W.E.G.
Member
As you may be aware, Virginia Citizens Defense League sends out an RKBA email to members about once a week - sometimes more often while the Virginia legislature is in session.
Is it OK to cut-and-paste that memo here?
Is somebody already doing it?
This is an example of what I'm talking about:
(sometimes runs over the character-limit threshold, and has to be completed in successive posts to the thread.)
VCDL UPDATE 08/13/07 - Defending your right to defend yourself
Thought for the week:
Thomas Jefferson quoting Beccaria:
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are
neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make
things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they
serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man
may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
1. Lest anyone doubt Bloomberg's aims ...
2. Home invasions on the rise
3. Chantilly Woman Shot, Killed in her Home
4. We can never predict who or when
5. Editorial in response to the incident in Item #4 above
6. Why do you need all those bullets anyway?
7. Senate panel sends Brady expansion bill to the floor
8. Senator Schumer's take on the bill
9. Chicago gun buy-back nets $1,700 for shooting program
10. Who needs a gun at Wachovia?
11. Radford CHP Fingerprinting
12. Another reason not to fingerprint...
13. Idaho sheriff says more concealed permits on campus would make
schools safer!
14. GMU issues new gun ban!
15. LTE in Alexandria Times
16. LTE in Richmond Times-Dispatch on arming college staff and students
17. Chesterfield to address firearms on public highways
18. Guns Don't Kill People, Gun Control Does
19. Gun Talk on the radio
20. Suffolk City Parks: "Right now we have no means to protect
ourselves or our visitors"
21. 3 killed execution style behind school
22. Able2Know.com Debates College Carry!
23. Good web site for campus gun ban info
24. Essay: Why the gun in civilization?
25. 2nd Amendment T-Shirts
26. Goochland Board of Supervisor members who voted against the
sporting clay range
27. Gun shows and events! VCDL PICNIC IN SEPTEMBER!
**************************************************
1. Lest anyone doubt Bloomberg's aims ...
**************************************************
We warned everyone that it would be the kiss of death for any gun
dealer to sign that deal with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The Draconian terms would make it hard to survive financially.
When I first learned that Cole's was one of the gun stores Mayor
Bloomberg was suing, I called Mark Cole to offer our help. He
referred me to his attorney (his brother). I was told that they
weren't interested, that it was a business decision, and that they
were going to settle. I couldn't convince him otherwise. He turned
down our help.
Sadly, Mark Cole didn't listen.
Member Michael Stembridge sent me this note:
--
Just wanted to let you know Cole's Gun Shop in South Boston has
closed. I have been going past there for the last 4 weeks & have seen
no sign of any activity. I was in Hardee's down the street from there
today & everyone said they were closed. I was also told that their
inventory is being sold on gunbroker.com.
It's really too bad this had to happen. I hate to see a gun store
close for any reason. But I guess this is what happens when you dance
with the devil.
--
VCDL VP, Jim Snyder, was told by a seller on GunBroker.com that he
was selling inventory from a gun store that had closed -- Cole's.
Board member Jim Kadison had called Cole's store a few weeks ago
based on rumors that Cole's was closing and was told that the
Internet sales would be happening to liquidate remaining inventory.
**************************************************
2. Home invasions on the rise
**************************************************
Carry a gun when you are home? You bet. At a minimum make sure that
a gun is always within reach.
While I commend one of the victims for now locking her doors and
sleeping with a knife under her bed, a knife still requires both
physical strength and being within reach of your assailant.
Certainly a knife would not be my first choice for a defensive tool.
<http://tinyurl.com/2uzmka>
Home invasions increasing
Thursday, Aug 09, 2007
By JULIAN WALKER AND BRANDON SHULLEETA
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS
Jessica Videtto had planned on a relaxing Saturday night with friends
to celebrate the 21st birthday of her husband, Henry. Inside their
Hopewell apartment, music was playing, drinks were flowing and the
group of six was in a celebratory mood.
In an instant, everything changed.
Four men rushed into the apartment and began physically assaulting
everyone -- punching and kicking them and the apartment walls, which
still bear the scars of the attack. So, too, does Henry Videtto: His
right ear was sliced by an assailant who attacked him with a knife.
Three other victims were beaten unconscious. One was thrown against a
glass window and then stuffed into a trash can.
"Nobody knew what was going on. . . . It was pretty crazy," Jessica
Videtto said of the July 21 incident.
While officials say home invasions are a growing problem, tracking
them is difficult because the crime is not specifically defined by
state law. The number of home-invasion-style crimes fluctuates but
has increased slightly in recent years, a trend that Richmond police
Lt. Thomas Nolan called "concerning but not alarming. We take any
violent crime very seriously," Nolan said. "And there is a potential
for violence when you have people invading a person's home."
Home invasions can result in charges ranging from robbery and
breaking and entering to assault, malicious wounding or abduction.
Because Videtto said she recognized an assailant, suspects were
arrested on charges of assault and breaking and entering. One also
was charged with malicious wounding.
The roots of the home-invasion phenomenon in the Richmond area date
to the late 1980s when Asian families were victims of a series of
residential breaks-ins and robberies committed by other Asians, some
who traveled here from Northern Virginia.
Another flare-up occurred four years ago when Henrico County police
investigated a dozen home-invasion robberies in 33 days that mostly
targeted Hispanic residents at apartment complexes. A handful of
suspects were arrested and convicted in those crimes.
"You go back three or four years, and we didn't have any," Prince
George County police Lt. Brian Kei said of home invasions. "But in
the last few years, they have become more prevalent." This year,
Kei has begun tracking home invasions in the county. Officials have
documented a rise in home-invasion-style crimes in suburban and rural
localities in the region. Amelia County has recorded only two home
invasions in the past decade, but one resulted in a homicide.
"No more leaving your keys in your car or your back door unlocked,"
Amelia sheriff's office Lt. Bruce Almarode said.
Law-enforcement officials in Hanover, Powhatan, King William and
Dinwiddie counties say they each have documented a handful of
home-invasion robberies during the past five years. Caroline County
has had just one home invasion in recent years. "It's bad enough to
have your home broken into even when you're not there," said Capt. C.
Scott Moser of the Caroline sheriff's office. "Your home is your
castle, and if you experience this, you'll probably never fully feel
safe there again."
The numbers are more pronounced in the region's bigger population
centers -- Chesterfield and Henrico counties and the city of Richmond
-- which, according to a review of robbery records, last year
recorded 26, 28 and 43 respectively. Henrico and Chesterfield
provided home-invasion figures, while Richmond's number reflects
residential robberies.
Data show that annual residential robberies in the state are on the
rise. Those charges eclipse incidents categorized as home invasions.
There were 507 reported robberies at Virginia residences in 1999,
compared with 1,474 last year, according to statistics compiled by
Virginia State Police.
To prevent home invasions, law-enforcement officials say simple steps
such as using the exterior lights on your home, keeping doors locked
and not opening the door for strangers can make you less vulnerable.
Jessica Videtto learned that lesson the hard way -- her door was
unlocked, and she didn't have on outside light on when the assailants
entered her home. Since then, she has put a light in the hallway
leading to her apartment and sleeps with a knife under her bed.
She offered this simple advice for others: "At least lock your doors."
**************************************************
3. Chantilly Woman Shot, Killed in her Home
**************************************************
Another person murdered in her house.
<http://tinyurl.com/ypj95b>
Chantilly Woman Shot, Killed in her Home
Leaves four, young children; murderer still at large.
By Bonnie Hobbs
August 2, 2007
THE TRAGEDY occurred at 13620 Pennsboro Drive, in Chantilly's
Brookfield community, a stone's throw from Brookfield Elementary. The
victim was Morena Magdalena Martinez, 29, who held down two jobs to
support her family. Also shot, but "currently recovering," according
to Fairfax County police, was a 29-year-old man who was a high-school
friend of hers. Authorities have not released his name but, according
to a court document, both he and Martinez were shot "multiple times."
A neighbor was involved in the aftermath. He was asleep, around
1:30-2 a.m., when someone knocked on his door. "There was a guy in a
T-shirt and shorts, blood running down his left arm, and he said, in
broken English, 'Please call the police,'" said the neighbor. "I'd
never seen him before." At the time, the neighbor asked the wounded
man in Spanish where his house was. And when he pointed in the
direction of Martinez' house, the neighbor initially thought he meant
a nearby home where people had recently gotten into a fight. So he
didn't realize at first that his friend had also been shot. Weak
from his injury, the man then lay down on the neighbor's doorstep.
And when he did, said the neighbor, "I saw a hole in his arm, and
there was blood coming out from behind him, like someone had shot him
in the back. I didn't want to turn him over because he was moaning
and in pain and I didn't want to hurt him more."
So the neighbor called 911 and told the man to stay calm and sit
tight because police were on the way. "I sat there and watched him,
and he just kept saying, 'Morena Martinez,'" said the neighbor. "But
I knew her as Lanie so [at first], I didn't have any idea it was her."
Later, when a Spanish-speaking police officer arrived, he learned the
murder victim was the woman he knew. He said eight or more police
cruisers converged on their street and officers were able to tell
which home was the crime scene by the blood they saw outside the
house, on the front doorway and front step leading inside.
"I told them there were four kids and a dog inside, so they called
someone inside the house," said the neighbor. "Then they went in and
got them all. I heard them shouting and making sure everybody was
safe. A police officer handed me a child, and EMS checked all of them
to make sure they were OK."
A July 28 affidavit for a warrant to search Martinez' home for items
including "handguns, ammunition, cartridge casings, bullets, hairs,
fibers, bloody clothes and furniture, latent fingerprints and shoe
impressions" confirmed that her body was discovered in her bedroom.
In the affidavit, homicide Det. John Wallace wrote that she'd
sustained "what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds to her body."
Describing Martinez as a "very sweet person," the neighbor said he's
angry that "someone was that narrow-minded to kill a woman who had
four children depending on her. He was selfish, and I hope they catch
him."
Other neighbors, returning home to Pennsboro Drive from work, early
Saturday morning, found their street blocked off and emergency
vehicles everywhere. Marciano Gomez arrived at 3 a.m. and was puzzled
by the commotion. "I saw the police, but I didn't know why they were
there," he said.
Three-year resident Victor Correra got home Saturday evening, around
6 p.m., to find traffic still barred from Lees Corner Road and
Pennsboro. "I asked the police what happened and they didn't answer,"
he said. "Normally, it's a quiet area with no problems. Now I'm
putting up a security fence."
**************************************************
4. We can never predict who or when
**************************************************
While this did not happen in Virginia, it emphasizes yet AGAIN:
* Have a gun on your person at home or within very fast reach at all times
* Don't assume you will have time to go chasing all over the house to
get your gun - seconds could be the difference between life and death
* Don't assume you can reason or beg your way out of being murdered.
Many murderers enjoy killing and get an even bigger thrill when their
victim begs and pleads to be allowed to live. Your only hope is to
be able to overpower or kill them before they kill you :-(
<http://tinyurl.com/2g44rh>
August 7, 2007
When Horror Came to a Connecticut Family
By MANNY FERNANDEZ and ALISON LEIGH COWAN
CHESHIRE, Conn., Aug. 6 ó Dr. William A. Petit Jr., his head bloodied
and legs bound, stumbled out of a rear basement door of his two-story
home here into a pouring rain, calling the name of a neighbor for
help.
The neighbor heard the shouting, but so did the two men inside the
house, who peeked outside from an upstairs window. They were both
serial burglars with drug habits, having racked up numerous
convictions for stealing car keys and pocketbooks.
This time, they took something far more precious.
The men, the authorities say, had already strangled Dr. Petitís wife,
Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and in short order would also kill the
coupleís two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. The elder
suspect, Steven J. Hayes, 44, had poured gasoline on the girls and
their mother, according to a lawyer and a law enforcement official
involved in the case, in hopes of concealing DNA evidence of sexual
assault. He had raped Ms. Hawke-Petit, and his partner, Joshua
Komisarjevsky, 26, had sexually assaulted Michaela.
Moments after Dr. Petit escaped, as the house was being surrounded by
police officers, the men lighted the gasoline. The girls were tied to
their beds but alive when the gas Mr. Hayes had spread around the
house was set aflame.
It was about 9:50 a.m. on July 23 when Dr. Petit, 50, burst into his
backyard on what is normally a quiet street in a quiet town of 29,000
in central Connecticut. On this stormy summer morning it was the site
of one of the most savage crimes in the state in decades. By 10:01,
Mr. Hayes and Mr. Komisarjevsky had been captured. On Tuesday morning
they are expected to be presented in New Haven County Court for their
first appearance in the venue where they will be tried; they have
been formally charged in State Superior Court in Meriden with capital
felonies, which could bring the death penalty.
Interviews with law enforcement officials and lawyers for the men,
and friends, co-workers and relatives of all involved, along with a
study of court records, paint a picture of what happened that morning
and show that there were missed opportunities on both sides of the
law leading up to the deaths.
The criminal justice system failed to treat Mr. Hayes and Mr.
Komisarjevsky as serious offenders despite long histories of
recidivism, repeatedly setting them free on parole. The suspects
never capitalized on those chances to turn their lives around,
instead apparently forming a new criminal alliance after meeting at a
drug treatment center in Hartford.
"There's no question about it: The system didn't work," Dr. Petit's
father, William A. Petit Sr., 73, said last weekend outside his home
in Plainville, 12 miles north, where the family has long formed a
pillar of civic life. He paused, then added: "It's too late now."
The authorities say the intruders entered the house through an open
door at 3 a.m. Monday as Dr. Petit slept in a chair on the first
floor, his wife and daughters in their rooms upstairs. The previous
evening, the men had followed Ms. Hawke-Petit and Michaela home from
the parking lot of a Super Stop & Shop three miles away.
The authorities say that the Petit home was at least the third in
Cheshire that the two men burglarized since the start of that
weekend. They sneaked into one through a screen door and took a money
clip - with credit and A.T.M. cards, and $140 in cash ó from the
kitchen counter Sunday morning. They broke in through a back screen
of another Saturday night.
Why the spree turned violent on Sorghum Mill Drive remains unclear.
On Sunday evening, Mr. Hayes and Mr. Komisarjevsky had driven to a
nearby Wal-Mart and bought an air rifle and rope. Once inside the
house, they clubbed Dr. Petit over the head with a baseball bat and
tied him up in the basement.
Between 4 and 4:30 a.m., Mr. Hayes went to a BP station on Main
Street, where he bought four cans of gasoline.
A Note to a Bank Teller
Shortly before 9:30 a.m. that Monday, Ms. Hawke-Petit walked into a
Bank of America branch and withdrew $15,000 from the account she
shared with her husband. Mr. Hayes waited in the parking lot in
Maplecroft Plaza, the same shopping center where the two men had
watched Ms. Hawke-Petit and her daughter the day before.
Ms. Hawke-Petit told the teller that she had to have the money
because her family was being held hostage, and that if the police
were notified, her family would be killed.
Debbie Biggins, 50, was opening a new account at the bank when she
noticed Ms. Hawke-Petit, who seemed tense and in a rush. "I could
feel it," Mrs. Biggins said in a recent interview. "I felt fear."
After Ms. Hawke-Petit left, Mrs. Biggins said, she saw the teller
hand a manager a slip of paper.
A bank employee called 911 about 9:30. "The call came in as a
suspicious transaction with a hostage situation, but it wasn't
clear," said a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the matter is still under investigation. The
Cheshire police have refused to release a full timeline indicating
when officers arrived on Sorghum Mill Drive, but described their
response as "immediate."
By 9:45 a.m., seven to nine Cheshire police officers, including SWAT
team members, were working to secure a perimeter around the Petit
house, and a police helicopter was en route.
About five minutes later, Dr. Petit stumbled out of a basement door
onto the rear of his property, calling the name of a neighbor, who
took the bleeding doctor into his garage and dialed 911.
After lighting the fire, the two men jumped into the familyís
Chrysler Pacifica sport utility vehicle. They crashed into a police
vehicle in the driveway, then slammed into two police cruisers parked
nose to nose as a barricade not far from the house, where they were
taken into custody.
Inside the house on Sorghum Mill Drive, Hayley and Michaela died of
smoke inhalation, not from their burns, according to the Connecticut
medical examiner. Their mother was found downstairs.
Is it OK to cut-and-paste that memo here?
Is somebody already doing it?
This is an example of what I'm talking about:
(sometimes runs over the character-limit threshold, and has to be completed in successive posts to the thread.)
VCDL UPDATE 08/13/07 - Defending your right to defend yourself
Thought for the week:
Thomas Jefferson quoting Beccaria:
"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are
neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make
things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they
serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man
may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
1. Lest anyone doubt Bloomberg's aims ...
2. Home invasions on the rise
3. Chantilly Woman Shot, Killed in her Home
4. We can never predict who or when
5. Editorial in response to the incident in Item #4 above
6. Why do you need all those bullets anyway?
7. Senate panel sends Brady expansion bill to the floor
8. Senator Schumer's take on the bill
9. Chicago gun buy-back nets $1,700 for shooting program
10. Who needs a gun at Wachovia?
11. Radford CHP Fingerprinting
12. Another reason not to fingerprint...
13. Idaho sheriff says more concealed permits on campus would make
schools safer!
14. GMU issues new gun ban!
15. LTE in Alexandria Times
16. LTE in Richmond Times-Dispatch on arming college staff and students
17. Chesterfield to address firearms on public highways
18. Guns Don't Kill People, Gun Control Does
19. Gun Talk on the radio
20. Suffolk City Parks: "Right now we have no means to protect
ourselves or our visitors"
21. 3 killed execution style behind school
22. Able2Know.com Debates College Carry!
23. Good web site for campus gun ban info
24. Essay: Why the gun in civilization?
25. 2nd Amendment T-Shirts
26. Goochland Board of Supervisor members who voted against the
sporting clay range
27. Gun shows and events! VCDL PICNIC IN SEPTEMBER!
**************************************************
1. Lest anyone doubt Bloomberg's aims ...
**************************************************
We warned everyone that it would be the kiss of death for any gun
dealer to sign that deal with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The Draconian terms would make it hard to survive financially.
When I first learned that Cole's was one of the gun stores Mayor
Bloomberg was suing, I called Mark Cole to offer our help. He
referred me to his attorney (his brother). I was told that they
weren't interested, that it was a business decision, and that they
were going to settle. I couldn't convince him otherwise. He turned
down our help.
Sadly, Mark Cole didn't listen.
Member Michael Stembridge sent me this note:
--
Just wanted to let you know Cole's Gun Shop in South Boston has
closed. I have been going past there for the last 4 weeks & have seen
no sign of any activity. I was in Hardee's down the street from there
today & everyone said they were closed. I was also told that their
inventory is being sold on gunbroker.com.
It's really too bad this had to happen. I hate to see a gun store
close for any reason. But I guess this is what happens when you dance
with the devil.
--
VCDL VP, Jim Snyder, was told by a seller on GunBroker.com that he
was selling inventory from a gun store that had closed -- Cole's.
Board member Jim Kadison had called Cole's store a few weeks ago
based on rumors that Cole's was closing and was told that the
Internet sales would be happening to liquidate remaining inventory.
**************************************************
2. Home invasions on the rise
**************************************************
Carry a gun when you are home? You bet. At a minimum make sure that
a gun is always within reach.
While I commend one of the victims for now locking her doors and
sleeping with a knife under her bed, a knife still requires both
physical strength and being within reach of your assailant.
Certainly a knife would not be my first choice for a defensive tool.
<http://tinyurl.com/2uzmka>
Home invasions increasing
Thursday, Aug 09, 2007
By JULIAN WALKER AND BRANDON SHULLEETA
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS
Jessica Videtto had planned on a relaxing Saturday night with friends
to celebrate the 21st birthday of her husband, Henry. Inside their
Hopewell apartment, music was playing, drinks were flowing and the
group of six was in a celebratory mood.
In an instant, everything changed.
Four men rushed into the apartment and began physically assaulting
everyone -- punching and kicking them and the apartment walls, which
still bear the scars of the attack. So, too, does Henry Videtto: His
right ear was sliced by an assailant who attacked him with a knife.
Three other victims were beaten unconscious. One was thrown against a
glass window and then stuffed into a trash can.
"Nobody knew what was going on. . . . It was pretty crazy," Jessica
Videtto said of the July 21 incident.
While officials say home invasions are a growing problem, tracking
them is difficult because the crime is not specifically defined by
state law. The number of home-invasion-style crimes fluctuates but
has increased slightly in recent years, a trend that Richmond police
Lt. Thomas Nolan called "concerning but not alarming. We take any
violent crime very seriously," Nolan said. "And there is a potential
for violence when you have people invading a person's home."
Home invasions can result in charges ranging from robbery and
breaking and entering to assault, malicious wounding or abduction.
Because Videtto said she recognized an assailant, suspects were
arrested on charges of assault and breaking and entering. One also
was charged with malicious wounding.
The roots of the home-invasion phenomenon in the Richmond area date
to the late 1980s when Asian families were victims of a series of
residential breaks-ins and robberies committed by other Asians, some
who traveled here from Northern Virginia.
Another flare-up occurred four years ago when Henrico County police
investigated a dozen home-invasion robberies in 33 days that mostly
targeted Hispanic residents at apartment complexes. A handful of
suspects were arrested and convicted in those crimes.
"You go back three or four years, and we didn't have any," Prince
George County police Lt. Brian Kei said of home invasions. "But in
the last few years, they have become more prevalent." This year,
Kei has begun tracking home invasions in the county. Officials have
documented a rise in home-invasion-style crimes in suburban and rural
localities in the region. Amelia County has recorded only two home
invasions in the past decade, but one resulted in a homicide.
"No more leaving your keys in your car or your back door unlocked,"
Amelia sheriff's office Lt. Bruce Almarode said.
Law-enforcement officials in Hanover, Powhatan, King William and
Dinwiddie counties say they each have documented a handful of
home-invasion robberies during the past five years. Caroline County
has had just one home invasion in recent years. "It's bad enough to
have your home broken into even when you're not there," said Capt. C.
Scott Moser of the Caroline sheriff's office. "Your home is your
castle, and if you experience this, you'll probably never fully feel
safe there again."
The numbers are more pronounced in the region's bigger population
centers -- Chesterfield and Henrico counties and the city of Richmond
-- which, according to a review of robbery records, last year
recorded 26, 28 and 43 respectively. Henrico and Chesterfield
provided home-invasion figures, while Richmond's number reflects
residential robberies.
Data show that annual residential robberies in the state are on the
rise. Those charges eclipse incidents categorized as home invasions.
There were 507 reported robberies at Virginia residences in 1999,
compared with 1,474 last year, according to statistics compiled by
Virginia State Police.
To prevent home invasions, law-enforcement officials say simple steps
such as using the exterior lights on your home, keeping doors locked
and not opening the door for strangers can make you less vulnerable.
Jessica Videtto learned that lesson the hard way -- her door was
unlocked, and she didn't have on outside light on when the assailants
entered her home. Since then, she has put a light in the hallway
leading to her apartment and sleeps with a knife under her bed.
She offered this simple advice for others: "At least lock your doors."
**************************************************
3. Chantilly Woman Shot, Killed in her Home
**************************************************
Another person murdered in her house.
<http://tinyurl.com/ypj95b>
Chantilly Woman Shot, Killed in her Home
Leaves four, young children; murderer still at large.
By Bonnie Hobbs
August 2, 2007
THE TRAGEDY occurred at 13620 Pennsboro Drive, in Chantilly's
Brookfield community, a stone's throw from Brookfield Elementary. The
victim was Morena Magdalena Martinez, 29, who held down two jobs to
support her family. Also shot, but "currently recovering," according
to Fairfax County police, was a 29-year-old man who was a high-school
friend of hers. Authorities have not released his name but, according
to a court document, both he and Martinez were shot "multiple times."
A neighbor was involved in the aftermath. He was asleep, around
1:30-2 a.m., when someone knocked on his door. "There was a guy in a
T-shirt and shorts, blood running down his left arm, and he said, in
broken English, 'Please call the police,'" said the neighbor. "I'd
never seen him before." At the time, the neighbor asked the wounded
man in Spanish where his house was. And when he pointed in the
direction of Martinez' house, the neighbor initially thought he meant
a nearby home where people had recently gotten into a fight. So he
didn't realize at first that his friend had also been shot. Weak
from his injury, the man then lay down on the neighbor's doorstep.
And when he did, said the neighbor, "I saw a hole in his arm, and
there was blood coming out from behind him, like someone had shot him
in the back. I didn't want to turn him over because he was moaning
and in pain and I didn't want to hurt him more."
So the neighbor called 911 and told the man to stay calm and sit
tight because police were on the way. "I sat there and watched him,
and he just kept saying, 'Morena Martinez,'" said the neighbor. "But
I knew her as Lanie so [at first], I didn't have any idea it was her."
Later, when a Spanish-speaking police officer arrived, he learned the
murder victim was the woman he knew. He said eight or more police
cruisers converged on their street and officers were able to tell
which home was the crime scene by the blood they saw outside the
house, on the front doorway and front step leading inside.
"I told them there were four kids and a dog inside, so they called
someone inside the house," said the neighbor. "Then they went in and
got them all. I heard them shouting and making sure everybody was
safe. A police officer handed me a child, and EMS checked all of them
to make sure they were OK."
A July 28 affidavit for a warrant to search Martinez' home for items
including "handguns, ammunition, cartridge casings, bullets, hairs,
fibers, bloody clothes and furniture, latent fingerprints and shoe
impressions" confirmed that her body was discovered in her bedroom.
In the affidavit, homicide Det. John Wallace wrote that she'd
sustained "what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds to her body."
Describing Martinez as a "very sweet person," the neighbor said he's
angry that "someone was that narrow-minded to kill a woman who had
four children depending on her. He was selfish, and I hope they catch
him."
Other neighbors, returning home to Pennsboro Drive from work, early
Saturday morning, found their street blocked off and emergency
vehicles everywhere. Marciano Gomez arrived at 3 a.m. and was puzzled
by the commotion. "I saw the police, but I didn't know why they were
there," he said.
Three-year resident Victor Correra got home Saturday evening, around
6 p.m., to find traffic still barred from Lees Corner Road and
Pennsboro. "I asked the police what happened and they didn't answer,"
he said. "Normally, it's a quiet area with no problems. Now I'm
putting up a security fence."
**************************************************
4. We can never predict who or when
**************************************************
While this did not happen in Virginia, it emphasizes yet AGAIN:
* Have a gun on your person at home or within very fast reach at all times
* Don't assume you will have time to go chasing all over the house to
get your gun - seconds could be the difference between life and death
* Don't assume you can reason or beg your way out of being murdered.
Many murderers enjoy killing and get an even bigger thrill when their
victim begs and pleads to be allowed to live. Your only hope is to
be able to overpower or kill them before they kill you :-(
<http://tinyurl.com/2g44rh>
August 7, 2007
When Horror Came to a Connecticut Family
By MANNY FERNANDEZ and ALISON LEIGH COWAN
CHESHIRE, Conn., Aug. 6 ó Dr. William A. Petit Jr., his head bloodied
and legs bound, stumbled out of a rear basement door of his two-story
home here into a pouring rain, calling the name of a neighbor for
help.
The neighbor heard the shouting, but so did the two men inside the
house, who peeked outside from an upstairs window. They were both
serial burglars with drug habits, having racked up numerous
convictions for stealing car keys and pocketbooks.
This time, they took something far more precious.
The men, the authorities say, had already strangled Dr. Petitís wife,
Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and in short order would also kill the
coupleís two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. The elder
suspect, Steven J. Hayes, 44, had poured gasoline on the girls and
their mother, according to a lawyer and a law enforcement official
involved in the case, in hopes of concealing DNA evidence of sexual
assault. He had raped Ms. Hawke-Petit, and his partner, Joshua
Komisarjevsky, 26, had sexually assaulted Michaela.
Moments after Dr. Petit escaped, as the house was being surrounded by
police officers, the men lighted the gasoline. The girls were tied to
their beds but alive when the gas Mr. Hayes had spread around the
house was set aflame.
It was about 9:50 a.m. on July 23 when Dr. Petit, 50, burst into his
backyard on what is normally a quiet street in a quiet town of 29,000
in central Connecticut. On this stormy summer morning it was the site
of one of the most savage crimes in the state in decades. By 10:01,
Mr. Hayes and Mr. Komisarjevsky had been captured. On Tuesday morning
they are expected to be presented in New Haven County Court for their
first appearance in the venue where they will be tried; they have
been formally charged in State Superior Court in Meriden with capital
felonies, which could bring the death penalty.
Interviews with law enforcement officials and lawyers for the men,
and friends, co-workers and relatives of all involved, along with a
study of court records, paint a picture of what happened that morning
and show that there were missed opportunities on both sides of the
law leading up to the deaths.
The criminal justice system failed to treat Mr. Hayes and Mr.
Komisarjevsky as serious offenders despite long histories of
recidivism, repeatedly setting them free on parole. The suspects
never capitalized on those chances to turn their lives around,
instead apparently forming a new criminal alliance after meeting at a
drug treatment center in Hartford.
"There's no question about it: The system didn't work," Dr. Petit's
father, William A. Petit Sr., 73, said last weekend outside his home
in Plainville, 12 miles north, where the family has long formed a
pillar of civic life. He paused, then added: "It's too late now."
The authorities say the intruders entered the house through an open
door at 3 a.m. Monday as Dr. Petit slept in a chair on the first
floor, his wife and daughters in their rooms upstairs. The previous
evening, the men had followed Ms. Hawke-Petit and Michaela home from
the parking lot of a Super Stop & Shop three miles away.
The authorities say that the Petit home was at least the third in
Cheshire that the two men burglarized since the start of that
weekend. They sneaked into one through a screen door and took a money
clip - with credit and A.T.M. cards, and $140 in cash ó from the
kitchen counter Sunday morning. They broke in through a back screen
of another Saturday night.
Why the spree turned violent on Sorghum Mill Drive remains unclear.
On Sunday evening, Mr. Hayes and Mr. Komisarjevsky had driven to a
nearby Wal-Mart and bought an air rifle and rope. Once inside the
house, they clubbed Dr. Petit over the head with a baseball bat and
tied him up in the basement.
Between 4 and 4:30 a.m., Mr. Hayes went to a BP station on Main
Street, where he bought four cans of gasoline.
A Note to a Bank Teller
Shortly before 9:30 a.m. that Monday, Ms. Hawke-Petit walked into a
Bank of America branch and withdrew $15,000 from the account she
shared with her husband. Mr. Hayes waited in the parking lot in
Maplecroft Plaza, the same shopping center where the two men had
watched Ms. Hawke-Petit and her daughter the day before.
Ms. Hawke-Petit told the teller that she had to have the money
because her family was being held hostage, and that if the police
were notified, her family would be killed.
Debbie Biggins, 50, was opening a new account at the bank when she
noticed Ms. Hawke-Petit, who seemed tense and in a rush. "I could
feel it," Mrs. Biggins said in a recent interview. "I felt fear."
After Ms. Hawke-Petit left, Mrs. Biggins said, she saw the teller
hand a manager a slip of paper.
A bank employee called 911 about 9:30. "The call came in as a
suspicious transaction with a hostage situation, but it wasn't
clear," said a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity because the matter is still under investigation. The
Cheshire police have refused to release a full timeline indicating
when officers arrived on Sorghum Mill Drive, but described their
response as "immediate."
By 9:45 a.m., seven to nine Cheshire police officers, including SWAT
team members, were working to secure a perimeter around the Petit
house, and a police helicopter was en route.
About five minutes later, Dr. Petit stumbled out of a basement door
onto the rear of his property, calling the name of a neighbor, who
took the bleeding doctor into his garage and dialed 911.
After lighting the fire, the two men jumped into the familyís
Chrysler Pacifica sport utility vehicle. They crashed into a police
vehicle in the driveway, then slammed into two police cruisers parked
nose to nose as a barricade not far from the house, where they were
taken into custody.
Inside the house on Sorghum Mill Drive, Hayley and Michaela died of
smoke inhalation, not from their burns, according to the Connecticut
medical examiner. Their mother was found downstairs.
