AT&T customer in Gresham goes to jail after shooting at thieves' getaway car GRESHAM -- Roger Witter saw a couple of thieves run off with phones at a Gresham AT&T store, gave chase and shot a couple of holes in their getaway car with a .38-caliber revolver. The thieves got away. Witter wasn't so lucky. Police cuffed Witter and hauled him to jail in downtown Portland. He pleaded not guilty Wednesday to disorderly conduct and discharging a firearm inside city limits. Witter, 48, said his travails began Tuesday when his phone conked out. That night, the self-employed illustrator and muralist headed to the AT&T shop at 533 N.W. Division St. with his cousin, Duane Giancone, 52. Witter was at the counter about 20 minutes when two young guys walked in behind him. Suddenly, sirens blared and the guys dashed out of the store with four iPhones they had yanked from a display. Witter and Giancone raced after them. "Stop!" they yelled. "Stop!" The two thieves piled into a slate-gray car, which police later described as a Chrysler. Witter didn't want them to get away. He had watched the decay of his nearby Rockwood neighborhood and considered the MAX train that passes through "a highway to crime." Outside his own house last year, Witter said, he had to rescue a man beaten in the head with a hammer. To protect himself, he obtained a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Outside the AT&T store Tuesday Witter pulled that weapon, a five-shot Smith & Wesson revolver loaded with hollow-point slugs. He dropped to one knee in front of the getaway car, aimed at its right tire and shouted a single command. "Stop!" The car lurched forward, swerving to avoid Witter, who opened fire in hopes he could disable the tire and thwart the thieves. But Witter missed the tire. Twice. Giancone, who also holds a conceal-carry permit, wasn't carrying his gun. Witter holstered his revolver and walked back into the store. A manager and a security guard appeared. Witter inquired again about his broken iPhone. Gresham police officers pulled up and asked who fired the shots. When Witter identified himself, they took his gun, keys, pocketknife and conceal-carry permit. They handcuffed him and took him to jail. Sgt. Rick Wilson later said that in a case like this, no matter how frustrated someone gets with crime, it's not permissible to use deadly force. "Those two rounds could've gone anywhere," Wilson said in a news release. "In fact, we're still not sure where they went. They could've struck an innocent bystander or damaged property." Witter took exception to any such notion. The slugs he fired in the ordinarily busy shopping district hit the front bumper of the getaway car, he said, and police will find them when they locate the vehicle. Witter said he saw no bystanders at the time. "I wasn't shooting willy-nilly," he said. "I feel like they took the wrong guy to jail." Witter described himself as a lifelong deer and elk hunter, a guy who took gun safety courses and followed the law. "I'm not a cowboy, I'm not a hero," he said. "I just wanted to do what was right." Gun lobbyist Kevin Starrett, whose Oregon Firearms Federation supports the rights of gun owners and those who hold conceal-carry permits, said he thought Witter showed poor judgment. "I can understand his desire to be helpful," Starrett said. "But it was not the thing to do. You can't shoot someone's tires out; it's just not TV." The incident was a blur, Witter said. "I was just trying to stop a crime," he said. "Was it a mistake? Probably. Would I do it again? Probably." Jailers cut Witter loose in the wee hours Wednesday, too late to catch a MAX train back to Gresham. Without a ride or a phone to call for one, he walked more than 10 miles home in the rain. AT&T officials declined to comment on the theft of iPhones or Witter's attempts to stop the crime. And it seemed to Witter that, in the end, the thieves -- suspected of a related theft of two iPhones at Mall 205 -- came out way ahead. "They got new iPhones," he said, "and mine still doesn't work." http://www.oregonlive.com/gresham/index.ssf/2010/05/when_iphone_thieves_run_out_of.html Wow, important lesson learned here. If you're going to play cowboy make sure you punch yourself in the face a few times before the cops show up. I wonder if there is an app for that?
I'll bet the response to this would be different had he actually hit the tires, stopped the scums from escaping, and held them until police arrived.
Not a smart move on his part. You simply can't shoot at people in public, although their loss would do nothing but benefit society. On a side note, I am assuming....I'm sure racially.....that these were white guys that did this because there was no mention of color in the article, but I have no idea what to look for because they didn't say either way. Unless I missed it?
Lock that asshole up. Shooting his dumb-ass gun in public is so fucking retarded. Thankfully he didn't hit a passerby while he was pretending to be a Wild West Sheriff. I hope they catch the thieves and prosecute them for theft, but use some fucking sense, guy edit: maybe not "Lock him up", but he needs to be punished for being a dipshit.
Maybe he was shooting Milli-Vanilli? Should the cops be out looking for two gay black foreigners with silly hair and lip-synching experience?
I don't think anyone is saying that or wanting that to be the outcome. These are iPhones those guys ripped off. If it were Microsoft products these guys stole I'd be in favor of letting them off with a warning. Remember we must always protect the weakest and geekiest in society.
I'm pretty sure Fab committed suicide. So if he was able to pull off an iPhone heist from the grave, then he's not going to be stopped by Pistol Pete here.
I read it. You are more angry and the man trying to step in than the men that commited the original crime. No worries, the guy that shot his gun was stupid to do it in public. What he should have done was invited them to his home for dinner and then shot their asses there.
Then perhaps it's the comprehension part that you missed out on in school. Hrm... who to be more angry at... we'll it's a thinker. They both deserve anger... I hate having things stolen so I'm pretty upset about the guys who did a grab and go on some fancy electronics... and then there is the vigilante who opened fire in public... As it stands right now, the idiot with the gun is likely to do more damage to the world. Maybe shooting people doesn't solve every problem? Just a wacky thought.
Nor does stealing. And while the idiot could have accidentally shot someone from a riquochet, his intent was not to shoot people. It was to shoot the tire.
