Police say man shot, killed in self-defense – Tuesday, 12/18/01

Address:http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/01/11/11445567.shtml?Element_ID=11445567
Changed:3:00 AM on Tuesday, December 18, 2001
Jerome D. Buchanan By SHEILA BURKE
Staff Writer

The Metro Police Department has ruled that a clothing vendor who shot
and killed an alleged would-be robber Saturday acted within his rights
to self-defense. The department is calling the death a justifiable
homicide.

Police said that the vendor shot Jerome D. Buchanan, 19, 10th Avenue
North, when the young man tried to rob him.

Robert Gresham, who sells clothes from a tent business named Clothes
Line at 1025 Jefferson St., shot the young man as he was pulling a
weapon from his waistband, police said.
Gresham, who has a state-issued gun carry permit, produced his handgun
and fired at Buchanan with a .44-caliber revolver.

Buchanan fled, and the merchant saw him drive away when he went outside
in the parking lot after the 10:55 a.m. shooting. Gresham told police
that a second man fired at him. Gresham returned the fire, but neither
man was hit, police said.

A short time later, several young men arrived at the emergency room at
Metro General Hospital and announced that their friend had been shot.
After helping Buchanan inside the emergency room, the men fled the
hospital.

Gresham subsequently identified Buchanan as the man who was pulling the
gun inside the tent.

The district attorney’s office will review the case file to determine if
it should be reviewed by the Davidson County grand jury.

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