Korean War Veteran Fatally Shot Following Police ‘Welfare Check’

2nd Amendment – R2KBA Authors Police State S.H. Blannelberry This Week

An elderly Gastonia, North Carolina, man who was recovering from heart surgery was fatally shot by police Saturday night after firemen forcibly entered the man’s home to conduct a welfare check, local media reports.

The victim, identified as 74-year-old James Allen, was a Korean War veteran*. It appears that Allen had armed himself as police were coming through the door.

Here is the timeline of events Saturday night:

10:00 p.m.:

  • Family of James Allen asked police to conduct a welfare check on Allen.
  • Anson County officials contacted the Gastonia Police Department to conduct the check.

10:20 p.m.:

  • An officer went to Allen’s home on Mary Avenue. There was no answer when he knocked on the door.

11:08 p.m.:

  • Anson County started a check of local hospitals. They could not find Allen.

11:30 p.m.:

  • Police called for County EMS and Gastonia Fire Department about a possible death inside Allen’s home.
  • Officer Lefevers announced his presence and entered the home.
  • Allen approached him with a gun and Lefevers shot and killed him.

While investigators are still examining the case, family members are outraged that law enforcement would use deadly force against a man who they said “wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“I think that he probably thought somebody was breaking in his house or robbing him of something,” said Mary Battle, Allen’s sister.

“There should have been a better way to handle this. Something else could have been done,” she continued. “I’m so mad; I’m hurt. I’m hurt.”

Otis Thompson, one of Allen’s friends, echoed those thoughts, explaining that he would have grabbed a gun as well if he heard someone breaking into his home late at night.

“You kicked the man’s door in. He’s disoriented and he’s in his own house, privacy of his own home; my first reaction would be to grab a gun, too,” said Thompson.

Meanwhile, police officials are defending the officers’ response.

“Announcements were made that police were on scene, he was challenged to lay the gun down. The gun was pointed at direction of officers and a shot was fired that fatally wounded him,” said Gaston Police Chief Robert Helton.

Family members said that Allen had trouble hearing which may have added to the confusion.

This is a tragedy that raises a number of questions: Did Allen at any point recognize the intruders as officers of the law? Did the officers do their best to announce themselves and make it obvious that they were there to check on him? Should the family have waited until the next day, during the daylight hours, to place a call for the welfare check?

Perhaps most importantly, how does one avoid this situation in the future?

*The affiliate that reported the story said Allen “fought in the Korean War.”   Media outlets also reported that Allen was 74 years old.  As one GunsAmerica reader pointed out, the math doesn’t really add up.  The Korean war was fought between 1950-53, which would have made Allen awfully young to be in combat.  I don’t know if the news affiliate misreported his combat experience or his age, but something is amiss.

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  • mtman2 February 17, 2015, 8:30 pm

    The call from the PD comes in to the children of the victim-
    “Well you don’t have to worry about your dad anymore.”
    Oh thank you ossipher”
    “Sorry, but he was shot”
    “Of my gosh, a home invasion ossipher?”
    “No, we shot’em!”
    “WHAT?!!”
    “We didn’t mean to.”
    “Well how could you?!!”
    “He was armed so I shot’em”
    “He died at the scene.” -that they made.
    “Police procedure ma’am.”
    “Crying on the phone!”

    Bet that won’t be repeated in that precinct, unless their dumb and dumber ~!

  • John February 17, 2015, 1:20 pm

    How outrageous to do a welfare check at night. I know that if the cops had waited 8 to 10 hours the person having a heart attack, diabetic seizure, stroke, broken back, cerebral hemorrhage, epileptic seizure, etc, etc,
    would still be just dandy and certainly wouldn’t have needed help till them…
    Where do you people come from?

  • John February 17, 2015, 1:11 pm

    I know if someone points a gun at me I’m going to politely ask the person to please not shoot me and I just know they’ll put it down and I’ll be out of danger…right?

  • Russ February 16, 2015, 7:30 pm

    1. Nobody should have been conducting a welfare check in the PM
    2. If they were so concerned for his health, why draw your weapon on the guy?
    3. They’re a bunch of fucking liars and should have backed their ass out immediately upon seeing the occupant.

    Total bullshit story, and another good guy dies.
    Thanks for pissing me off.

    • pete dixon April 28, 2017, 11:15 am

      I get tired of trigger happy LEOs shooting, murdering citizens, pets, and kicking in doors, destroying property. They lie, are trained to take action without assessing situation. They cover for each other. They are investigated entirely different than a citizen. They get breaks, meals, time of inquiry is limited, they can go home and create their stories. In daily duties they not only eat free DONUTS, meals, practice every form of corruption known to man, are the biggest whoremongers in society, beat and abuse people, do “favors” for favors, on and on. I hate BLM but no black person has beat me, shot me, raped a woman in my family, lied in court against me…..as cops often do. Too bad for the good ones (the 20%) vs the guily ones the rest. Rutherford County, Tennessee is a prime example. Cops, deputies, Sheriff, County Attorney, politicians, attornies, and “friends”. Tennessee is most corrupt in union and this filty county is the worst in the state. Corruption stays in the news. If you doubt, run some thorough research on government and political corruption in TN.

  • Sasnak1 February 16, 2015, 4:44 pm

    Hold it….. I know the answer to the age math problem…Brian Williams did the caculations on a Missrember trip.

  • Dave February 16, 2015, 4:28 pm

    I’d really like to know what lights, if any, were on in the home when Lefevers went in or was the only light the one being shined in Allen’s face by Lefevers? Do that in my house at night and I’ll introduce you to my Browning Hi-Power.

  • BRASS February 16, 2015, 4:06 pm

    Please, no welfare checks for me, unless those making them announce themselves very loudly, several times. Give me time to retreat to my safe room before the cops come in.

  • Mig February 16, 2015, 3:16 pm

    Wow, you people are horrible. There’s so much going on in these comments that is near-sighted or flat out wrong. First, about the guy’s age. This 74 year old man was 12 in 1953, at the end of the war. He was 9 when it began. We understand that men younger than 18 have fought in our wars but don’t expect me to believe that some recruiting station allowed a 9-12 year old to enlist and go to Korea, mistakenly or with a “letter from mom.” It’s far more likely that he served in our military and was stationed in Korea at some point in his life like many have done and continue to do on the DMZ today. This only bothers me because it was added to the headline to sensationalize the incident. The fact that he is a veteran and the specifics of his service don’t add or take anything away from what happened. They do not justify or condemn the people involved in this incident.

    Next, the commenter who thinks that a member of the family should have gone in with the police doesn’t appreciate the risk that poses to that person. That family member may have been shot by the homeowner. Don’t think it doesn’t happen. Unfortunately there have been incidents of gun owners checking out
    the “bump in the night” which ended with an unannounced family member being shot, sometimes killed or at the least having a gun pointed at them and the mistake caught in the very last moment before the trigger was pulled. There have been documented incidents of this happening, there is no telling how many close calls there have been which went unreported.

    Despite this, no one can prevent you from conducting your own “welfare check” on your loved one. If you do and it goes sideways you really have only yourself to blame. You should set yourself up for success. A great suggestion from another commenter was to go to the house in the light of day. It’s easier for everyone to see who’s who and it’s reasonable to assume that the occupant will be awake and less likely to be startled. That doesn’t work for many people though, because as a society we ALL can be impatient and want instant answers and explanations to why “dad” or uncle whoever hasn’t been heard of in 3 weeks. I always think to myself but am not allowed to ask, “why haven’t you tried to contact your loved one in 3 weeks?” That’s just an example, not meant to be specific to this incident. At the end if the day, you k is your loved one better than the police so you should make all reasonable efforts to check on them yourself. Leading a team of officers into a house in the middle of the night is not reasonable, it’s setting yourself up for failure. If you are hurt or killed in the process, no one will blame you though. They’ll blame the police who were there- which is why the police don’t let unarmed/unarmored/untrained people lead the way or run their calls for them.

    I’m a cop. According to most of you that makes me a trigger happy, warmongering, corrupt, theiving, murderous Jack-booted thug of a Nazi. If you genuinely feel that way about the police in general then you have no business calling the police ever again in your life. I won’t defend my actions to you and will offer no explanation or apology. Nothing that I could explain or apologize for would reach you. For those of you who aren’t that far gone, I’ll offer my personal experiences going on “welfare checks” they are often called in by family or friends that live out of town. I also often find out that even when the caller lives locally, they are far removed from the daily social sphere of the person inside the house. I would be interested to know how often this 74
    year old received phone calls or visits
    from his family before they decided to call the police. A welfare check can go a lot of different ways. It can go as easy as knocking on the front door, which is promptly answered by the occupant and they say, “oh, my phone was off I didn’t realize they were trying to call me.” Or, “I hate his/her guts, I don’t want to talk to that member of my family.” Sometimes there’s no answer at the door and we leave things alone. Sometimes, family members don’t take no for an answer and call the station repeatedly making complaints to supervisors and threatening to sue if we don’t force our way into the home of someone who “would never go without answering the phone for us.” I can confidantly say that myself and guys I work with don’t want to kick in anyone’s door and we usually don’t have to. We often enter in a car less dramatic manner, such as opening an unlocked sliding glass door. I’ve found that if someone says that their loved one is or has committed suicide, we end up finding someone who has killed themselves or is in the process of doing so greater than 80% of the time. If it’s an derly family member that no ones heard from in days, 5% of the time we find an antisocial elderly person as previously mentioned. Most of the time we unfortunately find a ghastly, bloated corpse in advanced stages of decay. I always feel terrible for these poor neglected people that no one thought to check on sooner.
    What everyone seems to be missing is that forcing entry is our last resort. We don’t do it because we want to or because we think it’s cool. We make phone calls, look in windows, talk to the occupant’s neighbors, boss/coworkers, friends, check their social media and do anything else we can think of to avoid a confrontation such as what happened I this news story. We do this because although it is not combat, there are many parolees that can drawn from patrol work in the military and patrol work in policing. There is nothing natural about doing a building search in the dark where you may or may not find a person and have to react to what they do. I don’t feel good about what happened to the homeowner in this incident and don’t think anyone should. Too many of you are jumping on the police and generalizing way way too much because it’s the easy thing to do. I know I can’t reach all of you but I hope I at least gave some of you some perspective. There are still good cops out there.

    • john davis February 16, 2015, 4:32 pm

      Mig
      thank you for your service to your community and for your candid remarks in this forum.
      i have read all the comments in this forum and yours was the ONLY voice of reason.
      whatever happened to Common Sense in the world we live in today?
      I am a 64 year old male non vet non police officer …..just a citizen who had to speak out
      in your support after listening to these idiots huff and puff and prove their ignorance.
      i agree with your comment that daylight was a far better time to check on the mans welfare.
      and just to head off the comments comming my way i am not a tree hugging liberal that hates
      police officers and our service men and women.
      if my door comes crashing open after dark rest assured i WILL have a gun in my hand to protect
      my family and my life.
      god bless you and yours officer mig
      jdee

    • Leadsender February 16, 2015, 5:08 pm

      I thank you for your service. My buddy and neighbor is a police officer as well. I must say that he has changed over the eight years that sense he too the oath. Going in wide eyed and dealing with people other than up standing citizens has changed his view. People expect more from law enforcement and they are not getting it. You have the president of the NY police basicly stating that he is declaring war of the citizens of NY. You have the study by researchers posted in USA TODAY showing that police officer had killed nearly 400 black and brown youngsters in a year period. Just the other day we saw police gun down a mexican man as he ran away. If this were Joe citizen, we would be on our way to jail and then prison for murder. When you know better you shoud do better. We have the technology to prevent incidences like this. Common sense for one, even though common sense is not common anymore.

    • Wake him up and kill him February 16, 2015, 11:44 pm

      Bla..bla..bla, your brother in arms still killed yet another innocent man in his own home and will get away with it, yet again.
      And I am a Vet during viet nam and I went to Iraq twice.
      You don’t murder people steeping in their own bed in the middle of the night, no excuses

    • rab February 17, 2015, 10:13 pm

      Do you approach every situation as if you may meet an armed asailant?

  • dave February 16, 2015, 12:50 pm

    Just as an FYI, I know a guy who fought in Korea too, and he at the age of 15. And per other stories I’ve heard from my family, in those days you could lie about your age to a recruiter and join the military. I’ve also been told of recruiters accepting underage boys with notes ‘from your mother’ – also ‘back in the day’.

    And just BTW, any idiot can shout ‘police’ as they bust in your door. I’d have shot too, but before they had the chance to shoot me.

    • Leadsender February 16, 2015, 4:35 pm

      I have posted before that anyone coming through my door in the middle of the nigt is going to be greeted with gun fire. I say this because I am not doing anything which would warrent you coming through my doors uninvited. This warning goes out to the police, people saying that they are the police, home invaders and B & E guys. The events of the night will be cleared after the smoke!

  • michael February 16, 2015, 11:43 am

    As a Vietnam era vet who continues to have what they call now ptsb or what ever they want to call it It is very natural reaction to defend yourself. I don’t know any combat vet that at one time or the other that doesn’t have this problem.
    I am old, not able to defend myself like I did when I was young. It is late at night I am half asleep or sound asleep. I am awaken by a loud sound of sometime breaking. I am disorientated. My first response is to protect myself which ever means I have. Are they Viet Cong? Are they NVA? I don’t want to die. Then I here the words Lay the Gun Down.
    People you don’t flip the switch that fast! Those words could mean any at that point.
    I am really surprised that the cop wasn’t shot.
    Given enough time, reality would set in and you would come back. Because the man did not fire on the officer he was probably coming back.
    This and all officer of the law need to be retrained. You are not in a battle situation. Most of you don’t know what that is, and hopefully you will never have too. So quit being so egotistic it not you against us. And that is on both sides.

  • Liberty1776 February 16, 2015, 11:35 am

    No one else can legally shoot you in your home when you are armed and they break in, but the police certainly seem to get a free pass on this. It would be different if this was a rare occurrence, but there are dozens and dozens of these each year and seem to be on the increase.

    • dave February 16, 2015, 12:58 pm

      Liberty1776 –
      cops get a pass on nearly everything. In many states (including mine) it is a felony to ‘interfere’ with a cop acting ‘in the line of duty’. So as long as he claims it’s an investigation or a pursuit or even ‘police business’ (which buys him time to decide what kind it allegedly was) – he can grab your teenaged daughter, or little boy, strip them down on the front lawn and do a cavity search on them in public – and you’ll be in prison for complaining. You’re supposed to stand there and watch and then sue the department later. How wrong is that? You know, it’s like the beat down for resisting arrest when no arrest has been announced – you see that one on videos all the time. How often do cops get arrested for that one? So seldom it’s front page news when it does happen – but the beatings happen all the time.

  • ImpalaTommy February 16, 2015, 11:26 am

    Why do the police in this situation always seem to choose the “Shoot to Kill” option instead of a wounding shot?

  • leslie boldy February 16, 2015, 10:31 am

    We have, the primitive, violent, murderous, negro and the primitive, violent, murderous, thugs in uniform. They deserve each other.

    • Bob June 24, 2017, 3:02 pm

      What do the violent murderous young whitey boys deserve?

  • George February 16, 2015, 10:13 am

    Senseless, avoidable tragedy. Citizens in most places in this country have a legal right to have a weapon in their homes. You have to expect an armed response from residents when you break into a home in the middle of the night. During the day, Mr. Allen probably would not have been as startled, and would certainly have had a better chance to recognize the responders as such. There was not the type of urgency here you would have with a disturbance call. Whoever approved this forcible entry operation in the middle of the night is just as responsible as the officer who pulled the trigger, if not more so. Shooter and supervisor both should be removed from duty and prosecuted for this homicide. If that doesn’t happen (And it probably won’t) it reinforces the impression many people have that too many in law enforcement in this country value their own safety far above the citizens’, and are simply too quick to use deadly force.

  • OZ February 16, 2015, 9:40 am

    Or he could have lied when he enlisted which some young men have done. Unless he was drafted. Even so, there could have been an error in is d.o.b. and was possibly inaccurately drafted.

  • Mike M February 16, 2015, 9:26 am

    Always remember…the media does NOT care about truth or accuracy, just sensationalism. I would be skeptical of the report of age, service time, address, sex of the individual, location…and on…and on. There is not such thing as an honest news report these days. It’s all about getting the ratings.

  • RAM February 16, 2015, 8:45 am

    Never ever call the police for help. They are not there to help you. You will wind up either dead or your life ruined.

  • Rip February 16, 2015, 8:27 am

    I’m with Roscoe , the call was for a check out not a tip for crashing through a drug dealers door.They should fry the asshole cop for bad judgement and drawing his weapon firing and killing this man. They should have backed off when they saw the old guy holding his gun after all they were in his house.

    • DB February 16, 2015, 6:36 pm

      Did it ever occur to anyone that this police officer was doing what he was ordered to do? It is tragic this veteran died. It is also tragic this police officer will have to live with having taken this man’s life. For anyone who has had to pull the trigger, life is not at all easy afterwards. It makes no logical sense to assume the officer wanted to kill this poor elderly man. Would it have been better for the police officer to have not been there at all so we could mourn the loss of the five fire fighters and paramedics that were there also? The police officer was not the only life hanging in the balance. I would hope there would be more support for civility among this community. Dialogue, yes. Demagogue, no.

      • No reason 2 shoot February 16, 2015, 11:28 pm

        It seems to me the only life in danger was the man that the cop murdered…the cop should have backed stating who he was until recognized by the old guy. The old guy didn’t come out threading anyone, his house was broken into by the cop.

  • JakeBlanton February 16, 2015, 8:19 am

    As they say, “Don’t call the cops unless you’re wanting someone shot AND you’re too damn lazy to do it yourself”…

    • Leslie boldy February 16, 2015, 10:18 am

      100% right.

  • Winston February 16, 2015, 7:57 am

    Another war zone wannabe cop. Charges should be filed. The family should sue these clowns for beaking into the 74 year old man’s home at midnight. The US more like Nazi run Ukraine with such disregard for the life of the individual and private property.

    • Bob Tavlin February 17, 2015, 9:24 am

      I’d like to know more about this “moderation censorship”. Guns America needs to step up and explain.

      And, regarding another response about Nazi’s and the Ukraine, ….. WTF ?

      • Jamie February 18, 2015, 11:51 pm

        Bob, I’d also like to hear from guns America about the comment “moderation” issue. I submitted a comment on another article about 45 minutes ago and received the same response as the person above–that my comment was “awaiting moderation.” I went back to check on it a few minutes ago, and now it’s not there at all. Hmm.

  • Roscoe February 16, 2015, 7:00 am

    Another murder committed by law enforcement, plain and simple. When the cop saw that the HOMEOWNER was armed, it was his duty to retreat- get the hell out of the man’s house. Period. Just because you “Announce” yourself in no way means anyone heard you, nor does it give you the right to break in to the home, welfare Check or not. The cop was an uninvited, unwelcome intruder. He had absolutely no justification for killing this man. He wanted to, that’s obvious. He deliberately escalated the incident to the point where he could shoot the man and know he’d get away with it. It makes absolutely no sense for the cop to have stayed in the house other than his own inflated ego and psychopathic need to kill someone. It’s unfortunate that the homeowner wasn’t able to return fire and kill the officer.

    • leslie boldy February 16, 2015, 10:20 am

      100 % right.

    • Helmet February 16, 2015, 1:40 pm

      The Korean war has never offially ended.There is something wrong in the world today. But I’m not sure what it is.That is all.

    • Chuck in Phoenix February 16, 2015, 11:23 pm

      Agreed

  • Paul Kisling February 16, 2015, 6:38 am

    Well they checked his welfare off the list… With cops like this you sure don’t need murderers.

  • Larry February 16, 2015, 6:16 am

    During the 1960’s there was the USS PUEBLO INCIDENT AND ALSO THE North Korean Hacking of ten USA soldiers at the DMZ there. This man might qualify under one of these incidents to be listed war veteran of Korea ?

    • praharin February 16, 2015, 11:10 am

      “war veteran of Korea” is not the same as Korean War Veteran.

  • galuyasdi February 16, 2015, 3:26 am

    74-53=21. He could have been there for the whole thing if he went there at 18. Pretty basic math. One man I knew turned 18 at the Frozen Chosin.
    Quite a few of us turned 18 in Vietnam. I’m 60 years old.
    More to the point, perhaps, are studies indicating around a very high percentage of law enforcement officers are psychologically unfit to carry firearms.

    • Santa Walt February 16, 2015, 7:40 am

      Your basic math is incorrect. You cannot subtract the year from his age. Subtract his age from this year to determine his birth year. Then subtract his birth year from the end of the Korean Conflict (1953) and the answer is 12. I really don’t think a 12 year old was active in the Korean Conflict.

      • Liberty1776 February 16, 2015, 11:32 am

        That’s not really the point… this is the point – “are studies indicating around a very high percentage of law enforcement officers are psychologically unfit to carry firearms.”

    • George February 16, 2015, 8:17 am

      The Korean war started 65 years ago and ended 62 years ago. If this man was 74 it makes no sense he would be a veteran of that conflict. You’re forgetting there have been 15 years since the end of the last century in your “basic” math.

      • Leadsender February 16, 2015, 4:14 pm

        I am not going to question his age. We do have a picture of him in uniform. It also should be easy to check with veterans administration. It should also be noted that many older black folks do not have birth certificates let alone accurate birth certificates with correct information.

    • Joe February 16, 2015, 8:21 am

      74-53 certainly equals 21, but what that has to do with this escapes me.

      Hint: This man wasn’t 21 during the Korean War

      Gubmint schools!

    • tdw844 February 16, 2015, 9:25 am

      If you do the math correctly he would have been 12 or 13 in 1953 depending on his birthday since he was born sometime in 1941. He would never have been a “Korean War Veteran”. That story error doesn’t diminish the issue of the police shooting him when they entered his home. They should have never entered without a family member present. Why the family would have asked only the police to check on him and not go themselves is never explained but seems odd.

      • praharin February 16, 2015, 10:59 am

        That assumes the story is totally true and not spun to increase distrust of police. Not saying that’s the case, but I hope others besides myself can see the danger there as well.

    • praharin February 16, 2015, 10:57 am

      2015-1953= 62

      Meaning the Korean War ended 62 years ago.

      74-62 =12.

      2015-1975=40, meaning you were 20 at the end of the Vietnam war.

      53 years ago was 1962.

    • Bob February 16, 2015, 12:39 pm

      Nope. Get the calculator back out. 2015-74 YO=DOB of 1941. 1941+17=1958. Maybe he went there in the good old days when a hershey bar could get you all night pogee.

    • Jim S. February 16, 2015, 5:17 pm

      I also have a friend that turned 18 at the Frozen Chosin and had 5 Purple Hearts by his 18th birthday, but this man was too young to have been in the Korean War.

  • Al February 11, 2015, 11:15 am

    A better idea would have been for the family to get a cheap handheld bullhorn (it has a siren) and use it outside the home – instead of calling the police. NEVER CALL THE POLICE EXCEPT AS A LAST RESORT: I’ve heard of 911 calls for an ambulance (medical emergency) being answered by a swat team: The woman in her 90’s was outraged and tazered in her bed. It was only a medical emergency and she was the patient. That is how far out of control the police are. They are hiring sociopaths who are chomping at the bit to use deadly force on innocent people. Call a neighbor, go there yourself, but don’t call the police – it could end very badly.

    • Patriot February 16, 2015, 6:41 am

      AI, I would have to agree with you. There are so many documented occurrences of inappropriate and deadly instances of police on power trips. Very sad America has come to a time where we have cops on steroids with guns and with a “us against them” mental attitude.

      Welfare check; What the hell!

  • Dokko February 10, 2015, 10:33 pm

    Very tragic story…
    Curious how a 74-year-old can be a Korean War vet. He would have been 9-12 yrs old. Maybe Vietnam vet?

  • Slim February 10, 2015, 6:22 pm

    Very tragic story. A family member to lazy to go and check on a loved one. The least the family could have done was explain to officials that the deceased was hard of hearing, and offer to come to the scene if no answe if possible.

    • TMT February 16, 2015, 11:35 am

      Wouldn’t it be great if it really was like “Blue Bloods” but it isn’t really anything like that. The police at every level from small town to the feds have become the problem and are in many cases no better than the criminals. In the mean time our idiot politicians have enacted laws that criminalize the average citizen for things that should never have been illegal in the first place and have demonized any citizen daring to possess or be seen with a gun. Everyday some trigger happy cop guns down an average and obviously innocent citizen and then the blue shield is thrown up to protect some asshole whole should never have been a cop in the first place. In the sixties and seventies we had a word for these SS Gestapo types: PIGS and that term has never been more relevant than today. Law enforcement agencies have become common thieves through traffic stops etc. And I’m not talking about shootings like the one in Ferguson, or where vicious gangs are involved. That dick and those like him should have been blown away but not old dudes whose homes has been attacked by over zealous law enforcement types who have been overly empowered by misguided politicos. I love and have fought for my country but my government scares the shit out of me.

      • TMT February 16, 2015, 11:40 am

        When I hit submit a message came up that my comment is awaiting moderation which equals censorship and if that is the case, I’d not be interested in reading anything here again nor will I bother wasting my time contributing any further.

        • Bill Richardson February 16, 2015, 12:24 pm

          We thank you from the heart of our bottom for your timely departure!

        • Bob Tavlin February 17, 2015, 9:09 am

          I’d like to know more about this “moderation censorship”. Guns America needs to step up and explain.

      • leslie boldy February 16, 2015, 12:52 pm

        I’m 81 years old and was a kid in the SS Gestapo era and can tell you that the gestapo was a League of gentlemen, compare to our thugs in uniform, what passes now days for police. They didn’t kill 1000 unarmed citizens in the streets or in their houses

        • JD Bartlett February 17, 2015, 2:26 am

          No, the GESTAPO did not kill a thousand or two; they murdered millions!

        • DAVID CHARPENTIER February 17, 2015, 12:26 pm

          You moron, your calling the Gestapo gentlemen? are you that fucked up in the head , they killed millions you idiot, you idiots talking about the police officers, i’d like to see you do their job just one day. They are put in these situations that they have seconds to decide to either shoot or be shot . Are they all perfect , no, who is? If the family weren’t to busy sitting on their lazy asses, then they could of checked on the man, but then they were too busy fucking with the cops that are trying to protect your sorry asses. have a good day

      • John Shirley February 16, 2015, 7:46 pm

        Pride, Integrity, GutS, dick head!

      • Vernon Rosa February 17, 2015, 10:23 am

        (“Everyday some trigger happy cop guns down an average and obviously innocent citizen…”) So, 365 people are killed each year by “trigger happy” cops? Really? Where? What an idiot! Without knowing who the officer was, you announce he was an asshole who shouldn’t have been allowed to be a cop in the first place? How in the world can you justify such an ignorant viewpoint? Was this situation a tragedy? Of course. Could it have been avoided? Probably, but family members should have been directly involved instead of asking police to do the welfare check. Did anyone think to tell the police the man was hard of hearing? That he owned firearms? Was the man also blind that he could not see the cop was in uniform? You, TMT, should use your brain and attempt to look at all sides of a situation before you condemn the cops out of hand.

    • Leadsender February 16, 2015, 4:04 pm

      The first thing you need to do is stop blaming the family. This is another reaason why black folk are hesitant about calling the police. This is not the first time that calling the police has resulted in the death of a family member. If my reading was correct, family members were in another town. They must have had some concerns becaused they did try to get someone to check on the family member. My question was the same as the first person they talked to. Who does a welfare check at mid night? Who does a welfare check on the elderly with out social services being present? How do you know that the family did not inform LE that this family member had a hearing problem? This will go down as another justifiable police shooting with no justice for the family. What a strange world we live. A person can survive war, heart surgery and then be killed by police who are supposed to serve and protect.

      • Sargon February 16, 2015, 11:42 pm

        ‘Welfare checks’ are, generally, not carried out by police (30 years as a paramedic tells me this.), usually by EMS and fire services. Unfortunately, the phenomena of breaking into the wrong house to ‘help’ someone happens. Probably, at least once a year, per catchment area. Sometimes it can get really out of hand, with the wrong people being taken to the hospital. People whom aren’t even sick. This is a career ender for a paramedic or fire officer, as it is, effectively, kidnapping.

        Police are specifically not sent to do welfare checks because they have no idea what they are looking for, are incapable of–and generally refuse to–rendering medical aid and having to call for medical aid after they get there means people potentially die because of the delay. They are, also, not sent because they have an alarming tendency to shoot sick, confused, deaf or otherwise disabled patients and/or fire/EMS personnel.

        Increasingly, cops have a tendency to be complete cowards and are scared by everything. Which results in people unnecessarily dying. (“What’s happening today in the performance of some officers can only be described as sheer cowardice.” Frank Serpico http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/serpico-wedge-driven-police-society-article-1.2034651)

        • DAVID CHARPENTIER February 17, 2015, 12:33 pm

          I honestly don’t even think you are a medic, for you to talk so bad about the police offices like that is fuckerd up, what are you one us those volunteer hackers, In my area , police officers are the ones that do welfare checks. In that little hick town you live in , i’m sure thats how you do it , but in the real world that’s how its done , we don’t make fun of other professionals , because when your sorry ass is in trouble , you’ll be calling them .

        • rabrooks February 17, 2015, 10:04 pm

          I agree, why is it, that with all the “tools” available to a cop, do they immediately choose the gun? This seems to be that only way they are chooseing to react to situations. Why if it wasn’t a response to a crime, did the cop go in as if anyone in the house was to be treated as a perp/criminal?

    • Norm February 16, 2015, 8:28 pm

      I’m 76 and was in Jr. High and high school during the Korean War. Something doesn’t add up.

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