{"id":2174,"date":"2008-02-27T09:03:25","date_gmt":"2008-02-27T14:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2174"},"modified":"2008-02-27T09:52:17","modified_gmt":"2008-02-27T14:52:17","slug":"death-comes-from-killers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2174","title":{"rendered":"Death Comes From Killers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Coleman wrote a column about a scary – and fairly atypical – home invasion<\/a> in crime-sodden Minneapolis:<\/p>\n

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Someone called 911 on Nov. 3 to report three men walking on the street in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis…a police squad was sent to investigate. It was too late.By that time, the three men were burglarizing a nearby home, climbing on patio furniture to get in through a small window that had been opened to air out the kitchen after dinner. Grabbing butcher knives off a counter, the masked robbers burst into a nearby room, surprising the homeowner, who was playing the piano.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It’s gotta be one of everyone’s worst nightmares; one or more complete strangers, descending on you like a bolt from the blue, with mayhem in mind.<\/p>\n

It’s both relatively rare and all too common; in the US, about one in eight burglaries is “hot” – it occurs when someone is home. They’re incredibly dangerous situations. In countries like the UK, with stiff gun controls, the ratio is one in two. But I digress.<\/p>\n

The homeowner had some guns – but they were hunting guns and a relic, locked in a case downstairs. They weren’t for self-defense; in this situation, they were for bargaining:<\/p>\n

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“I could have had an Uzi, and it wouldn’t have done any good,” he says. “I was pounced on.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’d be the last one to second-guess people in that situation – although I was in a not-completely-different one twenty years ago this coming summer. More later.<\/p>\n

Although the robbers involved sound like the kind of people the world’d be better off if they did <\/em>get shot:<\/p>\n

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Mike was knocked on the floor by the robbers, who put knives to his throat, threatened to kill him and started filling paper bags with valuables: Jewelry (including rings that belonged to Jane’s parents), a laptop computer, a BlackBerry, house keys. They rolled up a Persian rug and took that, too…But the robbers wanted more than they could find. They were becoming threatening, so Mike tried to calm them by revealing that he had guns they could add to their haul.<\/p>\n

The robbers led Mike at knifepoint to the basement and made him open the cabinet where he kept a shotgun, a rifle and an old pistol. Then they loaded the guns with ammunition, tied Mike up, and pointed his guns at his head…Thankfully, the robbers did not shoot Mike that night, telling him he “could stay [alive] with your family.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And while some justice may yet be served, “Mike” may have gotten lucky after all:<\/p>\n

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Five days after the home invasion, three suspects were arrested in Michigan City, Ind., after one pulled a gun from a car trunk and wounded another person…The suspects are from Gary, Ind., and are 18, 21 and 23. They are expected to be extradited to Minnesota to face charges of first-degree burglary and aggravated robbery.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One can hope they get a long, ugly sentence. Given that it’s Hennepin County, I won’t hold my breath.<\/p>\n

There are plenty of lessons one can draw from this incident.<\/p>\n