Last Friday.... A Bad Day in My County

ehenry

Commander
Joined
Jan 6, 2002
Messages
2,393
I work for the county in which I live.

Last Friday two men, one of whom I knew casually, had as disagreement which resulted in one of them being shot fatally. One man, my aquaintance and the one shot, was in his mid to late 60's, a well respected farmer in the northern part of the county, active in the community and his church.

The other man, in his late 70's, a land owner, widowed, 5 children, lots of grand kids, active in the community and his church. He was also an avid outdoorsman according to his family.....fatally shoots the farmer, baracades himself in his house, pins deputies down with gun fire that'd come to arrest him. Then holds off other law enforcement officers that came to rescue the deputies that are pinned down.

This ordeal turns in to a 5 hour stand off with the county Sheriff's office, State Troopers, SWAT teams from both agencies. Three deputies are shot, one seriously requiring surgery, the other two treated and released and the old man killed by SWAT.

What makes two men, neither have a criminall background of any sort, no record of ever having a run in with the law at all excepet maybe a traffic ticket, do something like this????

I'm at a loss. We read about this type thing happening all over all the time. Just never in our own backyard so to speak.

I eat lunch with two of the deputies that were shot about 2 times a week. They are good friends.....
 

Limited-Time

Vice Admiral
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
5,820
Re: Last Friday.... A Bad Day in My County

One never knows what triggers these horrific happenings until it's to late. Sorry about you friends and acquaintance. Hope for a speedy recovery to those injured in his tragic act.
 

tommays

Admiral
Joined
Jul 4, 2004
Messages
6,768
Re: Last Friday.... A Bad Day in My County

My best guess would be alzheimer's

I sailed with the most civil well manered order man for many years towards the end the changes in his behavior were bizzare at best :(

i extend my prays for all involved


Tommays
 

SuperNova

Lieutenant
Joined
Mar 16, 2007
Messages
1,455
Re: Last Friday.... A Bad Day in My County

WARNING:The following commentary is made with extreme sarcasm.

"Nah, it was the gun's fault, if we took the gun away from this previously well-respected, law abiding gentleman, pillar of the community, this would've never happened."


You know I strongly believe those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it and those who claim guns should be taken away should look back and see how we mass killed people before there were guns. It is in man's nature to destroy and he WILL find a way to do it.

My prayers go out to the injured deputies and the families of the two men
--
Stan
 

KaGee

Admiral
Joined
Aug 14, 2004
Messages
7,069
Re: Last Friday.... A Bad Day in My County

Don't have an answer for ya EF. Terrible shame. :confused:
 

12Footer

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Mar 25, 2001
Messages
8,217
Re: Last Friday.... A Bad Day in My County

The brain is a fragile thing. It doesn't take much of a shift in diet, age, trauma, emotional stress to drastically change it. I watched a documentary on the life of Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus (Caligula).
He started his reign as a beloved reformer for the people. Hover, in AD 37, he fell ill with what was called a "brain fever". He emergered from that illlness a monster as twisted as Stalin.
I have a brother who is a brilliant man. He has a disease now that has literally disconnected his thoughts from his ability to speak.... He can THINK coherent thought, but cannot put those thoughts into words.
I'm sorry to hear about your community being in such grief, E.H.
 

bjcsc

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Messages
1,805
Re: Last Friday.... A Bad Day in My County

Same kind of stuff happens in SC, too. Maybe it comes from occupying the bottom two slots in public education performance...
 

ZmOz

Captain
Joined
Aug 13, 2003
Messages
3,949
Re: Last Friday.... A Bad Day in My County

Maybe some kind of medication they were on? Old people take lots of pills. A few months ago my doctor put me on some things that didn't mix well...and I can say I thought about doing some pretty bad things for no apparent reason.
 

CN Spots

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Oct 19, 2005
Messages
1,612
Re: Last Friday.... A Bad Day in My County

Dang EF, that's terrible. I'm surprised Memphis news didn't report on it. I guess there's enough bad news up here that they get their fill locally. This got me thinking about all those fights at my teenage hangouts... somebody would beat the tar out of somebody else and when the cops showed up, he turned on them. (Always a bad idea) Everytime one of these fights happened these folks turned into something, well, different. I knew some of these guys and they were normal, level headed kids. It was like a switch got flipped in their heads or something and all reasoning was lost, for a couple of hours at least. Let 'em cool down for a while though and they were ok.

I wonder if the LEOs would have moved to a safe distance and just kept him under surveillance until he came to his senses would the outcome have been any different. Not thrashing 'em, they were just doing their job and there may indeed have been no other option... just wondering.

oh well, hindsights 20/20.


spots
 
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