: (GA) Killing justified 04-2004

http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=45846

Reported By: Kevin Rowson
4/20/2004

An 18-year-old man died at the hands of his uncle early Tuesday after he
tried to run his uncle down with a pickup truck. No charges were planned
in what authorities described as a justified killing.

“All the indications of the investigation right now (is) it appears that
he shot him in self defense.
It appears that the 18-year-old was trying to run over his uncle. He had
already held him at gunpoint and took the keys to the truck away from
his uncle,” said Walton County Sheriff Al Yarbrough.

Deputies first received a call between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. about a
possible suicide threat on County Farm Road. When they arrived, they
found the teen had been shot dead while behind the wheel of his uncle’s
pickup.

The deceased, Jeremy Woods, first showed up at his mother’s home in
Stone Mountain Monday night after skipping a required nightly visit to
jail.

“He was part of a Rockdale County work release. He did not turn himself
in last night at the work release center,” Sheriff Yarbrough said on
11Alive News at Noon.

Woods had been jailed on charges involving drugs, reckless driving, no
proof of insurance, possession of a weapon by a minor, and giving police
a false name.

Woods and his mother got into an argument when she tried to convince him
to report to the jail. Woods then showed up at his father’s house in
Walnut Grove Tuesday morning. He broke into the house, smashed open gun
cases, and stole a shotgun.

Relatives told authorities that the teen then threatened to kill his
family members. He held the shotgun on his uncle, who had arrived from a
nearby home to help, before stealing his uncle’s truck.

The uncle opened fire with a handgun when Woods tried to run him down
with the truck.

“They’re pretty tore up about it. They’re not blaming each other for it,
that’s for sure. They’re holding on, they’re a tight family and they
love one another and they’re just trying to get through it,” said family
minister Todd Heil.