WARREN — A pair of teenage boys thought they were playing a prank by knocking down a John McCain campaign sign Saturday afternoon and yelling, “This is for Obama” to the homeowner.
But the homeowner, Kenneth Rowles, 50, was sitting on the front porch and didn’t think it was funny, especially since this was the second time vandals had damaged his campaign signs.
Rowles went into his 1237 Dover St. home in Warren Township, got a .22-caliber rifle and went back to the porch to confront the boys at about 2 p.m.
That seems to be all that's agreed upon. Rowles claims he fired "warning shots" but one of the boys, Kyree Flowers, 17, of 1205 Dover, had been shot once in the arm and the vehicle belonging to the mother of Patrick A. Wise Jr., 16, of Commerce Avenue in Warren stated the tan GMC SUV had been hit by two other bullets. The boys are claiming that Rowles aimed at them on purpose.
Now what will happen? Rowles has been charged with felonious assault, a second-degree felony, punishable by up to eight years in prison upon conviction. He pleaded innocent Monday in Warren Municipal Court, and Judge Thomas Gysegem set bond at $10,000. He's also had all of the guns confiscated from his home and what will happen to the two boys? Nothing, no one cares about campaign sign damage, or trespassing.
It seems adding to the story that Rowles doesn't understand that the Castle Doctrine would not typically apply to a situation like this one.
There's more here
Now we have another case that can be pointed to as to why people should not have guns, another "crazy" McCain supporter, a possible racial element with the man being white, and what kind of a message do the two boys who started the whole thing learn?
Some adults act stupider than you did, and because of that? You get away with what you did. Anyone with even a clue about gun ownership would know that if you were truly trying to "scare them" you would have shot into the air, and then still could have faced charges for an unlawful discharge of a firearm, depending on the laws in that area, but at least that's not a possible 8 years in prison, over a campaign sign...
Shoot a picture, write down the license plate number, take video...but no one's life is worth a campaign sign...
3 comments:
What a sad story for all involved.
I'm sure that these two "fine" boys will learn to be productive members of society. Ok, the guy overreacted, but that doesn't excuse what the boys did. The homeowner will most likely be facing a hate crime because the boys were black, thought you wouldn't know that fact since the media never reports the skin hue when black people are committing a crime. But when a white person commits a crimmal act, no matter how server or minor, not only is the skin hue is reported, but hate crime will always be mentioned.
Here a question for us? Why is hate crime only resevred for white people? Also, isn't all crime hateful? Just asking.
I wish I could understand that one too C - to me hate is hate.
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