Friday morning feel good stories

From Lacanto, Florida;

Citrus County resident Carmelo Marchese says he had no choice but to shoot a would-be home invader.

“I was honestly and truly in fear for my life,” he told FOX 13.

It started with his dog daisy barking wildly. A stranger was knocking on the door at 11:30 at night.

Police say the would-be intruder was Joshua Bernard, who has a prior history of burglary and was just released from jail.

”Once he started to push me and grab my neck, I shot him. I wasn’t going to play. This isn’t a game, it was a life-and-death situation,” he said.

Marchese, 71, served in the Navy and did two tours in Vietnam. He’s never faced this kind of threat at home.

“I had warned him prior. I did everything I was supposed to do. This is my house, not his,” he said.

Bernard was fortunate to survive the gunshot to the chest. Now he’s back in jail.

From Dora, Alabama;

An Empire man was killed over the weekend after breaking into a Dora residence and attempting to run over the homeowner’s son.

Walker County Sheriff Jim Underwood said the unnamed man who shot Jason Richard Almazon, 30, on Saturday while he was attempting to flee in a stolen truck will not be charged.

“We will not be pursuing criminal charges against the shooter because we believe the evidence shows this is a case of justifiable homicide. We’ve also consulted with the District Attorney as they have the ultimate prosecutorial discretion with criminal cases,” Underwood said.

Almazon and Blaine Carl Jones Jr. , 48, of Sumiton, reportedly burglarized a residence on Ball Park Road in Dora Saturday morning.

Jones left the scene with items stolen from the residence, and Almazon stayed behind with the intention of stealing a truck with keys taken from inside the residence.

When the homeowner’s son and a second man who owned the truck caught Almazon in the act, Almazon attempted to run over the homeowner’s son.

The owner of the truck fired several times at Almazon, who was later pronounced dead by the coroner.

According to Underwood, Almazon was not armed but was using the stolen truck as a weapon.

In Eatonville, Washington;

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department received a 911 call about 7:20 a.m. Wednesday, from a man who said he had shot someone in front of his home in the 43100 block of Mountain Highway E. in the Eatonville area.

The caller told police his teenage son received a threat overnight stating that someone was going to “shoot up the house.”

Wednesday morning, the father told police, several people pulled into his driveway and at least one of the passengers fired multiple times at his mobile home, hitting the bedroom area of the trailer.

The father said he fired back at the suspects, striking one of them.

The suspects then drove off leaving their critically injured comrade behind.

Minutes later while en route to the shooting scene, deputies spotted the car involved in the crime.

Deputies arrested a 31-year-old man and a 17-year-old man. A dog was also in the car and taken by animal control.

The critically injured man died at the scene.

From Woodbury, New Jersey;

Woodbury police responded to the scene of the shooting Tuesday night. NJ.com reports police learned a group of four people allegedly planned to rob their 20-year-old acquaintance, but the attempted robbery went south after one of the robbers accidentally shot himself while hitting the victim in the head with a gun.

The robbers fled, but were quickly apprehended not far from the scene. Police say the gun used in the assault was found in the suspects’ car.

The robbery victim and suspect were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening. All four suspects now face charges.

Category: Feel Good Stories