Patterico's Pontifications

3/27/2008

Don’t Mess With Houston (Updated)

Filed under: Crime — DRJ @ 2:24 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The Houston Chronicle reports a Houston-area man and apparent robber has died after being shot by a homeowner:

“An east Harris County woman shot and killed an armed man, but also accidentally wounded her husband, as she foiled an apparent home-invasion robbery at their apartment, authorities said.

The dead man, identified as Charles Freeman, 21, was found at the bottom of a flight of stairs about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday when sheriff’s deputies arrived at the apartment in the 300 block of Audrey.

Freeman was wearing all-black clothing with a bandana pulled over his face when he forced his way into the apartment, authorities said. “He came in and demanded money and the TV,” said sheriff’s Lt. John Legg.

After her husband began struggling with the intruder, the woman grabbed a pistol that the couple kept in the apartment, Legg said. She fired at least two shots, wounding both men.”

Freeman collapsed and died at the foot of the stairs, and the husband was treated for a wound to his arm. Authorities report there was no known connection between the parties. They were still questioning a woman found in a nearby car.

UPDATE: The homeowners have described what happened:

“An east Harris County woman said she was protecting her family when she fatally shot an intruder holding them at gunpoint inside their apartment.

“I refuse to be a victim,” said Angela Patterson, shaken but still defiant after the ordeal. “He put a gun in my face. If you’re bold enough to do that, you’re bold enough to shoot us.”

Patterson and her husband were watching television about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday when a man, stormed into the apartment in the 800 block of Audrey. Authorities identified the man as Charles Freeman, 21. He was holding a semi-automatic pistol and wore all-black clothing with a bandana covering his face, authorities said.

“He came in and demanded money and the TV,” said Harris County Sheriff’s Lt. John Legg. Patterson’s husband told the intruder that he needed tools to remove the wall-mounted television. “He said ‘Give me the cash.’ I said, ‘We don’t have any cash here,'” Jeffery Patterson said.

Freeman ordered the couple to take off their clothes and closely watched as Angela Patterson disrobed in the living room. “He didn’t pay attention to me so I charged at him,” Jeffery Patterson said.

As the two men struggled, Angela Patterson ducked into their bedroom to retrieve a pistol. “I got the gun and stepped back in and fired,” she said.

Freeman was hit at least once and fell to the floor but an errant round struck her husband in the right arm, authorities said.

The intruder stumbled outside. He collapsed at the bottom of a flight of stairs leading to the family’s apartment, authorities said.

Jeffery Patterson roused their two daughters, 8 and 13, who remained asleep during the incident. After locking the front door, the family moved back inside the apartment and called for help.”

Jeffery Patterson was treated and released from the hospital. Sheriff’s officials believe Freeman noticed the couple’s TV when he was buying drugs in the apartment complex.

— DRJ

34 Responses to “Don’t Mess With Houston (Updated)”

  1. That is one hell of a brave woman.

    I don’t know if it was wise, but that’s between she and her husband, and the results are close to excellent, so I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt.

    Given how inaccurate pistols are, especially without tons of practice and cool nerves, I don’t know that I’d be able to fire s shot if my wife were anywhere near the target. Perhaps I’d just blast at the legs or something.

    Jem (0280ae)

  2. I agree, she had a damn near perfect outcome. Jems’ statement points up some realistic issues. Gun ownership with documented qualification.Training and practice. Not to be glib but real Gun control is a nice tight grouping on a target.

    paul from fl (47918a)

  3. And before we go off on a gun control tear this makes for some objective review.cato article on gun control

    paul from fl (47918a)

  4. Given how inaccurate pistols are

    You sound just like a gun-grabber: blame the handguns when it’s the person holding it who’s at fault.

    Just kidding–sort of. I know what you’re trying to say.

    Bonus question: isn’t it clearly true that a handgun was more useful in this situation than a shotgun would have been? This suggests that banning handguns outright is unreasonable, even if shotguns are available.

    Daryl Herbert (4ecd4c)

  5. Without knowing the scene layout, I feel comfortable saying that a shotgun would have made a real mess of the incident.

    paul from fl (47918a)

  6. Two points:

    Almost all handguns are capable of greater accuracy than their owners’;

    Did anyone ask Joe Horn what he thought of this?

    Another Drew (f9dd2c)

  7. Since they were inside the apartment chances are the shooting distance was no more than about ten feet, which improves the odds of hitting the target.

    I’ve just been reading The Concealed Handgun Manual by Chris Bird, which is quite eye-opening.

    VG

    Voiceguy in L.A. (f3da7a)

  8. A couple of you must have never been married.

    She killed the intruder and shot her husband…in two shots.

    cfbleachers (4040c7)

  9. we older folks should bear in mind that the only way we can get into an olympic games now (as an athlete, not a spectator) is one of the shooting events. it won’t be track and field. at the last olympics, an american shooter blew his gold medal hopes by accidentally shooting the target assigned to the man next to him. booooooo!

    assistant devil's advocate (2172d5)

  10. Let me see here? Two shots, 1 killed, 1 wounded.. seems like pretty respectable accuracy to me.

    Retired Cop (ed5041)

  11. cfbleachers,
    She got the job done in a very very difficult scenario. I’m not going to ridicule her at all.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  12. I think the wife did well. This situation was a good example against the argument that a shotgun is all you need for home defense.

    driver (faae10)

  13. I’d like to know if Charles Freeman was from NewOrleans

    seaPea (df5d9a)

  14. There’s an Update with an interview of the couple.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  15. She killed the intruder and shot her husband…in two shots.

    responded to with

    She got the job done in a very very difficult scenario. I’m not going to ridicule her at all.

    I don’t think it was criticizing… merely pointing out the number of shots, and the number of people shot. I would like to know in what ORDER they were hit. 🙂

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  16. There’s no place for jokes, here. At all. See DRJ’s update. The punk was on a power trip and if not for the husband’s courage and the lady having a loaded gun handy, there would have been a truly horrible crime committed there.

    nk (34c5da)

  17. I’m making jokes to avoid realizing how fuckig disgusted I should be. Making them strip? Yeah, they were gonna be alowed to live when the night was over. sure they were…

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  18. All right, Scott. But for my part, I would want my wife to shoot through me in order to protect herself and my daughter.

    nk (34c5da)

  19. No argument at all. I’ll have to make sure I marry a woman willing to do what is needed…

    And i’d raise my daughter to shoot through daddy if she had to…

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  20. This happened in East Houston, 14.1 miles from where Joe Horn lives in Pasadena. What’s interesting is that Horn’s residence and the Patterson’s apartment are each less than a mile from the middle beltway/loop. Convenient access to a major highway makes for a quick get-away.

    Even before the Joe Horn incident, I suspect people living in those areas have seen higher crime rates and were aware of the need to protect themselves. If not, they are more aware now.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  21. This story is a week after the LA story of the woman in West Covina who was killed as she called 911. Interesting contrast.

    Mike K (b9ce3e)

  22. The jerk came there dressed in black and wearing a bandana and demanding money and the TV he left with a bullet in his body and a one way trip to the morgue

    krazy kagu (ef58e5)

  23. Kudos to both the wife and the husband for thinking clearly during a very dangerous situation.

    I agree, it took a lot of guts for her to shoot at two grappling men, one of whom is her husband. I assume the situation was such that she felt she had good odds of shooting the perp and not the husband. I wonder if the guy had a knife or something, or had his hands around the husband’s throat, such that she felt the risk of her shooting the husband was smaller than the risk of the bad guy killing the husband in the next 5 seconds.

    By way of planning what I might do in a similar circumstance (and most definitely NOT intended as second-guessing), I think it might be a tad safer to fire a shot into the floor or something first. That’s NOT to give the bad guy a warning (bad guy in black clothing in your house at night=target to be shot on sight), but to hope that the bad guy backs off long enough that you don’t have to take the shot which has a high risk of hitting your loved one who is struggling with the bad guy.

    PatHMV (653160)

  24. PatHMV, I do not recommend firing any shots in a self-defense situation that are not fully justified as an exercise in the use of deadly force and aimed anywhere but center of mass.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  25. Plus, there’s this saying that goes ‘one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.’

    allan (a79ee0)

  26. You never know where a richochet is going to go; and I have a small scar on my wrist from a bullet fragment that came all the way back from the other end of the indoor range, and I wasn’t even on the firing line.

    Another Drew (f9dd2c)

  27. PatHMV, re-read the post. The perp did not have a “knife or something,” he had a gun, which he brandished AT the couple.

    As for shooting at the floor, do you NOT like your downstairs neighbors? Or, assuming you have a concrete floor, where do you intend for the ricochet to go (not that you get much say in the matter)?

    Good for the woman! Justice was served. Another violent criminal removed without spending thousands of taxpayer funds.

    Finally, some guns are more accurate than others. I have several handguns, and used to practice with them frequently. My Smith and Wesson Model 686 with 6″ barrel is by far the most accurate of them all.

    509th Bob (dfa1f1)

  28. Well done. They probably both need some CQB refresher classes, but that’s a nit. Where is the committee to put the perp’s head on a pike when you need them?

    htom (412a17)

  29. I got hooked on reading the Crime Archive a while back…the setup they describe, with the guy who thinks he has total control ordering them to strip, is DEAD ON with group murders.

    Usually, when a criminal orders female victims to disrobe, orders to do obscene things and then death follows soon after.

    Foxfier (74f1c8)

  30. Well, I have a wooden floored, single-story house, so perhaps that colors my thought process. The story talked about having kids asleep upstairs, so I assumed that this was a single-family, 2-story house, particluarly after DRJ called them “homeowners.” Houston is not particularly known for its high-rise residential apartments, so I figured the odds were with me on that assumption. In re-reading I see I was wrong, and they were in an apartment of some sort. I was not, however, being so stupid as to not realize that bullets go through floors and ceilings.

    And kindly notice how careful I was to suggest that my thoughts at caution were NOT in any way related to any concern for the safety or life of the robber. She could shoot him at any time as far as I’m concerned, whether he had his gun out or not, whether he even had a gun or not.

    No, my only cocern is figuring out the best course of action if you see a loved one actually grappling with the intruder, such that you don’t have a clear shot just at the perp. To me, it would seem to matter, FOR THAT PURPOSE ALONE, to know how great the risk was, in the grappling, to the husband. It’s not a question of “shoot the perp?” It’s a matter of “shoot the perp NOW?” or “hope my husband pushes him away and THEN shoot the perp?”

    One poster suggested that if he were the husband, he’d hope his wife would shoot the perp through him, if necessary to protect the children. Certainly a fine and admirable sentiment. But suppose the person grappling with the intruder was, say, the 16 year old son of the couple? Is the best course of action still to take the shot and hope you’ve timed it right and you’re aiming well enough to avoid your own son?

    Shouldn’t we use these sort of incidents to do some thinking and pre-planning, should we ever personally encounter a similar situation?

    PatHMV (0e077d)


  31. Charles Freeman was a good friend of mines we went to school together and grew up on the East Side together….He was a very nice guy….very quiet and to himself. I wish I could have talked him out of this, but maybe God saw fit for some other way….i will be going to pay my respects to him and his family. You guys have WAAAAAY to much time on your hands….

    P.S NO HE WAS NOT FROM NEW ORLEANS!!!!!

    S,Ruck (595aa7)

  32. American people, stop believing everything you see in the media. The cops never found a gun or bandana and there was no sign of forced entry. More than likely, these people sold drugs out of their apartment and probably sold the dude some bad drugs and he was there to get his money back. After all, who randomly chooses an upstairs apartment in a poor neighborhood and demands a large flat-screen TV that has to be carried downstairs. There’s a reason this went to the grand jury.

    nr harris (328b8b)

  33. Also, you people are sick for your comments. Take the damn TV dude. A person’s life is not worth a damn TV. White people and your sick minds………..

    kate jones (328b8b)

  34. Charles Freeman is the lucky one. I have to remain here on this earth with you sick asses.

    kate jones (328b8b)


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