Understatement of the Year

St. Louis has a real reason to be blue

At the time, Brown was wanted on warrants for burglary, trespassing and other charges related to the Christmas Eve incident.

"We've tried to arrest him a few times, but he was elusive," said Sgt. Williams.

"The Butlers thought something like this might happen, and they're a little upset with us for not having arrested him."

What, pre tell, happened for the Butlers to be pretty upset?

James and Suzanne Butler had retired for the night Friday when a man who they say had been harassing them for a year kicked in their back door and rushed into their bedroom, armed with a rifle and a handgun.

"He was shooting with the rifle as soon as he came into the bedroom," Butler said in a telephone interview Sunday from his home outside Rolla, Mo. "My wife grabbed the barrel and she got shot, but it allowed me the time to get my gun" from a nightstand drawer.

Butler fired several shots, killing David W. Brown, 45.

In a just world, the American Trial Lawyers Association (Contact them, and tell 'em what you think*) would be filing lawsuits against police departments that shirk their fiduciary duties to the community, and not going after firearms manufacturers who allow heroic, victimized, citizens like the Browns to defend their lives.


*disclaimer; I am an on again - off again (depending on whether I remember to send my dues in) member of ATLA, their basic trial support services for litigation attorney's are unmatched