Saturday Feel Good Stories

Smile. Wait for flash.

He was very fortunate: No charges for clerk in Hamilton store shooting

By Lauren Pack, Staff Writer
HAMILTON — A Butler County grand jury has declined to indict a Hamilton store clerk who shot a man and said he acted in self-defense.

Emergency units responded to Singletary’s Carry Out on Second Street at about 12:55 p.m. on June 17 for a report of person shot and found a man sitting across the street with a gunshot wound to the back, according to the police report.

The victim, Kenneth Wayne Wells Jr., 38, of Minster Street in Hamilton, suffered a non-life-threatening injury. A shot was fired through a window, hitting Wells in the back, according to police.

“There was some type of fight inside between (him), and the clerk shot through the window,” said Hamilton Police Sgt. Richard Burkhardt.

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On Wednesday, the grand jury returned no indictments against the clerk. Gmoser said it was a close call.

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Gunshot “victim” again, and fortunate indeed. The rest of the article may be found here: Journal News

Appeals court overturns Siwatu-Salama Ra’s assault conviction

By Sarah Cwiek
In a rare move, the Michigan Court of Appeals has reversed the jury conviction of an environmental justice activist sentenced to two years in prison for brandishing a gun during a 2017 altercation in Detroit.

Siwatu-Salama Ra claims she acted in self-defense when she pointed her licensed, unloaded weapon at another woman. Ra, her mother and niece all testified at trial that the woman was enraged, and using her car as a weapon to threaten Ra’s mother and two-year-old daughter.

Ra was convicted after Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Hathaway instructed the jury that Ra had used deadly force during the encounter. But the Court of Appeals found that instruction was wrong — Ra had used non-deadly force.

The legal standard for using the two types of force is different: to lawfully use deadly force, a person must have reason to believe they or someone else is in danger of being killed or seriously injured. But there’s more latitude to use non-deadly force — a person must only reasonably believe that they are protecting themselves or someone else from “the imminent unlawful use of force by another individual.”

The Court of Appeals found there was substantial evidence that Ra lawfully used the latter, and that “it is more probable than not that the lack of proper instruction affected the outcome of the case because it altered the test by which the jury decided this central issue.”

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Another fortunate one; bluffing with an unloaded firearm is flat foolish. Read the article here: Michigan Radio

Lake County Man Acquitted of Murder
Jury found Daniel Chance Blixt acted in self defense when he shot Matthew Darnell in February

By Justin Franz
A Lake County man was found not guilty of murder nearly six months after he shot and killed another man in self-defense.

Daniel Chance Blixt, 30, was acquitted Aug. 21 following a three-day trial in Polson. Blixt was charged with deliberate homicide in the Feb. 28 shooting death of Matthew Darnell.

According to charging documents, Blixt’s estranged wife and Darnell were in a romantic relationship. On Feb. 28, Blixt’s wife and Darnell had gone to Blixt’s home in Pablo to give him some money to help take care of their children. Knowing the Darnell and Blixt had a tense relationship, the couple parked down the road and Darnell stayed in the car. The ex-wife and Blixt got into an argument outside the home.

Darnell, who was considerably larger than Blixt and had threatened him numerous times before, then stormed out of the car and began running toward the defendant. When Darnell was just a few feet away, Blixt drew a handgun and shot him several times.

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The rest of the article may be viewed here: Flathead Beacon What a great name for a news outlet- I’ll be waiting for Perry Gaskill’s opinion.

Home invasion ends when violent Lexington man is shot by owner, sheriff says
Michael Matthew Nowinski is charged with mutiple crimes following a home invasion, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said. Lexington County Detention Center

By Noah Feit
A Lexington man’s attempt at a home invasion ended when he was shot by the homeowner, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday.

Michael Matthew Nowinski survived being shot, but as soon as he was released from the area hospital where he was treated, he was taken to the Lexington County Detention Center on multiple charges, the sheriff’s department said in a news release.

The 26-year-old broke into a Lexington County home on Greenwood Drive Sunday morning, according to the news release. That’s near Airport High School, as well as the intersection of Airport Boulevard and John N. Hardee Expressway.

Nowinski was wearing a mask and was armed with a shotgun when he broke in to the house after being dropped off by Joel Adolphus Hendrix III, the sheriff’s department said.

“He was there to steal a safe and struck three people with the butt of his shotgun before he was shot in the chest,” Sheriff Jay Koon said in a news release.

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The rest of the article may be viewed here: Charlotte Observer

Mr. and Mrs. America, turn ’em all in… — Dianne Feinstein, CBS-TV’s “60 Minutes, February 5, 1995.

Molon Labe, DiFi.

Category: Feel Good Stories