Grieve for the Fallen

Grocery shootout ends in death (Nod to Publicola for the link.)

Lena and Ralph Casey telephoned their daughter, Teresa, at 4 a.m. Saturday with an urgent message: A burglar was rustling through the community grocery they own next to their home.
Teresa and her husband, Ricky A. Thompson, arrived within minutes, armed. Ricky Thompson confronted the intruder inside the store, authorities said.

A gunfight broke out. The two men fired across the small aisles, moving around the store as bullets ricocheted.

Thompson, 43, a well-known mechanic and firefighter in Seven Springs, was struck in the chest and killed.

The burglar was hit at least four times. He fled the store, carrying a canvas duffel filled with batteries, a loaf of bread and other goods. Outside the store, Ralph Casey fired a few shots as the man ran from a side door and darted between parked vehicles.

Then, Teresa Thompson jumped into a Monte Carlo, plowed through a wooden fence in front of the Caseys' home and knocked the intruder down, injuring his legs.

She said in an interview later Saturday that she jumped out and, with her adult daughter, Nita, grabbed pieces of the broken fence and beat the man on the head.

"He still had the gun in his hand," Mrs. Thompson said. "He tried to shoot, and I think it went off, but it missed. Then I took the gun. I tried to shoot him with his own gun. But it was jammed up."

She asked the man why he was there, what he was doing.

"He said he was hungry," Mrs. Thompson said. "My husband's dead, and he said he was hungry."

Go read the rest. My condolences to Mrs. Thompson and the rest of their family.