Eastpointe police said a 91-year-old man shot a would-be robber in the parking lot of a Rite Aid pharmacy Monday morning.
According to WJBK, the 91-year-old had pulled into the pharmacy’s parking lot around 10:15 a.m. Monday and said he began to feel uneasy when the man – later identified as Richard Ashford – walked up to him, acting erratically.
The 91-year-old warned Ashford that he had a concealed pistol license, and Ashford walked away.
When the man got out of his car to enter the pharmacy, however, Ashford confronted him again, pulling out an “unknown object” and pointing it at him, police said. The 91-year-old drew his gun and fired, hitting Ashford in the neck.
Ashford fled the scene despite his wound, but police later captured him and took him to a local hospital for treatment.
Authorities charged Ashford with felonious assault.
“This elderly man’s self-defense is an entirely appropriate use of force,” Prosecutor Eric Smith said. “Facing imminent assault, he announced that he was armed, made attempts to withdraw, warned again that he held a weapon, and fired only when completely necessary.”
A Google Maps image of Staybridge Suites hotel.
An Orange County man died on Sunday after lying down in front of his friend’s car as she drove away from his birthday party, according to the OC Register.
Jonathan Carlyle Merkley was celebrating his 34th birthday at the Staybridge Suites hotel, in the 6600 block of Mira Mesa Boulevard when the incident occurred, according to reports.
Around 12:30 a.m. the friend got in her BMW and attempted to leave the party when Merkley walked in front of the car and lay down in an attempt to stop her, according to the Register.
The woman, who had allegedly been drinking with Merkley prior to the incident, did not stop and continued driving, running her friend over in the process, police told the Register.
Merkley suffered major trauma to the chest and later died at a local hospital, according to San Diego Police Sgt. Tom Sullivan.
The driver has been identified but has not been arrested, according to police.
QUESTION?– Why hasn’t this young lady been arrested???? Are drunk driving & vehicular homicide not real charges in California?
What a terrible way to have to go out- on your birthday, trying to save a ‘friend’ who ends up killing you in the process! The fact that she was so intoxicated that she drove right over this man & kept going is even more gut wrenching.
Thank goodness she didn’t kill anyone else on her drunken ride home!
Hotel guest Gloria Williams told KTLA:
“She needs to turn herself in. You need to understand there was a mistake that was made, but to do the right thing. I think this is crazy, we don’t value each others lives.”
Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped from her bedroom at age 14 and held captive for nine months, is speaking out against pornography – saying porn made her captor rape her even more than before.
According to KTLA:
The video, produced by the anti-porn group “Fight the New Drug,” features Smart retelling the story of her ordeal at the hands of homeless street preacher Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. Smart describes being raped repeatedly, and Mitchell showing her hardcore pornography.
“I remember he pulled out this magazine full of hardcore pornography and I remember he would just sit and look at it and stare at it,” she recalls in the video. “He’d just talk about these women and then when he was done, he would turn and he would look at me and be like, ‘Now, we’re going to to do this.’ It just led to him raping me more, more than he already did, which was a lot.”
Smart blames pornography for contributing to Mitchell’s attacks on her.
“Looking at pornography wasn’t enough for him. Having sex with his wife after looking at pornography, it wasn’t enough for him. And then it led him to finally going out and kidnapping me. He just always wanted more,” she said on the video. “I can’t say that he would not have gone out and kidnapped me had he not looked at pornography. All I know is that pornography made my living hell worse.”
Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped from her bedroom at age 14 and held captive for nine months, is speaking out against pornography – saying porn made her captor rape her even more than before.
The video, produced by the anti-porn group “Fight the New Drug,” features Smart retelling the story of her ordeal at the hands of homeless street preacher Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. Smart describes being raped repeatedly, and Mitchell showing her hardcore pornography.
“It just led to him raping me more, more than he already did, which was a lot.”
“I remember he pulled out this magazine full of hardcore pornography and I remember he would just sit and look at it and stare at it,” she recalls in the video. “He’d just talk about these women and then when he was done, he would turn and he would look at me and be like, ‘Now, we’re going to to do this.’ It just led to him raping me more, more than he already did, which was a lot.”
“Looking at pornography wasn’t enough for him. Having sex with his wife after looking at pornography, it wasn’t enough for him. And then it led him to finally going out and kidnapping me. He just always wanted more,” she said on the video. “I can’t say that he would not have gone out and kidnapped me had he not looked at pornography. All I know is that pornography made my living hell worse.”
Smart was abducted from her bedroom in 2002 at knifepoint by Mitchell, a homeless street preacher who had sought to make her one of his “wives.” She was held captive for nine months until being spotted walking down State Street in the company of Mitchell and Barzee.
The video features clips from the search for Smart as she describes how she has moved on and become an advocate for abuse victims and an opponent of pornography.
Mitchell is serving a life sentence in federal prison for his role in the kidnapping. Barzee is serving a prison term in the Utah State Prison with a parole hearing scheduled for 2018. In a 2013 interview with FOX 13, Elizabeth Smart said she had forgiven both of them for what they did to her.
The Utah State Legislature earlier this year passed a resolution declaring pornography a “public health crisis.”
What a sick bastard. Hopefully he’s getting everything he took from this young girl taken from him in PRISON! Join the discussion.
The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli 
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