Paula Michelle Locklear. (Photo: Carroll County Sheriff’s Office)
A Virginian homeowner shot a woman last week when she broke into his house stark naked and attacked him with a frying pan, say authorities.
Police arrived on the scene that night to discover the woman, 35-year-old Paula Locklear, with a gunshot wound to the leg. After investigating the incident further, they “determined that the shooting was the result of a breaking and entering.”
According to the New York Post and other sources, the homeowner heard a noise, and upon entering his kitchen, found “an unclothed female” who began hitting him with his own cast-iron pan.
The victim successfully locked her out on the back porch but authorities say that Locklear then found the electrical breaker and turned off the electricity to the house.
She began to beat on the window, yelling that the homeowner had better “get out of his house or she would kill him”.
When Locklear resumed beating on the door that she had originally entered through, the homeowner was forced to fire a shot, hitting her in the leg.
The homeowner is not currently being charged, says Fox News, with authorities deeming it a self-defense shooting.
The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office stated that Locklear is being charged with “breaking and entering with a weapon, assault and battery, and damage of property.”
Locklear was brought by officials to a hospital to be treated for her wound before being incarcerated in the county jail.
The homeowner made a tough call but ultimately it comes down to self-defense and he was lucky to have been prepared for any situation.
Thomas Armstrong spoke at the vigil for his son, Elias Armstrong, on Thursday night and said the man who fatally shot his 12-year-old boy was acting like a “vigilante.”
On the previous Sunday, a man tracked down his stolen car with a GPS cellphone app. The man, who police have not identified, found his vehicle at the intersection of West 12th Avenue and North Decatur Street in Denver, CO.
According to police, the occupants of the stolen car fired at the unidentified owner. The car’s owner fired back in retaliation and wounded the 12-year-old driver.
The young boy then drove the car to West 10th Avenue and Federal Boulevard, where police found him injured with a gunshot wound. He was taken to a local hospital but later died.
Armstrong said he was told by a police detective last week that the perpetrators in the stolen car fired one or two shots while the car’s owner, who tracked them in another car via a GPS cellphone app, fired 15 rounds, “emptying his clip”, The Denver Gazette reported. According to Armstrong, authorities are unsure of who fired first.
A surveillance video shows the Feb. 5 shootout lasted only seconds as the stolen car’s owner drives up and parks in front of his stolen Audi. He gets out and rushes toward his stolen vehicle. After a short burst of gunfire, the Audi drives away.
“He approached the car with the gun, running to the car, and (then he) pulled the gun out and started shooting right away. He was upset at these kids for taking his car and he’s angry. And he’s coming to kill these kids over his car,” Thomas Armstrong said at the vigil. “It was pretty much vigilante justice.”
Police said when the owner of the stolen car approached it, there was an “exchange of gunfire” with at least one person inside the car.
Other than the brief statement, the police have declined to comment further or release any documents on the case because the shooting and the theft are both active investigations.
According to police, witnesses reported other people appearing to flee before officers arrived on the scene.
The office of Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said it would not charge the unidentified owner of the stolen car because it did not believe it could prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
In a statement Thursday, McCann said she met with the family last week to explain the decision which she said is based on the “self-defense issues which were present at the time.”
“My heart goes out to Elias Armstrong’s family in this time of terrible and overwhelming grief,” she said.
The Denver police are still investigating the incident and searching for the other individuals involved in the car theft.
Young adults who live in Texas are now eligible to obtain concealed carry licenses that will allow them to bear arms in certain businesses and at public universities.
In January, the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) stopped enforcing a law barring 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds from carrying handguns.
The change was prompted by a federal district court case that struck down the law as unconstitutional.
The legal battle over the law began in November 2021 when the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), a pro-gun organization, filed suit, following the passage of constitutional carry in Texas.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of two plaintiffs who were adults under the age of 21 and, therefore, were prohibited from bearing arms under Texas Penal Code 46.02.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman issued his ruling in the case, finding that the age limits in the statute were in violation of the 2nd Amendment.
“[The statute] prohibits law-abiding 18-to-20-year-olds from carrying handguns for self-defense outside the home based solely on their age, this statutory scheme violates the Second Amendment, as incorporated against the States via the Fourteenth Amendment,” Pittman wrote in his decision.
“We applaud Texas for doing the right thing and accepting the district court’s ruling against its law prohibiting 18-to-20-year-old adults from carrying firearms in public,” said FPC attorney Cody J. Wisniewski in a statement on the FBC website.
“Not only do young adults have the same constitutionally protected right to bear arms as all other adults, they are also among the reasons we have a Second Amendment, Constitution, and Country in the first place,” he added.
Texas DPS Director Steven McCraw initially filed a notice of appeal following the late August decision. However, the agency withdrew its appeal without explanation last December.
A DPS memo sent out in January cited the case, and advised officers that they may no longer enforce the law, adding, “This directive has immediate and permanent effect unless countermanded by the Office of General Counsel through your chain of command.”
Following the DPS memo, the agency’s handgun licensing website now states, “A federal district court has ruled the Department can no longer apply the License to Carry statutory eligibility criteria that prohibit otherwise eligible 18-to-20 year-olds from obtaining the license. Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc. et. al., v. Steven McCraw, et. al., No. 4:21-cv-1245-P. The Department will therefore no longer deny applications solely on the basis that the applicants are 18-to-20 years old.”
Indeed, DPS has already begun issuing handgun licenses to the formerly-affected population, and gun rights proponents believe it is just the beginning.
According to the Dallas Morning News, since the decision to abandon the appeal, and the issuance of the memo, the department said it has received more than 100 applications from newly eligible adults and issued 17 licenses as of the end of February.
“As more people find out, there’s going to be an influx,” said Michael Cargill, who owns a gun store in Austin. Earlier this month, he said two 19-year-old college students sat before him in his handgun licensing class, pens in hand, ready to get their licenses to carry.
Cargill is noted as being the primary plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Department of Justice that saw the federal bump stock ban get overturned.
As gun control laws are scaled back in the post-Bruen legal landscape, additional lawsuits brought by the FPC in a wide swathe of jurisdictions that prohibit adults under 21 from bearing arms are sure to follow Andrew v McCraw’s victory in the 5th Circuit.
Of course, as litigation advances in such cases as Lara v. Evanchick (vs. Pennsylvania, in the 3rd Circuit), Reese v. ATF (vs. the federal government, in the 5th Circuit), Beeler v. Long(vs. Tennessee, in the 6th Circuit), Meyer v. Raoul(vs. Illinois, in the 7th Circuit), Worth v. Harrington (vs. Minnesota, in the 8th Circuit), Jones v. Bonta (vs. California, in the 9th Circuit), and Baughcum v. Jackson(vs. Georgia, in the 11th Circuit), stay tuned for updates!
NEWARK, N.J. — A man in New Jersey tried to board a plane with guns, multiple rounds of ammunition, and a fake United States Marshals identification card in his baggage, officials say.
In a news release, theUnited States Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey, said that Seretse Clouden, 42, has been charged with unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition by a convicted felon and fraudulent possession of an identification document and authentication features of the United States.
According to court documents, on Dec. 30, 2022, Clouden went to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey for a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
During the screening process, Transportation Security Administration agents found ammunition along with a ballistic vest with “Deputy Marshal” in one of the bags, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.
After agents retrieved more of Clouden’s luggage, they found an AR-15 rifle, another rifle, a handgun, a taser, a knife, a baton, a “United States Marshal” badge, and U.S. Marshal credentials with his name and his photo on it, FBI agent Christopher Granato said, according to the AP.
Granato also told the AP that Clouden was convicted in 2016 of unlawful possession of a weapon in New Jersey.
One of the rifles that were found “meets the definition of a machine gun,” according toofficials.
The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed that Clouden is not and was never employed with them, according to authorities.
If convicted, Clouden could face up to 15 years in prison for unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition by a convicted felon. Fraudulent possession of an identification document and authentication features of the United States has a maximum of five years in prison along with a $250,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey.
———————————————————————————- Here is what Einstein looks like according to Google. Grumpy
