In the recent incident in Broken Arrow in which three young home invaders saw their dreams of stolen gold turn to a fusillade of hot lead, we’ve seen a common (but unknown to many) phenomenon come to the fore: criminals and their families feel terribly put-upon, and have an undeserved but telling contempt for their victims.
We’re going to look at three stories from the same Oklahoma City television station, first telling the story through the 911 call, then invoking the opinions of one deceased criminal’s family, and finally, the surviving accomplice.
We suspect that these links have autoplay video, but have discovered, to our delight, that by not updating Adobe’s horrible Flash software, we can skip the blaring videos and go right to the transcripts. Wonderful! We’ll never update that piece of crap again.
First: “I shot two of them, now I’m barricaded in my bedroom.”
This link goes to a complete transcript of the 911 call. Here’s a few highlights:
Peters: “I’ve just been broken into. Two men, two I’ve shot in my house (address).”
Dispatcher: “Was one of them shot?”
Peters: “Yes, two of them.”
Dispatcher: “Are they bleeding?”
Peters: “Yes. I believe one… one’s down, one’s still talking here with me now.”
Dispatcher: “And they broke into your home?”
Peters: “Yes.”
Dispatcher: “What’s your name, sir?”
Peters: “Zach Peters.”
The Dispatcher elicited information that would be useful to the responding deputy, and Peters continued to keep his wits about him. But the Dispatcher also had a script to run.
Dispatcher: “OK, are they white males?”
Peters: “Um, I didn’t get a good look.”
Like, who gives a hairy rat’s what color the guys who busted down your door are? Well, of course, government agencies. By the way, Peters’s response is the only thing you should ever say to this question, especially if you and the crumb exsanguinating in your kitchen are nor the same skin tone.
Dispatcher: “OK, can you see them right now?”
Peters: “No, I’m, uh, I shot two of them, now I’m barricaded in my bedroom.”
Dispatcher: “You’re barricaded in your, in your bedroom? OK.”
Peters: “Correct. Southeast corner. They broke in a back door. I can hear one of them talking.”
Dispatcher: “OK, what are they saying?”
Peters: “I can’t hear them.”
Dispatcher: “OK, where were they shot?”
Peters: “Um, upper body.”
Dispatcher: “Upper body?”
Dispatcher: “Are you hurt, sir?”
Peters: “No.”
Dispatcher: “OK.”
Note that he withdrew, stayed safe, and stayed in communication with the dispatcher about his location and situation. At this time, there’s a real hazard of friendly fire, something that both Peters and the dispatcher were eager to avoid.
Dispatcher: “OK, what did you shoot them with?”
Peters: “My AR-15.”
Dispatcher: “OK.”
Peters: “I’m still armed in the southeast corner of my house.”
Dispatcher: “OK.”
Dispatcher: “OK, sir, my deputy wants in, I need you to go ahead and un-arm yourself and put the gun away.”
Peters: “OK. It’ll be unloaded on my bed, I’ll still be in my bedroom.”
Dispatcher: “OK, the gun’s going to be unloaded on his bed.”
Peters: “You said he’s on scene?”
Dispatcher: “Yes, sir, my…my deputy should be on scene.”
Peters: “OK.”
This kind of thing was repeated as everyone wanted to make sure that Peters was both safe from further threat from the criminals, and that he and the responding deputy were no threat to each other. Time to check on the whereabouts of the skells!
Dispatcher: “Do you know where they both are, sir?”
Peters: “It’s between the back door. One is in the kitchen. One crawled into the northeast corner bedroom.”
Dispatcher: “OK.”
Dispatcher: “OK, one’s in the kitchen, one’s in the northeast corner bedroom, and you’re in the southeast corner bedroom, is that correct?”
Peters: “Correct, and the third one, I did not shoot. He ran outside.”
Dispatcher: “The third one he did not shoot ran outside. OK.”
It sounds like the Dispatcher is repeating to the responding officers over the trunk, while handling the call with Peters. Cool heads all around. Peters was mistaken about the third guy, whom we now believe to be the late, unlamented Jake Redfearn — it’s possible a through-and-through of one of the other burglars nailed him.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, right?
Dispatcher: “Do you know if he ran out the front or the back?”
Peters: “Um, he ran out the back door. The door they broke into.”
Dispatcher: “OK. The third, subject stated, he ran out the back door.”
Deputy needs to know that. As far as Peters knew, one or more criminals were still on scene!
And now Peters really displays clear thinking:
Peters: “Um, there should be two dogs out, around the house. They’re friendly.”
Peters: “And you guys need to start EMS, I believe one of them is shot bad.”
Dispatcher: “OK, sir, EMS is en route, OK?”
He’s safe, if he can avoid startling the law. The first Deputy is approaching the house, and Peters remembers to (1) alert the officers that there are dogs on the premises, and that the dogs are not a threat, and (2) express concern for the life of the threat guys, who are no longer a threat.
While it was undoubtedly a harrowing day for Zach Peters, there’s really not much fault to find with his response to a home invasion. He met violent crime with overwhelming force, neutralized the threat, retreated to relative safety, and called for help. He even remembered to be concerned for the lives of the dogs and the criminals (and, appropriately, in that order).
It will be interesting to see if Andrew Branca has a comment, because if Peters did this in some jurisdictions (CA, CT, DE, MA, MD, NJ, NY, RI) a prosecutor would be measuring him for striped pajamas; but in free America, it’s hard to see anything he did wrong.
Of course, not everybody sees it that way. Let’s get some criminals-and-associates’ viewpoints! (After the jump).
Next up: Family
To wit, a grandfather of one of the deadly departed:
An emotional grandfather of one of the three teens shot and killed as they broke into a Wagoner County home Monday is speaking out.
Jacob Redfearn’s grandfather, Leroy Schumacher, said he’s desperate for answers about why his grandson died.
Uh, because he thought violent crime was a good idea, and didn’t reckon with an armed and prepared victim?
Monday’s break-in and shooting has devastated many families involved. As they cope with the outcome, Schumacher is worried things might get overlooked if there is a rush to judgment.
A “rush to judgment?” Three hoodie’d, masked and armed punks piling into your house, that’s when you have to rush to judgment.
“Yes I’m grieving, but I’m not the only family that’s grieving here,” he said. “These boys didn’t think about dying, they made a bad decision and they died because of it. Think before you act.”
While it’s true they made a “bad decision,” those words seem to minimize their violent felony. When you order the fish where you can’t smell the sea, that’s a “bad decision.” Buy a Jaguar? Propose to a crazy chick? Trust a politician? Bad decisions, all. It seems like there’s another word for what happened here. Fortunately, the English language has the largest vocabulary of all the languages of the world, and maybe we can find a better one, like suicide.
Redfearn, Schumacher’s grandson, along with two other teens broke into a Wagoner County home Monday and were shot and killed by a man who lived there.
“I’m sure if they thought ‘Hey, we could get killed,’ they wouldn’t have done it,” Schumacher said.
If young men ever thought, “Hey, we could get killed,” we’d have to retire the daily When Guns Are Outlawed feature for lack of gruesome and stupid illustrations of Evolution in Action. And they’d have to bring back the draft. Youthful feelings of immortality probably serve some evolutionary purpose, if not some divine one.
The grandfather said he’s not trying to vindicate Redfearn, but he is desperate to make sure all stories, including the shooter’s, match the outcome.
“I do not condone what these boys have done in any way shape or form,” Schumacher said. “Because if he [the shooter] used excessive force, he went above and beyond that law.”
We understand a grieving man, and the victim of his grandson’s crime used deadly force, but he was responding to an imminent threat of deadly force. He was outnumbered and at least two of the three were armed with contact weapons (knife, club, brass knuckles). He was, as we have written before, in a real-life Tueller Drill. As we understand our use of force law, all the ingredients of a lawful use of defensive force, including proportionality, were in place.
Schumacher believes all three boys didn’t have to die, pointing to what he calls inconsistencies in the shooter’s 911 call, where he tells dispatch he shot two inside the house, but a third teen was found shot outside.
They didn’t have to die, no. They could have done something other than home invasion robberies for a living.
“Did he chase him out of the house and shoot him outside,” Schumacher asked.
Right now, there’s no evidence but speculation from the criminals’ families and friends that he did. The 911 call is consistent with shooting all three, observing two zekes DRT and not realizing the one that got away was mortally wounded and DRT in the driveway. And statements from the surviving criminal indicate that the late, unlamented Jake Redfearn arrived in the driveway pre-ventilated from his time inside the house.
While he wants all details to come out, Schumacher’s overcome with anger towards Elizabeth Rodriguez – the alleged mastermind behind the crime.
Well, your grandson is the one following the woman with the room-temperature IQ, guy. Common criminals’ society has already arrived at the dystopian future of Idiocracy.
“How cold can a person be to do something like that,” he said.
He’s upset she left the teens knowing they were shot.
“As far as I’m concerned, she’s scum,” Schumacher said.
The man is grieving. In time he will, one hopes, direct some of that anger at his late grandson, for throwing his life away. That’s where the rage belongs, actually. Zach Peters just was the instrument of Jake Redfearn’s suicide.
Struggling to cope with the loss of his grandson, he hopes others don’t make the same mistake.
“These kids have got to think before they do stupid stuff, and maybe that will, maybe this will help,” Schumacher said.
It probably has helped, already. Whether or not these kids were the ones doing them, and there’s evidence that there was, the spate of forcible home invasion burglaries in the area appears to have ceased.
Finally: the Surviving Perp
The fat, stupid woman who was the getaway driver — the one that got away and left her fellow robbers to their fate, honor among thieves being what it is — gave an interview to the TV station, much to the chagrin of whatever poor bastard in the public defender’s office is going to draw her felony murder, etc. case. She manages to do herself no good whatsoever, confessing while vituperating against her victim for being so beastly as to fight back.
Liz Rodriguez faces three murder charges after three of her friends were shot and killed when they broke into a home on Monday.
“I’m guilty of the robbery but I’m not guilty of the murders,” she said.
Sorry, not sorry. That’s not the way the law works. Murderer.
Rodriguez said the most important thing she wants people to know is she didn’t willingly leave her friends behind.
She said she feels sorry for their family, and sorry for her family – but when it comes to Zach Peters, the man who was home when they broke in, he’s at the bottom of her list for compassion.
Naturally. If criminals respected victims, they wouldn’t be criminals.
“I’m sorry we broke into his house. I’m sorry we scared him or whatever, but I’m not going to be sorry he shot somebody.
Translation: “I’m sorry we got caught this time.”
He could’ve shot them boys in the leg. I understand he was scared, had every right, he has his rights, has his rights, I’m understanding of him. I affected his life, I’m sorry, but am I compassionate for him? He’s on the bottom of my list to be compassionate for,” Rodriguez said.
You have to love that reasoning. “He could’ve shot them boys in the leg.” We’d say, “try it sometime,” but in fact she’s going to prison for life, and if some dotty parole board springs her long about 2047 she’ll still be a prohibited person, and for good reason, so she can’t “try it.”
As we’ll see, he tagged at least some of ’em center of mass.
She said she’d done other break-ins in Tulsa County and near Owasso, but no one had ever been home.
OK, so it’s the victim’s fault for being home when these young career criminals hit. Don’t you know you’re supposed to vacate your home for the convenience of the Asset Redistribution Specialists?
She said they’d already broken into the Peters’ garage and loaded items into the trunk, then the boys went to kick in the door of the main house – she heard the kicks, then gunshots and waited.
This is the movie flickering in her minuscule mind, in which she’s the heroine.
Rodriguez said, “Jake came out and slid across my car. I put it in park, got out and before he fell down. He said, ‘I got hit.’ I said, ‘Where, bro,’ and I pulled up his shirt and saw the gunshot in his chest and all the blood. I was holding on to him, ‘C’mon bro, get in the car, get in the car, get out of here,’ but he just grabbed my hand and said go, told me to leave.”
Awww. What a sacrifice. He gave his life for the stolen $#!+ she had in the trunk of her car. Cue the violins.
Crime has fallen a long way, if this is 2017’s Bonnie and Clyde and Clyde and Clyde.
She said she’d met Max Cook a month earlier online, was best friends with Jake Redfearn and Jaykob Woodruff was Max’s friend, but considers them to be family.
The family that thieves together, grieves together. Well, for some values of “together,” with three slabbed and one jailed.
She doesn’t believe it’s right she’s charged with their murders.
Murderers never do. Prison’s full of innocent men, just ask ’em. And their version of “innocent” is about like hers: “&%#%* had it coming.”
“I understand the concept of why they’re charging me, but, do I think it’s right, no. Do I think what happened to them is right, no. All I can do is wait it out and hope for the best. I’m not guilty of that, not guilty of killing them, not guilty of murdering them,” she said.
Actually, what happened to them is right and just. Justice occasionally comes out of a courtroom, but in this case it came out of the muzzle of an AR-15, and it was more just, true, righteous and terrible than anything an Oklahoma judge has meted out, at least since they had Timothy McVeigh in the dock.
Rodriguez said she knows she’s going to prison, just doesn’t know for how long. She hopes the judge will give her bail so she can go home and say goodbye to her kids before she goes away.
“Goodbye kids, don’t do stupid $#!+ like mama and her friends.” Somehow we think she’s going to have to find somebody the carry the message.
And that bothers us not at all.
What’s the over-under on her kids’ descent into (1) the welfare system, (2) the criminal justice system, and (3) prison, themselves? It’s not like they’ve been taught any values worthy of the name, or are likely to have inherited any of Mommy’s nonexistent positive traits.
