Vickie Graves says she tried to shoot intruder, gun wouldn't go off
When the gunfire erupted inside her Washington Pike home, Vickie Graves was ready to kill.
"I'd done everything I could to get that gun to work," she said of the weapon she grabbed after shots rang out during an invasion of the home she shared with husband, Bill Graves. "I would have shot (the attacker she faced) - definitely."
When she realized her husband might be dead, however, she was ready to die.
"When I couldn't get an answer from Bill, I didn't care," she said. "I was wanting him to kill me."
Graves described for jurors in Knox County Criminal Court on Tuesday the night in May 2009 when she and her husband settled in for a movie and instead faced off with masked intruders. The encounter left the 52-year-old Bill Graves mortally wounded.
Her testimony came in the second day of trial for Gary Scott Holman, 28, who is accused along with Josh Lee Bowman of carrying out a fatal home invasion allegedly cooked up by a relative via marriage to Vickie Graves. The three are being tried separately.
Graves told jurors she and her husband were watching a movie in the living room when a buzzer sounded, alerting them to movement in the driveway. Bill Graves went to the front door.
"Just as he got to the door, this guy (identified by authorities as Bowman) just leaps in and grabs Bill in a bear hug," she testified.
Holman followed, pointing what Vickie Graves said she believed was a gun at her head. As her husband broke free and ran toward his gun case, two shots rang out, she said. Knox County Sheriff's Office detectives say it was Bowman who fired those shots.
"I started screaming, 'Bill, Bill, answer me,' " she said.
Graves has hated guns ever since her father died from an accidental shooting, but with Holman distracted by the gunfire, she said she pushed him and grabbed a gun her husband kept stashed beside his chair.
"I kept pulling the trigger," she said. "I was trying to get that gun to go off, and I just couldn't."
The gun, as it turned out, had three separate safety mechanisms. She said Holman grabbed the barrel, and the two became locked in a struggle over the weapon. But as seconds passed with no sounds from her husband, she gave up.
"I was just so tired of wrestling with him," she said.
When the two intruders ran out with one grabbing a safe on the way out, Graves found her husband collapsed and bleeding heavily. He died a day later, a gunshot having severed his femoral artery.
The safe that cost Bill Graves his life contained a handful of silver dollars and three collections of state quarters.
COMMENTS:
-Everyone who as access to your firearms should have the knowledge to use them for BASIC self defense. This woman had an irrational fear of a mechanical device that prevented her from being able to use it when it was most needed. If she didn't want to learn how to use it then she shouldn't have been able to easily access it.
-ALWAYS Carry!! The departed was headed in the right direction for home protection. A buzzer for motion detection in the drive is a great idea. A gun in the house loaded and ready for protection is another good move for some people. Answering the door to someone you don't know was the second bad move Mr. Graves made. His first was leaving his gun on the other side of the room when confronting strangers. Mr. Graves should have had his gun attached to his hip when he went to the door to see who was there and shouldn't have opened it to a stranger. NO EXCEPTIONS!!
-Bad Guys Don't Care! Mrs. Graves said, "I'd done everything I could to get that gun to work." No, she didn't. She didn't have a plan, didn't prepare, and the bad guys didn't care one bit. Have a plan, then have a backup. The lives you save could be your spouse or children. Bad guys don't care if you forgot to prepare.
No comments:
Post a Comment