Photo of wheelchair

An alleged band of bandits, including one being pushed in a wheelchair, strolled and rolled through a West Mobile, Alabama, apartment complex looking for trouble. The men were observed by one, Linda Hyatt, who told News 5 she sits on her porch almost every day, but before going out Tuesday, April 16, she wisely peeked from behind her curtains first to check what was going on outside and spotted the suspicious ne’er-do-wells.

“Counting the one who was in a wheelchair, they walked down, and then I saw them come back,” Hyatt told News 5. “When they came back, they went to that corner apartment.”

That’s when Hyatt heard three shots, confirming she had made the right move to look outside and take a pass on sitting on the porch that day.

Police reported the men attempted to break into an apartment, when the apartment’s resident opened fire on the invaders. According to Mobile Police, a 23-year-old who was among the criminals was killed and another, 22-year-old Okoye Day, was later arrested in connection with the invasion and charged with burglary and possession of a firearm.

As for the apartment’s resident?

“Right now, at this point in the investigation it appears that this was an acting in self-defense through the course of a home invasion,” Mobile County District Attorney Keith Blackwood said. He pointed out that in Alabama, “citizens are allowed to defend themselves and others if they feel they are in danger under a ‘stand your ground’ law.”

There was no word whether the man in the wheelchair was the one who was shot, the one arrested or simply rolled away from the scene unnoticed.

The District Attorney’s office is still reviewing the case for additional charges.

23 COMMENTS

  1. Nice ending, three shots fired, with one perp dead and another later arrested. If the popo had handled the call, 57 shots would have been fired, accidentally killing the homeowner, and there would be no leads on any of the escaped perps, other than wheelchair tire tracks across the lawn.

    • Crime is now DEI compliant?

      Unfortunate (or fortunate to others) that many participants are likely to DIE on the job.

  2. I’m driving down the highway around 2:30 in the morning. A van is parked along the side of the road, two guys are standing by the highway, another one is in a wheelchair. As I go by one starts waving me down, I start to stop and my girlfriend at the time is saying No, ” They look like they need help” says I. I pull over and it was a set up, she locks her door as one is trying to open it another jumps in the back seat and an unseen comes running from the back of the van and tries to get into my side. I pull out a great big old .25 caliber automatic, point it at the back seat occupier and tell him get out or die. He yells ” He’s got a gun.” He jumps out and I take off.
    I got a good “I told you not to stop you dumbass” for a few miles.
    That makes twice I’ve tried to help stranded people. There won’t be a third time I don’t care if it’s a wheelchair tipped over on the highway with a nude chick laying in the ditch screaming ” He raped me!”

  3. Not the first time someone posed as handicapped to act as a decoy. This tactic is especially offensive to me as my father was handicapped by polio when he was eight. Crutches and wheelchairs the rest of his life.

      • jwm, two. I have a younger sister. She lives with our mother who will be 95 in a few days. He worked Grandpa’s Mississippi farm with his sisters while his five brothers fought WW II. Well, Uncle Johnny was at Oak Ridge, TN. He didn’t have to fight. Not sure what he did. He never would talk about it. He wasn’t a nuclear scientist. Dad had to crawl on his hands and knees to pick the cotton in the bottom field with his five sisters. He couldn’t reach the bowls if he was standing on his crutches.

        • “Well, Uncle Johnny was at Oak Ridge, TN. He didn’t have to fight. Not sure what he did. He never would talk about it. He wasn’t a nuclear scientist.”

          They employed *lots* of people doing technical things, he was probably one of those folks. And they were sworn to secrecy…

    • Ted Buddy feigned the handicap/injury ruse to facilitate fooling at least one of his murder victims.

  4. Some sort of Wounded Warrior or Make A Wish for the criminal class?

    Adaptive sports meet adaptive crimes.

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