Woman: Shooting man was self-defense

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

A 70-year-old Bedford Township woman said Friday she had no choice but to shoot a man coming at her with a shovel.



"I didn't want to hurt him but I didn't want him to hurt me," Virginia Hawes said in an interview at her home in Bedford Hills Mobile Village. "I didn't want to kill him. I just wanted to stop him. If he would have stopped, no one would have gotten hurt."

Battle Creek police said Hawes shot Nicholas Beltz, 24, in the leg in her yard about 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

"He kept coming at me. I pointed the gun at his head, but I didn't want to shoot him in the head. I wimped out," she said.

Hawes said Beltz threatened her after she called police because his girlfriend, Emily Bannister, 18, said she was being assaulted.


http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20090822/NEWS01/908220309/1002/NEWS01/Woman--Shooting-man-was-self-defense

[madeline_con]

1. Way to go. A leg shot. n/t

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

2. Why don't the gun grabbers ever reply to these?

[proteus_lives]

4. They're scared.

Self-defense is a hate crime to them.

[rd_kent]

5. Because the convoluted logic they use won't fly with stories like this.

[Euromutt]

3. "He said, 'Shoot me in the head old bitch and I will take the gun away from you,'"

Sui generis, was that you?

[JonQ]

6. Typical rambo gun nut

just out to kill or maim someone to make up for his own tiny penis and inability to get laid.

AmIright?

Oh wait . . .

[TheWraith]

7. A 70 year old woman makes a leg shot?

That's a hell of a shot. Though honestly, when somebody has a gun pointed at your head and you come at them with a shovel, that might be cause for a Darwin award.

[virginia mountainman]

8. They won't answer...

It does not reflect the "brady rmantra" of "He will get angry, take the gun away and kill you with it"

[57_TomCat]

9. Good for her!

It is always heart warming to see someone stand up for the oppressed and then have the ability as well as fortitude to defend their actions when necessary.

Another bad guy made a couple of poor choices of victim selection.

[Statistical]

10. Only thing I would say is leg shot is a small target...

She got lucky or is a lifetime sharpshooter. If she missed he would have had time to hit her with shovel.

Me I will stick to center mass both the head and leg are small targets. Controlled pair to the chest and if target is still coming they either have body armor or are high on something so next shot is head shot.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

11. Kick.

[Hoopla Phil]

12. Another innocent saved through the use of a firearm.