Guest Post by Mara Zebest
A deranged man with a gun started to shoot at residents over a squabble about dogs. The shooter, Charles Ronald Conner, not only killed the man with the dogs, but started to go on a killing spree to kill other residents. When an officer responded to the location, Conner immediately started shooting at the officer. The officer returned fire but a tree protected Conner and gave Conner an advantage. A neighbor who witnessed events had a clear view of Conner (a side view to Conner behind the tree). Thus he went to retrieve his own gun to help the officer, and killed Conner, which saved the officer’s life.
A video here of the Sheriff’s explanation of the events. An interview with the man who aided the officer gives his account in the below video:
Guns.com reports the following:
It’s not every day that you hear the police give a civilian a warm “thank you” for entering a lethal shootout, but that’s exactly what happened in Early, Texas on Sunday. But before we get into the heroic civilian shooter, let’s back up a bit. […]
It all began, innocently enough, “as a squabble over dogs.” David Michael House, 58, and Iris Valentina Calaci, 53, were both residents at the Peach House RV Park in central Texas. They were also dog owners, and their pooches allegedly had a nasty habit of relieving themselves on the lawn of neighbor Charles Ronald Conner, 58.
According to eyewitnesses, Conner approached House about his dog, and an argument broke out. Rather than dealing with the confrontation like a normal human being, Conner allegedly went back to his RV, got his gun, returned to House, and lethally shot him.
The gun shots prompted Calaci to run screaming from her trailer home, but she didn’t get far. Conner chased her down, shot her once and then fired another shot into her, execution style.
Amazingly, Conner’s shooting spree didn’t end there. He also shot and killed the two dogs that, in his confused mind, started the mess.
Fatally shooting your neighbors over an issue of dog doo might seem absurdly over-the-top to normal people like you and us, but it might have appeared perfectly sensible to Conner. Conner’s family explained that he had “mental problems.” Police later found a notebook in Conner’s trailer with nearly incomprehensible “ramblings.”
Conner might’ve been able to get a lenient sentence in court due to his troubled mental state, but that day will never come – there was to be one more shooting on that tragic day, this time in the name of defense. […]
Sgt. Steven Means of the Early Police Department came rolling onto the scene, but he had barely gotten out of his car before Conner began opening fire on the officer. Means took cover behind his police car and returned fire with an AR-15, but Conner maintained cover behind a tree. Eyewitnesses report that this positioning gave Conner the upper hand over the out-gunned police officer. […]
Read more here for the rest of the story.
Hat Tip: Ron D.
