A 22-year-old man was fatally shot early Wednesday after he forced his way into his ex-girlfriend’s house and started kicking in the door of the bedroom where she and her boyfriend were sleeping said. Police said the woman’s boyfriend, 29, grabbed a handgun and started firing, hitting Sammien Chopp once in the left chest as he pushed into the room. “It appears to be self-defense, but we will confer with the district attorney’s office to get a final dtermination.” said homicide Sgt. J.D. Thomton. After the shooting, police said, Chopp got into a 1990 white Jaguar and tried to drive to a hospital. Shortly before 8:30 a.m., a patrol officer saw the Jaguar driving erractically along the northbound service road of Interstate 35W just south of Berry Street. When it stopped in a traffic lane, Thomton said, the officer got out of his patrol car, put the Jaguar in park and discovered that the driver had been shot. An ambulance took Chopp to John Peter Smith hospital, where he died at 9:14 a.m. In the meantime, police received a call from a house in the 5600 of De Cory Road, where Chopp had been shot. At the time they did not know it was related to the man in the Jaguar. The man who shot Chopp had left after the shooting, but police called him, and he voluntarily went to the Ploice Department. “We interviewed him and he was released based on the statement he gave and the statement of the witnesses.” Thomton said, declining to release the man’s name because he was not arrested. ….According to court records, Chopp has several convictions for drugs and one for evading arrest. At the time of his death, he was awaiting trial on two drug charges, one for unlawful firearm possession, one for resisting arrest and one for assualt causing bodily injury.
Star-Telegram,Fort Worth, Tx., 01/12/07
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One man was shot dead and his brother critically wounded late Wednesday after the two reportedly broke into a home in Shreveport’s Highland neighborhood. Police indetified the dead man Thursday as Leonard Ellison, 24, of Shreveport and the wounded man as Jeremy Ellison, 20, of Shreveport. The shooting in a house in the 500 of Stoner Avenue was called in to emergency dispatchers at 11:13 p.m., according to Caddo 911 records. A police patrol report says two men broke into the house when the occupant, identified in major incident reports as Emmanuel Henery, confronted them. Police found Leonard Ellison in the kitchen with a single gunshot wound to his head. He later died at LSU Hospital in Shreveport, police spokeswoman Kacee Hargrave said. Jeremy Ellison was found shot six times, twice in each leg and twice in the side. He was taken to the hospital as well. The patrol report says he was expected to recover from his wounds. Police recovered two semi-automatic weapons at the scene, Detective Patrick McConnell said. Hargrave said police retrieved about $200 taken by the suspects during the robbery. There were other occupants in the house, Hargrave said. “The shooter is 56 years old,” she told The Times, adding that another person in the house, the oldest occupant was a 66-year-old man. “There also was a 29-year-old male and a 28-year-old female in the residence. I believe those were the only witnesses.” Jeremy Ellison has been charged with armed robbery with a firearm. Police have classified the case as a justifiable homicide and will not charge Henery in the incident, McConnell said Thursday. The case will be sent to the Caddo district attorney’s office for review.
The Shreveport Times,Shreveport, Louisiana,01/12/07
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Police are indebted to a woman who shot an armed carjacker in a Wal-Mart parking lot Saturday–a suspect in nine other armed robberies, Richard County Sheriff Leon Lott said Tuesday. Harold Levar Jeffcoat, 28, was arrested Sunday at Providence Hospital Northeast after seeking treatment for a gunshot wound in his buttocks. Police said a man was shot as he attempted to rob a couple getting into their car outside the Two Notch Road Wal-Mart about 9 p.m. Saturday. The male victim, whose identity wasn’t disclosed, told police the attacker pushed a gray pistol into his stomach and demanded the keys to the car. The unidentified woman reached into the car and pulled a pistol from the glove box, according to a sheriff’s report. She fired five shots at the attacker, who dropped his pistol as he ran away. He fled in a burgundy Buick. “We’re kind of hailing [the man and woman] as heroes,” Lott said. He said police don’t encourage people to go out and “just start shooting,” but they do encourage people to protect themselves. Jeffcoat, who is accused in 10 armed robberies in Richland County and Columbia in less than a month, has an arrest record dating back 12 years. …Jeffcoat is accused of robbing several businesses and individuals between Dec. 19 and Jan. 13, and was the Midlands Most Wanted in The State newspaper Monday. …Lott said investigators were able to zero in on Jeffcoat as a suspect because he was identified by people he is accused of robbing. “That’s what made him even more dangerous,” Lott said. “He knew we were after him and he wasn’t concealing his identity and he wasn’t slowing down.” Police said he had changed his appearance possibly after learning of warrants for his arrest. A booking photo taken Sunday shows Jeffcoat with closely cropped hair. But a photograph the sheriff’s department last week showed Jeffcoat with short dread locks according to incident reports. Jeffcoat’s record includes convictions for drug possession with intent to distribute in 1995 and second degree burglary in 2005, according tothe State Law Enforcement Division. In 2004, he served one year in jail for violating his probation on a asault and battery charge. He was last arrested in July 2006 on charges of drug possession and distribution near a school. The disposition of those charges in unclear. Jeffcoat is in custody at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, according to detention center records.
The State,Columbia, South Carolina,1/17/2007
