Suspect or person of interest I would have to be killed before I would allow any SOB to hurt my family.
1st degree sexual assault now added to the list. The 11 year old was found tied to a bed. If there ever was a tragic story to COMPEL good people to arm themselves, this is the one.
They said that he had been severely beaten about the head. Enough blows to the dome like that can render you unconscious. My personal opinion on it is that he was beaten so badly he passed out. They mentioned he "stumbled" out of the house... to me that sounds like he had come to and was still woozy from the assault. As for the girl tied to the bed... ... ... I hope the two they caught get introduced into the public in prison and its made clear over loudspeaker that they were involved/committed such a crime against the little girl. Then let the population do the rest.
Hoffman said that the most popular weapon for both men and women looking to defend themselves is a defense-grade shotgun. Hoffman credited the gun's popularity to the short waiting period -- it can be obtained in two weeks as opposed to waiting 90 days for a pistol permit. Holy crap! I would go insane if I had to wait that long!
Wait, what? 90 days for a permit or just to get the pistol? Does CT require a permit to keep a pistol in your house like NY??? And two weeks for a shotgun. tisk tisk
From VCDL Alert: * Have a gun on your person at home or within very fast reach at all times * Don't assume you will have time to go chasing all over the house to get your gun - seconds could be the difference between life and death * Don't assume you can reason or beg your way out of being murdered. Many murderers enjoy killing and get an even bigger thrill when their victim begs and pleads to be allowed to live. Your only hope is to be able to overpower or kill them before they kill you <http> August 7, 2007 When Horror Came to a Connecticut Family By MANNY FERNANDEZ and ALISON LEIGH COWAN CHESHIRE, Conn., Aug. 6 ó Dr. William A. Petit Jr., his head bloodied and legs bound, stumbled out of a rear basement door of his two-story home here into a pouring rain, calling the name of a neighbor for help. The neighbor heard the shouting, but so did the two men inside the house, who peeked outside from an upstairs window. They were both serial burglars with drug habits, having racked up numerous convictions for stealing car keys and pocketbooks. This time, they took something far more precious. The men, the authorities say, had already strangled Dr. PetitÃs wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit, 48, and in short order would also kill the coupleÃs two daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. The elder suspect, Steven J. Hayes, 44, had poured gasoline on the girls and their mother, according to a lawyer and a law enforcement official involved in the case, in hopes of concealing DNA evidence of sexual assault. He had raped Ms. Hawke-Petit, and his partner, Joshua Komisarjevsky, 26, had sexually assaulted Michaela. Moments after Dr. Petit escaped, as the house was being surrounded by police officers, the men lighted the gasoline. The girls were tied to their beds but alive when the gas Mr. Hayes had spread around the house was set aflame. It was about 9:50 a.m. on July 23 when Dr. Petit, 50, burst into his backyard on what is normally a quiet street in a quiet town of 29,000 in central Connecticut. On this stormy summer morning it was the site of one of the most savage crimes in the state in decades. By 10:01, Mr. Hayes and Mr. Komisarjevsky had been captured. On Tuesday morning they are expected to be presented in New Haven County Court for their first appearance in the venue where they will be tried; they have been formally charged in State Superior Court in Meriden with capital felonies, which could bring the death penalty. Interviews with law enforcement officials and lawyers for the men, and friends, co-workers and relatives of all involved, along with a study of court records, paint a picture of what happened that morning and show that there were missed opportunities on both sides of the law leading up to the deaths. The criminal justice system failed to treat Mr. Hayes and Mr. Komisarjevsky as serious offenders despite long histories of recidivism, repeatedly setting them free on parole. The suspects never capitalized on those chances to turn their lives around, instead apparently forming a new criminal alliance after meeting at a drug treatment center in Hartford. "There's no question about it: The system didn't work," Dr. Petit's father, William A. Petit Sr., 73, said last weekend outside his home in Plainville, 12 miles north, where the family has long formed a pillar of civic life. He paused, then added: "It's too late now." The authorities say the intruders entered the house through an open door at 3 a.m. Monday as Dr. Petit slept in a chair on the first floor, his wife and daughters in their rooms upstairs. The previous evening, the men had followed Ms. Hawke-Petit and Michaela home from the parking lot of a Super Stop & Shop three miles away. The authorities say that the Petit home was at least the third in Cheshire that the two men burglarized since the start of that weekend. They sneaked into one through a screen door and took a money clip - with credit and A.T.M. cards, and $140 in cash ó from the kitchen counter Sunday morning. They broke in through a back screen of another Saturday night. Why the spree turned violent on Sorghum Mill Drive remains unclear. On Sunday evening, Mr. Hayes and Mr. Komisarjevsky had driven to a nearby Wal-Mart and bought an air rifle and rope. Once inside the house, they clubbed Dr. Petit over the head with a baseball bat and tied him up in the basement. Between 4 and 4:30 a.m., Mr. Hayes went to a BP station on Main Street, where he bought four cans of gasoline. A Note to a Bank Teller Shortly before 9:30 a.m. that Monday, Ms. Hawke-Petit walked into a Bank of America branch and withdrew $15,000 from the account she shared with her husband. Mr. Hayes waited in the parking lot in Maplecroft Plaza, the same shopping center where the two men had watched Ms. Hawke-Petit and her daughter the day before. Ms. Hawke-Petit told the teller that she had to have the money because her family was being held hostage, and that if the police were notified, her family would be killed. Debbie Biggins, 50, was opening a new account at the bank when she noticed Ms. Hawke-Petit, who seemed tense and in a rush. "I could feel it," Mrs. Biggins said in a recent interview. "I felt fear." After Ms. Hawke-Petit left, Mrs. Biggins said, she saw the teller hand a manager a slip of paper. A bank employee called 911 about 9:30. "The call came in as a suspicious transaction with a hostage situation, but it wasn't clear," said a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the matter is still under investigation. The Cheshire police have refused to release a full timeline indicating when officers arrived on Sorghum Mill Drive, but described their response as "immediate." By 9:45 a.m., seven to nine Cheshire police officers, including SWAT team members, were working to secure a perimeter around the Petit house, and a police helicopter was en route. About five minutes later, Dr. Petit stumbled out of a basement door onto the rear of his property, calling the name of a neighbor, who took the bleeding doctor into his garage and dialed 911. After lighting the fire, the two men jumped into the familyÃs Chrysler Pacifica sport utility vehicle. They crashed into a police vehicle in the driveway, then slammed into two police cruisers parked nose to nose as a barricade not far from the house, where they were taken into custody. Inside the house on Sorghum Mill Drive, Hayley and Michaela died of smoke inhalation, not from their burns, according to the Connecticut medical examiner. Their mother was found downstairs.
<http> Time to admit the 'gun nuts' are right 08/03/2007 By Keith C. Burris In the aftermath of the Petit family slayings in Cheshire, we all reached for explanations: How do human beings sink this low? How could this tragedy have been prevented? Why? There are so many nagging questions. They all need to be asked. And maybe some old arguments need to be hashed out again. Why not a more stringent "three strikes and you're out" law in this state? Connecticut's version is so weak that it's more like "30 strikes and we'll think about it while you strike again." Why not speed up the criminal trial process for repeat violent offenders? Get them off the streets. It's been proposed many times. Most people agree it should be done. It never happens. Can't we better monitor the probation process? Can't we do a better job of predicting -- figuring out which non-violent criminals are about to turn violent? Are home alarms really effective? How about dogs? But somehow all of these ideas pale before the barbarity of this particular crime. That is why one old question is worth asking again. It is this: What if the Second Amendment is for real? Is it possible that it should it be revered, just like the First Amendment? Sam Ervin said, "The Constitution should be taken like mountain whiskey -- undiluted and untaxed." Maybe that applies to all of the Constitution. Is it possible that the Second Amendment is not a quaint and antiquated remnant of a world that will never return, but an idea as relevant and sound today as when it was written? Is it possible that we are not talking about the right of the government to form a militia when there is no standing army, but the right of the individual to defend himself, or herself, against both tyranny and lawlessness? Maybe we are talking about the right of self-defense -- the right of the individual to take up arms against a government that wants to oppress, be it foreign or domestic. And the right of the individual to defend himself against criminals, brutes, and barbarians when local police seem unable to stop them. Might the Second Amendment matter almost as much as the First? I think the answer is yes. And just like the First, the Second is practical, newly relevant, and far wiser than the watered-down alternatives. I don't think George Bush wants to impose martial law on his fellow citizens. But he has diluted habeas corpus. And he has enlarged Big Brother. You have to stop and think about a government that wants to control the thoughts and behavior of its people. Should such a government be permitted to disarm them as well? And whereas the reform of the criminal justice system along some of the lines suggested above (a real "three strikes" law and faster trials for violent offenders) would not have saved the lives of Jennifer, and Hayley, and Michaela Petit, a gun might have. I don't say it would have. I say it might have. Had Dr. William Petit had access to a gun and known how to use it, he might have been able to dispatch the two perpetrators, who were armed with only an air gun and ropes. Moreover, the three victims here were women. What if Mrs. Hawke-Petit had been trained in the use of firearms? Suppose she had been able to get to a gun after her husband was beaten into unconsciousness by the invaders? Or when she was forced to take one captor to the bank to fetch him money? It's worth thinking about. Women and children are now the major targets of predators in our society. Government is not protecting them very well. Many professional women who work in cities know this and take courses in self-defense. A gun may be the only realistic self-defense against the sort of criminals we are talking about here. And if a few women took care of a few thugs in cases like this; if a few stories like this one ended in a different way -- with a woman blowing one of these brutes to kingdom come -- it might be a deterrent. Lives upon lives might be spared. A friend of mine said: "The gun nuts are back." They are. And they are right. Mind you, we are talking about arming people who are trained and know how to use a weapon. No one should have a gun who has not been trained. Just as one gets training in handling a boat, motorcycle, or car, one must learn how to use and safely store a gun. (The National Rifle Association maintains an extensive national network of programs in firearms training and education.) And, obviously, no one would be forced to own a gun. A second caveat: Encouraging citizens to arm themselves is no "answer" to crimes like the Petit murders. An "answer" does not exist. But it is one of several remedies when we are faced with palpable evil. All possible remedies should be on the table: -- Various reforms of the justice system, like a real three-strike-law for predatory offenders. -- Better psychological treatment for troubled youth. -- Religious training, in both love and self-restraint, especially when people are young. -- Prison programs that both retain the hard core and educate the educable. -- More and better home alarm systems. -- More cops visible in more neighborhoods. -- Dobermans. All of these approaches have merit. So does self-defense. None of these options "fix" a society that can produce human beings who torture and kill the defenseless for sport. No one step or program can plug every hole in America's justice system, or its soul. But there are times when a gun in the hands of a potential victim may save a life. Let's admit -- since the murderers, and druggies, and psychos, and thieves already have guns -- that arming the peaceful, law-abiding, decent, and productive people, whether in a school, or a private home, or on the way to a parked car, is an option that also has merit. Keith C. Burris is editorial page editor of the Journal Inquirer.
I just noticed while reading the newest account of what happened, my right hand was flexing right about where my gun would be if I had it in the holster. This makes my f'ing blood boil.
No gun in your holster? Is it laying on the table or something? I felt naked going to campus this morning without the fo-tay.