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I had to get my gun" said Mableton man, 83, in shoot-out with home invader
By MARCUS GARNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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A quick-thinking 83-year-old Mableton man foiled a home invader’s plans when he escaped bondage and shot the bandit.
Marcus K. Garner/[email protected] John Parrish, 83, rescued his wife, son-in-law, and a 10-year-old girl when a would-be armed robber broke into his home Tuesday. Parrish escaped bondage and shot three times at the intruder. He has bruises on his right forearm from breaking out of duct tape the intruder used to bind him.
Marcus K. Garner Tennis instructor Danny Carlton was shot in the leg by a home invader. His father-in-law John Parrish rescued Carlton, a 10-year-old pupil, and Parrish's wife. Carlton sits in his home office where he was bound and blindfolded, and where Parrish and the intruder exchanged gunfire.
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John Parrish saved the day Tuesday with a pair of scissors and a .22-caliber revolver, police and a grateful son-in-law said.
“John Wayne is what we call him now,” said Danny Carlson, a tennis instructor who owns the home and who was shot in the right calf Tuesday as the octogenarian and the suspect exchanged gunfire.
“I don’t know what that guy would’ve done had he [Parrish] not come up here.”
Tuesday before 1 p.m., an armed man entered the basement of Carlson’s house on Nickajack Road, and encountered Parrish’s wife, Margaret.
Parrish and his wife occupy the basement’s in-law suite.
She’d heard her puppies barking and went to the bathroom to check on them, Carson said.
“As soon as she cracked the door, he grabbed her by the hair, put the gun in her ear and said, ‘If you make a sound, I’ll blow your brains out,’” John Parrish said Wednesday afternoon.
The intruder forced Parrish’s wife to the ground, tied her hands and feet with duct tape, and put a blanket over her head.
Parrish said he went to find his wife, and soon met the same fate – lying face down with his hands taped behind his back.
“He told me, ‘I don’t want to hurt you. I just want your money,’” Parrish said.
He told the invader he didn’t have any.
As the intruder stalked through the house, the retired freight dockworker hustled to free himself, twisting and wriggling his arms first, then crawling to the kitchen to find scissors to cut his legs free.
“I had to get my gun,” Parrish said.
Meanwhile, the intruder found a 10-year-old girl in the first-floor living room waiting to continue her tennis lessons with Carlson.
“He grabbed her and asked if anyone else was in the house,” said Carlson’s son, Chad, who came home from North Carolina on Wednesday after the incident.
The girl led the intruder to Danny Carlson’s office on the second floor of the house.
“I thought it was the little girl coming up to get me,” Carlson said. “But when I looked up, he had his arm around her and the gun pointed at me.”
The invader told the girl to sit down, and he bound Carlson and covered his head with a blanket.
“Then I just heard shooting,” he said.
Parrish had found his gun, loaded it, and sneaked upstairs.
“I shot three times and heard him groan,” Parrish said.
The intruder fired back twice, hitting Carlson once in the back of his right calf, and just missing Parrish.
“He ran past me and down the stairs out of the house,” Parrish said. “That shot came pretty close.”
Police say the suspect, described as a 6-foot-tall, roughly 250-pound black man in his 40s or 50s, is still at large, despite a lengthy search of the woods and nearby Silver Comet Trail near Carlson’s home.
Police say the intruder may have been wounded in the shootout.
Carlson said Parrish shot three times, “but we couldn’t find the bullets, so they must be in the intruder.”
Carlson was taken to the hospital and treated for the gunshot wound and a shattered tibia.
“The worst thing in the whole scenario is that the little girl had to witness all the gunfire,” Carlson said.
While Carlson said he would increase the security in the house, Parrish noted one thing he would do different.
“My wife never did want me to keep my gun loaded,” he said. “But now she said she does.”
By MARCUS GARNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Reprints
A quick-thinking 83-year-old Mableton man foiled a home invader’s plans when he escaped bondage and shot the bandit.
Marcus K. Garner/[email protected] John Parrish, 83, rescued his wife, son-in-law, and a 10-year-old girl when a would-be armed robber broke into his home Tuesday. Parrish escaped bondage and shot three times at the intruder. He has bruises on his right forearm from breaking out of duct tape the intruder used to bind him.
Marcus K. Garner Tennis instructor Danny Carlton was shot in the leg by a home invader. His father-in-law John Parrish rescued Carlton, a 10-year-old pupil, and Parrish's wife. Carlton sits in his home office where he was bound and blindfolded, and where Parrish and the intruder exchanged gunfire.
Related
Mableton man: I had to get my gun
Related Metro stories »
Body found in north Gwinnett
Attorney a crusader for all human rights
Gwinnett College to break ground on student center Thursday
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John Parrish saved the day Tuesday with a pair of scissors and a .22-caliber revolver, police and a grateful son-in-law said.
“John Wayne is what we call him now,” said Danny Carlson, a tennis instructor who owns the home and who was shot in the right calf Tuesday as the octogenarian and the suspect exchanged gunfire.
“I don’t know what that guy would’ve done had he [Parrish] not come up here.”
Tuesday before 1 p.m., an armed man entered the basement of Carlson’s house on Nickajack Road, and encountered Parrish’s wife, Margaret.
Parrish and his wife occupy the basement’s in-law suite.
She’d heard her puppies barking and went to the bathroom to check on them, Carson said.
“As soon as she cracked the door, he grabbed her by the hair, put the gun in her ear and said, ‘If you make a sound, I’ll blow your brains out,’” John Parrish said Wednesday afternoon.
The intruder forced Parrish’s wife to the ground, tied her hands and feet with duct tape, and put a blanket over her head.
Parrish said he went to find his wife, and soon met the same fate – lying face down with his hands taped behind his back.
“He told me, ‘I don’t want to hurt you. I just want your money,’” Parrish said.
He told the invader he didn’t have any.
As the intruder stalked through the house, the retired freight dockworker hustled to free himself, twisting and wriggling his arms first, then crawling to the kitchen to find scissors to cut his legs free.
“I had to get my gun,” Parrish said.
Meanwhile, the intruder found a 10-year-old girl in the first-floor living room waiting to continue her tennis lessons with Carlson.
“He grabbed her and asked if anyone else was in the house,” said Carlson’s son, Chad, who came home from North Carolina on Wednesday after the incident.
The girl led the intruder to Danny Carlson’s office on the second floor of the house.
“I thought it was the little girl coming up to get me,” Carlson said. “But when I looked up, he had his arm around her and the gun pointed at me.”
The invader told the girl to sit down, and he bound Carlson and covered his head with a blanket.
“Then I just heard shooting,” he said.
Parrish had found his gun, loaded it, and sneaked upstairs.
“I shot three times and heard him groan,” Parrish said.
The intruder fired back twice, hitting Carlson once in the back of his right calf, and just missing Parrish.
“He ran past me and down the stairs out of the house,” Parrish said. “That shot came pretty close.”
Police say the suspect, described as a 6-foot-tall, roughly 250-pound black man in his 40s or 50s, is still at large, despite a lengthy search of the woods and nearby Silver Comet Trail near Carlson’s home.
Police say the intruder may have been wounded in the shootout.
Carlson said Parrish shot three times, “but we couldn’t find the bullets, so they must be in the intruder.”
Carlson was taken to the hospital and treated for the gunshot wound and a shattered tibia.
“The worst thing in the whole scenario is that the little girl had to witness all the gunfire,” Carlson said.
While Carlson said he would increase the security in the house, Parrish noted one thing he would do different.
“My wife never did want me to keep my gun loaded,” he said. “But now she said she does.”
old man shoulda nailed him.
