TN Homeowner: No time to think, only time to shoot

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/nov/12/kcso-south-knoxville-man-wards-burglars-shoots-one/

Homeowner: No time to think, only time to shoot

2 interlopers arrested after one wounded in neck in South Knoxville

November 12, 2007

Horace Garland didn't have time to think when two men claiming to be police

officers tried to force their way into his South Knoxville home.

He didn't have time to consider why cops would be screaming and yelling on

his front porch about midnight Sunday. He didn't have time to be scared. The

63-year-old man only had time to react with the .38-caliber Police Special

he kept at his bedside.

Garland, a Vietnam veteran, said he started shooting at "anything I could

hit."

"I'm glad he did," said Garland's live-in girlfriend, Kay Cupp. "I believe

those guys would have killed us in bed if they could have gotten in."

One of the men, Jeremy Johnson, did get in the house. Garland, who stands 5

feet-9 inches tall and weighs 122 pounds, shot the 21-year-old Johnson

through the neck.

Garland and Cupp said they moved to the Chestnut Street house less than two

months ago. Garland has relatives in the community, so the couple had no

trouble settling into their new neighborhood.

The couple had been in bed about an hour Sunday night, but weren't yet

asleep when they heard a commotion on their porch.

"A boy just came up on the porch, hollering and yelling he was KPD," Garland

said. "I told 'em I had a pistol."

When the two interlopers couldn't force the locked door open, they smashed

out the chest-high window on the door. Johnson then dove through the broken

window "like he was diving into the water," Cupp said.

When Johnson stood up, Garland started firing. One round struck Johnson's

neck, dropping him to the carpeted floor of the living room in the

single-story home.

"I shot three or four times," Garland said. Although less than five feet

separated the two men, only one round struck Johnson, who began screaming

for help.

"I was standing back to keep an eye on the other guy and he had a gun,"

Garland said.

"He was sticking the gun through the window and shot at me. He had a potato

stuck on the end of his as a silencer."

The round from the gun wielded by Johnson's step-brother, Timothy Lee

Sellers, 26, missed Garland by less than two feet. The round entered the

wall of Garland's bedroom at about waist high, pierced the open bedroom door

and then struck the bed's wood end board.

With Johnson screaming for help, yelling he was unable to move, Sellers

decided he'd had enough.

"He was yelling quit shooting, so I quit," Garland said. "It was over just

like that. It happened so fast."

Garland allowed Sellers to clamber through the broken front door window to

get to his screaming partner.

"I let him come in and get 'em," Garland said. "I wanted them out of here."

Without a word, Sellers grabbed Johnson and bundled the wounded man through

the door window. Blood still marks the spot on the front porch where Johnson

hit when he was shoved through the broken window. Then Sellers opened the

front door and walked out.

Sellers drove Johnson to the University of Tennessee Medical Center were he

was treated for the wound to his neck. A few minutes later, police found

Sellers driving on Scottish Pike.

Knox County Sheriff's officers said Sellers and Johnson admitted their

involvement and each faces charges of aggravated burglary and attempted

aggravated burglary. Each man was being held in jail in lieu of $55,000

bond. Authorities said both men have criminal histories.

The retired Garland said he was puzzled why anyone would target his

residence for a home-invasion burglary. He said sheriff's detectives told

him the suspects may have thought the previous occupants still lived in the

house.

Although Garland said he was concerned he might face a criminal charge, the

Knox County Sheriff's Office noted Garland was acting in self defense and

does not face any charges.