here’s one where the family of a criminal cry;”My boy is a good boy, he’s just a victim of society, he only had a hammer……….
BOOHOOHOO!”

The hammer,like a knife and firearm are ALL TOOLS/ Weapons of choices for criminals………. Innocent law abiding citizens have a basic fundamental human RIGHT to defend themselves regardless of the tools/weapons of choices used by CRIMINALS! Regulating/legislating these TOOLS will NOT deter crime!

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The Town Talk
http://www.thetowntalk.com/html/A6623198-1C92-41E6-93C4-E397512BDA5A.shtml
Family defends man killed in robbery
Posted on January 18, 2003
Mandy Goodnight
Police tape encircles K&T Grocery at 124 W. Lincoln Road where an
alleged burglar was fatally shot Wednesday by the store’s owner.

VILLE PLATTE – Friday was eerily quiet here at K&T Grocery at 124 W.
Lincoln Road.

The store, usually bustling with customers, was closed, and a
handwritten sign informed people that the store will reopen Monday.

Yellow police tape encircling the building was the only sign of
Wednesday night’s tragedy.

The grocery store’s owner fatally shot Leon
Scott, 22, of Ville Platte during an alleged robbery. It was the city’s
first homicide of 2003.
Scott and two other men are accused of robbing the store’s owner and his
wife as they were preparing to close Wednesday.

Gregory Freeman of Ville Platte was taken into custody Thursday while
the third suspect remains on the loose. Police said Friday that they
know who the final suspect is but do not want to release his name.

Sgt. Linton Fontenot, who is investigating the case, said Freeman is in
custody but has not been officially charged.

Fontenot said no charges have been filed against the storeowner in
connection with
Scott’s death. He further said the case will be turned over to the
Evangeline Parish District Attorney’s Office for review and
determination if any charges will be filed.

Police have not released the name of the storeowner nor that of his
wife.

A pall of sadness could be felt at 911 Cypress St. in Ville Platte. This
was where Leon Scott had lived off and on with his mother and extended
family members.

All of them said Scott had wielded a hammer, not a gun. They were not
sure why he was shot to death.

Gladys Marie Scott, Leon Scott’s mother, stood outside the Cypress
Street house and tearfully asked why the owner shot her son.

Leon Scott’s aunt, Belva Laday, said she did not know why, if Scott was
robbing the store, was he not shot in the legs rather than the face and
in the side.

“Why did he have to die?” she asked as tears welled in her eyes. “He
could have lived.”
Laday said she was close to her nephew, and he came by her house every
day to check on her.

“He was very good, never sassy,” Laday said. Gertie Scott, 20, said that
she was close to her brother. She said she is very upset and at the same
time surprised that this happened.

“He was quiet and respectful,” Gertie Scott said, adding that most
people in the neighborhood knew her brother as “Tab,” short for his
longtime nickname, Ta-boo.

“He drank and stuff, but rob? Never,” Gertie Scott said. “He wasn’t
someone who would be (influenced) by others to do something. He had his
own mind.”

Standing next to her brother’s parked car, Gertie Scott said it would be
hard getting over his death.

“We miss him a lot,” she said.

Another aunt, Joyce Frank, said Leon Scott and Gregory Freeman, another
suspect in the robbery, were close friends and always roughhousing.

“They were really good friends,” Frank said. “They would always sit in
the house and laugh and joke.”

Laday added that you never saw one without the other. She said Freeman
was a good boy and she had nothing bad to say about him. Gladys Scott
cried as her family talked about her only son’s death. She said she was
“in a fog.”

The family learned Scott was in bad shape late Wednesday night when the
hospital and police contacted them. Laday said her nephew was conscious
at the hospital and even asked for his mother and aunt.

She said the family was told he kept saying he was sorry and asked for
forgiveness.

They said the hospital staff did their job and tried to save Scott.

“We just don’t understand,” Laday said.
Fontenot admitted there are some aspects of the incident that remain
under investigation. He said at least one man was armed with a gun but
did not know about the others involved.

What officers do know is that the three men walked into the store and
got an undetermined amount of money from the owner and his wife. The
wife called police at 9:55 p.m. to report her husband had been robbed.

Officers arrived to find Scott in the store with wounds to his face and
his side. He was taken to Ville Platte Medical Center where he later
died.

It is unknown what caused the gunfire, and police said they do not know
who fired first and how much of an exchange of gunfire there was.
Officers said they recovered bullet fragments at the scene but have not
determined from which weapons they came. It does not appear the other
suspects were injured. The owner’s wife was “roughed up” but not
seriously injured, Fontenot said.

People in Ville Platte described the couple who own the store as “nice”
and “hardworking.”

They apparently live about an hour from Ville Platte and drive to work
daily.

Josh Charles and Thaddeus Augustine, both of Ville Platte, live in the
neighborhood adjacent to the store.

They said the commotion in the neighborhood that night was tremendous.

“I heard he shot him because he pointed a gun at his wife, and that they
shot at him and he shot back,” Charles said.

Augustine said he frequented the small store and did not hesitate to say
the owners were “nice.”

Chris Reed, owner of Dalbis’ Meat Market and Grocery, just two blocks
from the crime scene said the incident was “horrible.”

“How can you put into words something like that happening so close to
where you work?” Reed asked. “Those guys (the suspects) have probably
been in my store before.”

Reed said the whole town has been talking about the robbery and
shooting.

“People should know store owners are prepared to defend their stores and
their families,” he said. “Convenience store owners are in a very high
risk business. Now that people know the circumstances of what can happen
if you try something like that, maybe they will think again.”

Reed said he had introduced himself to the Asian couple that owned the
store and that he feels for them.

“They were really good people,” he said. “It’s sad that two hardworking,
honest people were taken advantage of.”

Although he could not remember their names, he said they drove an hour
to work and an hour back every day of the week, operating the
store.

“I feel sorry for the store owners because they have to live with it,”
Reed said. “I also feel sorry for the family of the criminal because of
what they are having to go through.”

Reed hopes that many people will reflect on the tragedy that has
befallen Ville Platte.

“With all the bad that has happened, I feel some good can come out of
this,” Reed said.

Reed speculated that the cause of the problem was the drugs that have
infiltrated the community.

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