On Wednesday, cop killer Charles Edward Smith was executed 18 years after he shot to death Sheriff Tim Hudson in Bakersfield, TX.
The following morning another cop killer will probably take Smith’s place on Texas‘ Death Row.
While responding to a domestic disturbance in the small town of Payne Springs, Texas, officers Paul Steven Habelt, 63, and Tony Price Ogburn, 61 were shot to death:
The gunman, Randall W. Mays, 47, was shot in the elbow and his side and was taken to a hospital, where he was in fair condition and awaiting surgery, McWilliams said. He was being guarded by sheriff’s deputies and has not been charged.Harris and Mays were taken to East Texas Medical Center in Tyler. The deputy was out of surgery Thursday night to repair a broken leg, McWilliams said.
The officers were responding to a domestic disturbance when Mays opened fire with a high-powered rifle, McWilliams said. The officers were out in the open and tried to take cover, he said.
The uniformed deputy was wearing a bulletproof vest, “but that doesn’t protect you from a high-powered rife,” McWilliams said. It was unclear whether the plainclothes investigator was wearing a vest.
Mays’ next-door neighbor, Russell Hicks, said he witnessed the shootings. He said that Mays had a rifle and that two pistols were tucked into his belt.
It’s unfortunate that Mays what not shot to death by the officers. Now we’ll have a trial. He’ll be found guilty (because, you know, he is). He’ll most likely be sentenced to death. And after a few dozen appeals, he’ll probably be executed sometime around 2023.
He he yells loudly enough that he didn’t do it (despite numerous witnesses and evidence to the contrary), maybe he can get Susan Sarandon and Danny Glover to come visit him in prison.
This all could have been avoided if the officer who shot him in the side had just aimed a bit higher.
By 2023, he’ll have perfect teeth, be in great health/shape, have earned his masters degree in Criminal Justice, exhaust the judicial system, burden the tax-payers, date, marry, and find God.
Left by kw on May 18th, 2007 at 9:41 am