Mother critically injures daughter after accidental shooting

by Lisa Halverstadt - Jun. 21, 2009 09:29 PM
The Arizona Republic

A 12-year-old was left with life-threatening injuries after Phoenix police said her mother accidentally shot her Sunday night.

At about 7:15 p.m., the girl's mother told a 911 dispatcher she was cleaning the gun when it accidentally went off while inside a home in the 2200 block of North 50th Lane, near 51st Avenue and Holly Street in Phoenix, Lt. John White said.

When officers arrived, they found the 12-year-old collapsed on a bedroom floor with a large wound in her upper left shoulder and chest area, the lieutenant said.

Though the teen seemed somewhat alert at the scene, police were later informed that her injuries were potentially life-threatening.

Police who remained at the scene interviewed the victim's family members, including the teen's 5-year-old sister who told officers she watched her mother move the gun around.

Eventually the youngster saw a bullet strike her older sister while the three were in a bedroom, the girl told officers.

A Phoenix Fire Department Crisis Response Team was called to the scene to comfort the eight to nine family members at the home at the time of the shooting, White said.

Police remained at the scene at about 9:15 p.m. Sunday and were attempting to determine if negligence was a factor.

Very fishy.  Does mom know what a bullet looks like and how to get it out of the gun without making it go down the barrel first?  Responsibility leads to training which results in safety.  All sadly lacking here.

 

Arizona officers fight concealed gun proposal

It allows concealed weapons without permit

Casey Newton - Jun. 19, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Law-enforcement officials are working to quash a proposal that would allow gun owners in Arizona to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

The proposal, which is scheduled to be heard today in the Senate Judiciary Committee, has sparked a debate over what restrictions should be placed on gun owners who wish to carry weapons in public buildings, schools and other places.

Opponents said the bill would endanger law-enforcement officers and the public by eliminating permits and the training courses now required to obtain them. This bill would make a radical and very dangerous change to state law," Attorney General Terry Goddard said at a Thursday news conference. "The current law in Arizona is not broken. It has worked exceptionally well."

To receive a concealed-carry permit today, gun owners have to take an eight-hour course on gun laws and safety and pass a shooting test. The course costs about $100. About 125,000 Arizonans have obtained the $60 permit since the concealed-carry law was established in 1994.

Senate Bill 1270, sponsored by Sen. Sylvia Allen, would make the safety course optional. It also would allow people to carry guns into public buildings and onto school campuses if they were picking up their children or responding to an emergency.

Supporters of the bill say existing concealed-carry laws are confusing and can lead to unfair prosecution. A woman could be arrested for a concealed-carry violation if she was driving in her car and inadvertently placed a newspaper on top of a gun in the passenger's seat, they say.

Gun owners who want to untuck their shirts to conceal a weapon when they walk into a store shouldn't have to take a training course, said John Wentling, vice president of the Arizona Citizens Defense League.

"Do you need a permit to untuck your shirt? Do you need training to untuck your shirt?" Wentling said. "It's just too subjective."

Police chiefs around the state have objected to the proposal, saying it would heighten tensions between officers and the community. By increasing the number of gun owners who have not received safety training, it could increase the potential for tragic accidents, they said.

"It's going to put officers on edge," said Mike Frazier, police chief of El Mirage. "Who's armed? Who's not? Who's the victim? Who's the subject? There are a lot of issues involved there."

But Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he would support the bill, saying carriers of concealed weapons should not face permit requirements when people who carry their weapons openly do not.

"A gun is a gun, whether it's concealed or not," Arpaio said.

If passed, Arizona would become the third state to allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons without a permit, after Alaska and Vermont. Of states that allow concealed weapons, 39 require a permit or training, according to the Attorney General's Office.

Allen, the bill's sponsor, said critics of the bill have overreacted. Violent crime will decrease if the bill passes, she said.

"Law enforcement is never in support of citizens protecting themselves," said Allen, R-Snowflake. "Why do we have to pass a law that says, 'This is the only way you're going to protect yourself'? . . . It's a God-given, constitutional right that you have."

 

Oy.  Everyone should have training with a gun.  Not because of Government, but because it’s the smart thing to do.  I have a CCW permit, and don’t want some hair triggered idiot having the legal right to hide his cheap 9mm in his pants.  He’s more likely to blow his nuts off, but he might injure someone else too.  And ease off on the “GOD GIVEN” rhetoric, will ya?  You make all gun owners look like paranoid hillbillies.

 

 

 

Girl: Parents Arrested In Arpaio's Raid

PHOENIX -- She's only 9 years old, but Katherine Figueroa is learning a lot about county politics and immigration laws.

The Phoenix girl learned by watching the news that her dad had been arrested in an immigration raid at Lindstrom's Family Auto Wash on Saturday.

Figueroa's parents, Sandra and Carlos, both worked at the car wash about 11 years. Prosecutors charged them with using false identification.

"I never thought this would happen to my parents," said a teary-eyed Figueroa in a video on YouTube.com.

An community activist posted Figueroa's plea to President Barack Obama.

"I asked him to help me get my parents back," she said.

Katherine is 9 years old and a U.S. citizen, but her parents came here 12 years ago from Mexico City.

"They're not here to rob or kill people, they're just here to work," Katherine said.

The girl now blames the man behind the raid, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

"I think it's not fair what they're doing, what the Sheriff is doing to my parents," she said.

But in an interview with CBS 5 News, Arpaio said Katherine is the victim in all this, and said the man who put the video on YouTube.com is just exploiting her.

"That's what this is all about -- to embarrass the sheriff and use young children," Arpaio said.

He contends Katherine's parents are in jail because they broke the law when they allegedly used fake ID cards.

"The children suffer," Arpaio said. "Once again, they're the victims. It's the parents that have caused this situation."

For now Katherine is staying with relatives and wondering when she'll see her parents again.

"On Father's day, I don't know what's gonna happen," she said. "I'm not going to have my dad at my side or neither my mom to celebrate father's day."

Katherine's parents go to court June 22 for the false identification charges.

 

 

1)    It’s not Arpaio’s raid, it’s an illegal immigrant raid.  Looks like they found some too..

2)    Poor Kitten’s parents have been here illegally for 12 years using forged or stolen ID’s.  Two felonies in one sentence.

3)    Obama, like it or not, is head of the Executive Branch or Government, which makes him head of Law Enforcement in the US.  He must enforce the law when crimes are committed, he has no choice: it comes with the office.  Send them home to Mexico, let them enter legally.

4)    Kitten; if you want mama and papi to be by your side this father’s day, go to the Madison Street Jail.  I’m sure you have some legal relative that can drive his uninsured jalopy there.

 

 

Homeowner With Shotgun Kills Intruder

Second Intruder Shot, Wounded

PHOENIX -- A Mesa homeowner used a shotgun to defend himself during a home invasion late Wednesday night, authorities said.

According to Mesa Police Department spokesman Sgt. Ed Wessing, two men armed with guns and demanding money forced their way into the home near Stapley Road and Southern Avenue.

The intruders rounded up the four men who live there and forced them into a room, Wessing said.

"At some point during this crime, one of the residents was able to grab a shotgun," Wessing said. "(He) shot and killed one of them, and then fired at the second suspect (who) was injured but then fled the area."

Police said the second intruder ended up at a nearby hospital, where he is expected to survive.

The four men were not injured.

Neighbor Ron Hahn has surveillance cameras set up around his home for security, and he shared copies of the video with police.

The video appeared to be too dark to determine what was going on inside the home; however, Hahn said his cameras did catch someone two months ago.

A person jumped the fence into his back yard and dismantled the security light.

"He sat in the corner of my yard for about, I would say, five minutes or so, watching the house behind me (where the homicide occurred) with a two-way radio," Hahn said.

Police also have the surveillance video from the second incident; however, they said it's too early to tell if it's related to the home invasion.

 

 

Yeah, sounds fishy to me too.  Methinks Mr. Homeowner is into some shady dealin’s with pirate types.  Swim with sharks, expect to get bit.  BUT…. Supposin’ the pirate types got the address wrong and were kicking in your front door by mistake?  Do you think they’d realize it before they kill you, or would they just apologize and go tottering off to the right house?  This is why responsible people need to be armed and trained.

 

Suspect in photo-van death kept small arsenal at home

by Michael Ferraresi - Jun. 3, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Thomas DeStories kept a small arsenal at the home where police arrested him in April on suspicion of fatally shooting an Arizona Department of Public Safety photo-enforcement van driver on Loop 101 in Phoenix.

A Phoenix police report released Tuesday detailed how during a search of his north Valley home, investigators seized hundreds of rounds of live and spent bullets for everything from a .357 Magnum to rifles and small-caliber weapons.

They found shells in a kitty-litter bucket in a closet, the report showed.

Among the weapons was a .40-caliber Beretta found in the saddlebag of DeStories' Harley-Davidson motorcycle, which investigators said was the gun DeStories admitted to using during the April 19 shooting of Doug Georgianni.

DeStories, 68, was arrested one day after the shooting. He told police he was "sorry" and that he intended on turning himself in after seeing TV news reports that Georgianni, 51, was shot to death inside the DPS vehicle, which was on a deployment near the Seventh Street exit on Loop 101.

"I'm honest. It was an accident . . . I mean it wasn't an accident, but . . . oh my God," DeStories told Phoenix investigators, according to a transcript of a taped conversation.

The report showed how a girlfriend and others who knew him said it was out of DeStories' character to try to kill someone - that he drove cautiously and was a good neighbor.

Others provided police with a different description. An ex-wife who was married to DeStories for 20 years said he had " 'masked depression,' where he pretended he was OK."

She told investigators he is "the kind of guy that thinks he has rights that are being stepped on," according to the report.

A neighbor said he was "bizarre," and that he stopped at his home in his underwear in the middle of the night to complain about his dogs.

DeStories was indicted in April on charges of first-degree murder, drive-by shooting and discharge of a firearm at a structure.

 

There’s nothing wrong with owning a small arsenal.  Unless you are a lunatic.  And I’m sure that his totally impartial ex wife can vouch for his insanity.