired him.

"The owner got belligerent" about all the attention his scuffle with the carjacker generated, Canales said.

The owner, listed in corporate records as Sathaporn Yosagraiof Fort Lauderdale, could not be reached for comment despite two calls to the restaurant and one to his home.

A former electrician, Canales was convicted of robbery in 2004 and attempted cocaine possession in 2006, Florida criminal records show. He served prison time and has been working to stay on a straight path ever since.

"I was a bad person once upon a time and I decided to change my life," Canales said. "That doesn't have anything to do with what I did."

When he was fired another instinct kicked in, as Canales tried to figure out how to support his wife, Jennifer, and sons Eddy, 2, Jason, 8, and Miguel, 16.

"Like any other father on this planet and in this world, I gotta take my butt out here and get another job," he said.

Staff Researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

Macollvie Jean-François can be reached at mjfrancois@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7922.

Copyright © 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

[American Patriot]

Employee fired after stopping alleged thief
The Daily News Journal Murfreesboro and Rutherford County ^ | Aug 29, 2007 | Brandon Puttbrese

Dustin Chester was job hunting Tuesday — a day after The Home Depot fired him and the general manager for thwarting a thief from running away with a pocket full of stolen cash.

Last week, the 24-year-old department manager confronted a man who was standing by a soda machine in front of the Murfreesboro store off Old Fort Parkway holding a crowbar and a wad of cash. When the suspect started running, Chester said his instincts took over.

"When he ran, I ran after him," he said. Chester caught the thief and restrained him in the parking lot until police arrived.

Chester was shocked to find out that for managers and most employees, catching and detaining thieves is against company policy.

"The district manager told me that we are supposed to let thieves walk away; it blew my mind," said Chester, a one-time employee of the year.

The Home Depot said its policy, which directs workers to notify loss prevention specialists or police to handle criminal situations, is in place to protect its employees and customers.

"The associates involved were not following company policy, resulting in this disciplinary action," said Don Harrison, spokesman for the Atlanta-based company. "Safety is a primary focus for our company."

The former general manager could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Chester said there was no loss prevention officer on duty during the Aug. 20 incident and that in his seven years, he'd never heard of the company's policy.

But even if he had known how the company wanted him to act, it wouldn't have made a difference.

"He had a crowbar, and what if he had come inside and gone after customers or the employees working at the registers?" Chester asked. "I'd rather have him coming at me than going after any of the customers."

The suspect was taken into custody and transported to Middle Tennessee Medical Center for treatment. It was unknown Tuesday if he was charged.

So for protecting his "work family" and loyal customers, Chester, an MTSU graduate, finds himself unemployed.

Chester said he wouldn't pursue any legal recourse. Considering how the corporate managers handled the situation, he doesn't want his job back.

"I'm probably better off not working for a company like that," Chester said. "It seems like the company is being run by lawyers, who are worried more about lawsuits than employees.

"A situation like this really shows what this corporation believes in — it's sad that they would do this to two people who were just trying to help out."

Legal problems

But experts say vigilante justice, or making a citizen's arrest, is a legal minefield and that dealing with a suspect's lawyers is often more dangerous than apprehending the suspect.

By making a citizen's arrest, you're exposing yourself to a litany of possible lawsuits or criminal charges, including impersonating police, false imprisonment, kidnapping and wrongful arrest.

Murfreesboro police spokesman Kyle Evans said the best thing for employees or citizens to do is to be a good witness by making observations about the suspect to help in identifying them.

"Property isn't worth getting hurt over — merchandise can be replaced and people can't," he said.

[American Patriot]

Home Depot Fires Men Who Stopped Thieves
WKMG TV NEWS ^ | 6-6-2007

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. -- A former Home Depot employee said the company fired him and three other workers because they helped police catch several suspected shoplifters in May.

Midwest City Police said the men helped officers catch suspected shoplifters as they tried to run from a store with lawn equipment.

An internal memo from Home Depot outlines that associates cannot accuse, detain, chase or call the police on any customer for shoplifting. However, one of the fired employees said the company is selective in enforcing that policy.

"The loss-prevention guy at our Shields (Boulevard) store turned around and told me all we need to do is tell the shoplifter to have a good day as they leave the store. I said that just doesn't make sense," former employee Bob Stewart said.

Stewart said what really doesn't make sense is a termination letter Home Depot gave him and three other employees after they helped police catch the shoplifters.

"We saw them with the merchandise. We saw them run out of the store. I never kept my eyes off of them," Stewart said. "Then when we asked them for a receipt, and that's when they dropped the merchandise and they kept running. One guy still had a chainsaw while he was running, and that's when the cops tackled him."

The letter said Stewart and the others were fired because they "pursued and assisted in the apprehension of suspected shoplifters."

Stewart said all he did was call police, something he's done before. Less than eight months ago, he said that he received a letter -- a commendation letter -- for helping police catch a thief trying to steal $2,500 worth of wire.

On the top of the letter, written in bold letters was "Great job, Bob."

Home Depot officials said in an e-mail to Oklahoma City TV station KOCO that they have "standard operating procedures in place for situations like this," and that "from time to time, we find inconsistent execution in our stores."

However, they added that they do not discuss personnel matters and will not comment on this specific case.

Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said he won't comment on the store policy, but said they would probably not have caught the suspects or recovered the property or the stolen car they drove if it had not been for the help of these four employees.

Clabes said he is considering giving the four men letters of appreciation for helping catch the suspects.

[American Patriot]

Senior fights off tire iron-wielding man
74-year-old man receives a minor scrape; suspect arrested after car stalls

Updated: 8:15 p.m. MT Sept 10, 2007

BAY SHORE, N.Y. - A tire iron-wielding man who police said was looking to mug a senior citizen probably thought he had found an easy target — that is, until the 74-year-old fought back.

Bruce Ferraro had no idea someone was following him as he walked out of a department store at the South Shore Mall on Saturday and got into his car, police said. But then a man pounded on Ferraro's window and demanded cash.

"Ferraro says, 'What, are you kidding me?' and he actually gets out of the car," said Det. Sgt. Thomas Groneman, of the Suffolk County Police Department.

The mugger demanded Ferraro hand over his wallet, calling the Bay Shore resident an "old man" and threatening to hit him with the tire iron, Groneman said.

Instead, Ferraro grabbed the bar and the two fought, until the septuagenarian managed to snatch away the tire iron, police said.

Groneman said Ferraro did "a good job" of disarming his would-be assailant, though he would not recommend other people attempt such a brazen act of self-defense.

Without the weapon, the 32-year-old suspect ran to his car and attempted to drive away, police said. But the vehicle stalled, and the man got out of the car and fled on foot. Ferraro later helped police identify the suspect.

The man was arrested later Saturday at his home in West Babylon. Police charged him with attempted robbery and he was being held on $10,000 bail in Riverhead.

Ferraro's only injury was a scrape on the wrist.

[American Patriot]

Youth Football Team Foils Robbery Of Elderly Man
KTVU ^ | September 27, 2007 | Unknown

FREMONT -- What would you do if you saw an elderly man being robbed and assaulted? Police say that the question that a youth football team was faced with Wednesday night while practicing in a Fremont park. It only took moments for the team members to spring into action.

Irvington Park in Fremont is the practice field for the Patriots of the Fremont Football League. The team went on the offense to help an elderly man who was being robbed and assaulted.

The 22 members of the Patriots -- ages 11 to 14 -- were working out again Thursday afternoon. They were in the park Wednesday evening when they saw the crime take place.

"I just seen these two guys walking up to an old man and pull him down from his camera strap, and the old man started hitting him [and] called us to help," remembered 13-years-old Patriot team member Lafaele "Junior" Siliake.

Police say two teenage boys, 15 and 17 years old, knocked down a 71-year-old man and ran off with his camera. Taylor Leota led the charge as the whole football team took off after the two suspects.

"At first they were jogging," explained the 13-year-old Leota. "After they see the team coming, they started sprinting. I would have been scared too seeing a football team chasing me; especially one of us."

The team chased the suspects to a nearby house until the police came. The pair was arrested. Police say a Taser was used on the 17-year-old when he reached in his waistband.

"I'm very proud of them, but at the same time I was scared because you don't know. Teenagers these days they can have a weapon and just turn around and start going crazy on these boys," said Lucima Leota, Taylor's mother.

"And last night they didn't show that; they just wanted to help him and get the elderly man's camera back.

KTVU found the victim Thursday night with his returned camera. 71-year-old Ming Liang suffered some bruises in the struggle with his assailants.

"I was surprised the whole football team help the senior people and do the right thing," said Liang. "So very helpful. I want to thank them again; thank you very much."

Thursday night, the Patriot's coach met with parents to assure them while he is proud of his team for their actions, he has told them not to do it again. Instead run for a cell phone and call police first instead of running after suspects.

"It's not only about football. It's about making a chapter in these children's lives to become better men," says Patriot coach Reggie Sweat. "So they're not the ones stealing people's cameras and stuff like that."

The patriots are taking steps to find another practice field. There is gang graffiti here and the team doesn't want anymore confrontations. And while the patriots have yet to win a football game this season, many would argue that these young men are already winners.

[American Patriot]

Security Guard Prayed for Divine Guidance Before Shooting Gunman




Security guard Jeanne Assam, who gunned down a young man who had shot several people at her church, said she was "given the assignment to end this before it got too much worse." (ABC)


By JUDITH KOHLER
Dec. 10, 2007



COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - Jeanne Assam is hailed for saving countless lives in shooting a gunman outside her church, but the volunteer security guard insisted that her steady hand was a matter of divine guidance.


The 42-year-old former police officer was part of a small team of church members pulling guard duty Sunday at the New Life Church when 24-year-old Matthew Murray opened fire outside the building.

Weak from a three-day religious fast, Assam said Monday that she shut out the frightening gunshots outside and focused on Murray as he walked down a church hallway. When Murray came in with an assault rifle, she shot him several times with her gun.

"It seemed like it was me, the gunman and God," said Assam, whose hands trembled a little as she recounted the shooting during a news conference Monday.

Murray is believed to have killed two people after a midday ceremony at the megachurch and two other people 12 hours earlier at a missionary training school in the Denver suburb of Arvada.

Police said a weapon found at the church was forensically linked to shell casings left behind at the missionary school. Even though Assam shot Murray, investigators said he may have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Before the shooting at her church, Assam said, she felt chills when reading that the gunman from the missionary school shooting hadn't been captured.

When the gunman entered New Life Church, she said, she took cover and drew spiritual and physical strength from her religious faith. As church members ran away, Assam said, she had no intention of fleeing.

"I was given the assignment to end this before it got too much worse," she said. "I just prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide me. I said, 'Holy Spirit, be with me.' My hands weren't even shaking."

Assam, who now works for a ministry, declined to provide details of her prior work in law enforcement, saying only that she had pulled her gun several times in the course of her job but never had to fire at anyone.

Dressed in blue jeans and boots, the petite Assam (pronounced AH-som) was greeted with applause at the news conference. When asked about her marital status, Assam said she was single - and then cracked a smile.


"I am not married yet. I will someday. God's going to find me the perfect man," she said.

[Ryan Ruck]

WWII Vet Who Earned Medal Of Honor At 17 Has Died

WWII Vet Jack Lucas Who Earned Medal Of Honor At 17 Has Died Following A Bout With Cancer



Jack Lucas, who at 14 lied his way into military service during World War II and became the youngest Marine to receive the Medal of Honor, died Thursday in a Hattiesburg, Miss., hospital. He was 80.

Lucas had been battling cancer. Ponda Lee at Moore Funeral Service said the funeral home was told he died before dawn.

Jacklyln "Jack" Lucas was just six days past his 17th birthday in February 1945 when his heroism at Iwo Jima earned him the nation's highest military honor. He used his body to shield three fellow squad members from two grenades, and was nearly killed when one exploded.

"A couple of grenades rolled into the trench," Lucas said in an Associated Press interview shortly before he received the medal from President Truman in October 1945. "I hollered to my pals to get out and did a Superman dive at the grenades. I wasn't a Superman after I got hit. I let out one helluva scream when that thing went off."

He was left with more than 250 pieces of shrapnel in his body and in every major organ and endured 26 surgeries in the months after Iwo Jima.

He was the youngest serviceman to win the Medal of Honor in any conflict other than the Civil War.

"By his inspiring action and valiant spirit of self-sacrifice, he not only protected his comrades from certain injury or possible death but also enabled them to rout the Japanese patrol and continue the advance," the Medal of Honor citation said.

In the AP interview, written as a first-person account under his name, he recalled the months he spent in a hospital.

"Soon as I rest up, I imagine I'll run for president," the story concluded. "Ain't I the hero, though?"

Big for his age and eager to serve, Lucas forged his mother's signature on an enlistment waiver and joined the Marines at 14. Military censors discovered his age through a letter to his 15-year-old girlfriend. (Simply unbelievable!!! 14!!!)

"They had him driving a truck in Hawaii because his age was discovered and they threatened to send him home," said D.K. Drum, who wrote Lucas' story in the 2006 book "Indestructible."

"He said if they sent him home, he would just join the Army." (Bwahahaha! That's great! I'm sure that is the SOLE reason they allowed him to stay. )

Lucas eventually stowed away aboard a Navy ship headed for combat in the Pacific Ocean. He turned himself in to avoid being listed as a deserter and volunteered to fight, and the officers on board allowed him to reach his goal of fighting the Japanese.

"They did not know his age. He didn't give it up and they didn't ask," Drum said.

Born in Plymouth, N.C., on Feb. 14, 1928, Edwards was a 13-year-old cadet captain in a military academy when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

"I would not settle for watching from the sidelines when the United States was in such desperate need of support from its citizens," Lucas said in "Indestructible." "Everyone was needed to do his part and I could not do mine by remaining in North Carolina."

After the war, Lucas earned a business degree from High Point University in North Carolina and raised, processed and sold beef in the Washington, D.C., area. In the 1960s, he joined the Army and became a paratrooper, Drum said, to conquer his fear of heights. On a training jump, both of his parachutes failed.

"He was the last one out of the airplane and the first one on the ground," Drum said.

He was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in April and spent his last days in the hospital with family and friends, including his wife, Ruby, standing vigil.

God bless this true American Hero.

[American Patriot]

My father joined the Marines at 16. He fought in the Korean war against the Chinese on some big assed battle where he was one of a couple guys left standing in piles of bodies.

I saw his medals and the citations.

He was wounded twice during that battle, and received two separate awards for that.

So, some of the guys that joined the Marines were awful young. haha