Half-Blind Octogenarian Kills Intruder: Police Probe Whether Shooting Was Justified

APBNews
5/26

Half-Blind Octogenarian Kills Intruder
Police Probe Whether Shooting Was Justified

May 26, 2000

By Dan Kraut

Related Audio:
Harvey Faulk describes the intrusion.

CHADBOURN, N.C. (APBnews.com)
– Eighty-two years old and blind in one eye, Harvey Faulk had every reason to be scared when a pair of intruders, one armed with a gun, stormed into his house.

The question now facing prosecutors is whether Faulk was justified in grabbing his own handgun and killing a man who stole his wallet and his beer.

“I know I did the right thing for trying to defend my life. They were shooting at me,” Faulk told APBnews.com in a phone interview today. “I was just trying to scare them up. I wasn’t shooting to kill.”

Officers say it’s too early to know whether Faulk, a retired railroad worker, will be charged with any wrongdoing. For now, they are concentrating on tracking down the intruder who escaped. And they are trying to reconstruct the details of a gun battle in which Faulk apparently didn’t realize he’d killed someone until a relative of his saw a dead body 50 feet from the home.

Intruder ‘fired at least one shot’

Detective Capt. Roy Norris of the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office said the intruders approached Faulk’s home at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, and then stormed in when he answered the door.

He was forced to his bedroom, where one of the suspects demanded his wallet, which was in the pocket of a pair of pants lying at the foot of the bed, police said.

“Don’t kill me. Just please leave me,” Faulk recalled begging.

And then, when his wallet fell, Faulk saw opportunity.

“They was scrambling for the money that fell out of my pocket on the floor,” Faulk said. “That gave me a chance to ease my hand into my drawer and get [my gun]. And when I shot, they went to shooting, too.”

Norris said, detectives believe Faulk, who lives alone, fired at least five bullets and they have evidence an intruder fired at least one shot.

Dead body found by beer

The captain said that the two suspects fled — one through the front door, and another broke through a glass window. But Faulk apparently didn’t know that one of the fleeing suspects had been hit with two bullets, and he didn’t call police right away, instead calling relatives who came to his home.

When Faulk told his relatives that one of the suspects was wearing red, one of the relatives recalled something red outside, and they went 50 feet from the front door and they found the dead body of Travis Frink, 19, beside a 12-pack of beer, Norris said.

Police were called at about 1:30 a.m. Thursday, Norris said. They found that Frink was shot twice in the upper body.

There was no gun near the body, which leads police to believe it was the suspect who escaped through the window who was armed, Norris said. Police have not recovered Faulk’s wallet, and were still searching for the surviving intruder today.

Weeks before ruling expected

Faulk said he lost sight in one eye after an accident in his childhood in which he was trying to untie a shoelace knot with a pair of scissors and one point slipped into his eye. He said that didn’t stop him from a long career of laying down railroad ties.

When asked whether his vision was an impediment in the gunfight, he answered, “I wasn’t trying to see him clearly. What I was trying to do was save my life.”

Lee Bollinger, the assistant district attorney in North Carolina’s 13th prosecutorial district, which includes Chadbourn, said he is waiting for the sheriff’s department to review ballistic evidence before deciding whether to file charges against Faulk. Also, if police capture the suspect still at large, they may have further information about the gun battle.

“Until we have that investigation, we’re really not in a position to say one way or another,” said Bollinger, noting it may be weeks before a ruling is made.

“Really, the issue is whether it was reasonable … to defend himself with deadly force,” said Bollinger. “If the answer to that question is ‘yes,’ he was acting in self-defense.”

‘He should have been shot’

He said Faulk’s age and poor eyesight would be considered in determining whether he needed a gun to defend himself. “It’s going to be reasonable for him to have a greater expectation of harm than it may be for a 33-year-old man that’s able bodied and in good health,” he said.

Norris said Faulk was legally entitled to own the gun.

Norris said there are 50,000 people in Columbus County, which is known for swine and tobacco farming.

One of Frink’s relatives, Lucy Frink, declined to comment on the case when reached by telephone.

Another Chadbourn resident, Clarence Frink, who said he was unsure if he was related to the victim, said it was hard to find fault with Faulk for firing at the teen. “He should have been shot,” he said. “You shouldn’t be breaking into other people’s house.”

Dan Kraut is an APBnews.com staff writer ([email protected]).

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