VA-ALERT: Guns Save Lives - a nightmare in Roanoke

[OakRidgeStars]

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GUNS SAVE LIVES - A NIGHTMARE IN ROANOKE

Back in May I received an email from Kim Clark that took my breath away. What happened to her and her husband, TJ, in their own home back in July of 2010 is both gut-wrenching and horrifying. They are both lucky to be alive and a gun helped end an attempt to murder them both by Kim's THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER (TJ's step-daughter) and the daughter's NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD boyfriend!

In a selfless effort to educate gun owners on the importance of being prepared for self defense AT ALL TIMES, the Clarks gave me permission to share their tragedy, pain, and living nightmare with all of you. They don't want anyone else to ever go through what they did on what should have been an uneventful midsummer day.

Based upon the lengthy statements that Kim and TJ gave to the police (and which were included in the email from Kim), here is a summary of the events and the aftermath as described by Kim and TJ:

Kim and TJ had a booth at the C&E Gun show at the Salem Civic Center on July 18th, 2010, where Kim was selling soy wax candles.

Earlier Kim's youngest daughter, Robin, threw a fit, saying she wanted to stay home that day and not go to the gun show. Both parents hesitatingly agreed to let her stay home and Kim called and texted Robin during the day to keep tabs on her until the show ended at 5 PM.

Upon her parents arriving home, Robin came out and helped unload the car.

After a gun show, the Clarks normally go out to eat. They told Robin to get ready to do so. Again, she protested. She said she just wanted to stay home, but could they bring her back something? Again, Kim and TJ decided to let her stay at home. Robin went up to her room and Kim and TJ headed out to dinner.

Upon returning from dinner, Robin came down from her room to get her sandwich, made a point of telling both her parents that she loved them, and then headed back up to her room to watch TV.

TJ took their dog outside for a short walk, but the dog was acting unusual in that it didn't want to go outside.

Both parents went upstairs shortly afterward. TJ stepped into the bathroom and Kim went into her office.

Kim could not log onto her computer for some reason and when Robin came out of her bedroom, Kim asked Robin if she had been using the computer. Robin acknowledged that she had checked emails and Facebook on it while her parents where gone. Robin got very defensive, upset, and left the room in a huff when her mother mentioned that the computer would no longer let her log in. Robin returned to her bedroom, slammed the door and locked it.

Unplugging the now useless computer, Kim waited for TJ to come out of the bathroom so they could follow another family tradition: both going into their daughter's room to tell her goodnight.

While waiting, suddenly Kim's intuition went off in a big way. She went to her daughter's bedroom, unlocked the door, opened it about a foot, and said, "Robin?"

Kim saw Robin sitting on the bed watching TV. Robin did not respond or acknowledge her mother.

Suddenly her mother heard a "click" and knew that sound was out of place. She opened the door fully and saw the silhouette of a person standing in front of a window.

Kim asked for the person to identify himself. (The person would later be determined to be the daughter's boyfriend, Matthew Tourellotte.)

Instead of answering, the boyfriend took two steps toward Kim and fired a shot right at her face! The gun made a white flash and had more of a "pop" and not a "BANG" sound to it. Kim felt a sharp sting in her cheek. (The gun, as it turned out, had a homemade suppressor on it.)

Kim retreated out of the bedroom door yelling frantically for her husband, saying that someone was in Robin's room and was shooting a gun at her and that Robin needed help.

While continuing the retreat, Kim tripped in the hallway and fell down. At that moment the boyfriend appeared in Robin's doorway and fired four more shots in Kim's direction and he retreated back into Robin's room.

TJ ran out of the bathroom, jumped over Kim and ran to Robin's room. He peeked in the doorway and the boyfriend fired a shot at his head. At this point TJ yells at Kim to run downstairs and get his gun.

TJ charged Matthew with the intent of shoving him out the 2nd floor window that Matthew was standing in front of. A struggle ensued, the homemade suppressor got knocked off Matthew's gun, and Matthew shot TJ in the shoulder, which kept TJ from being able to throw Matthew through the window. At this point TJ got control of Matthew's gun, causing Matthew to yell at Robin, who was still sitting on the bed, to kill her father.

Robin jumped up and came at her father's back with a knife, trying to stab him!

Now TJ had TWO battles going - he was using his left leg to try to control his daughter while still struggling with the boyfriend. Robin stabbed her father in his left hand and twice in the arm before he could grab her arm and stop her from stabbing him any more. TJ had the boyfriend by the leg with his foot on the boyfriend's throat.

At that moment Kim ran into the room with TJ's gun. Matthew yelled at Robin to kill her mother and Robin got her arm free and came at her mother with the knife. TJ hit Robin's arm to deflect it and Kim grabbed the knife. Kim then handed TJ his gun.

Robin and Matthew were then kept on their knees with their hands locked on their heads at gunpoint while Kim ran next door to get help and to call 911.

Let me say this: hats off to TJ! Shot and stabbed, he didn't let any of that slow him down. He continued to fight hard and in doing so he saved his life and Kim's. And TJ did all of that, while refraining from killing the 19-year-old monster or his step-daughter. There isn't a jury in Virginia that would have convicted him if he had. Kim was lucky as the shot that hit her cheek was not serious.


IN RETROSPECT - SOME OBSERVATIONS BY ROBIN'S PARENTS

Matthew had been having sex with Robin. Robin had been pretty successful in keeping her parents in the dark about Matthew. Robin said that Matthew was 15-years-old and lived over 150 miles away, so Kim wasn't overly concerned about such a long distance relationship. Little did she know...

Matthew was actually hiding in Robin's bedroom when Kim and TJ arrived home after the gun show. Robin made no indication of that to her parents then or later and did nothing to prevent or stop the attack.

Robin was found to have a .2 blood-alcohol-level and was also found to have a second knife strapped to the inside of her shorts.

Very strangely, canned food had been disappearing from the pantry all summer. The missing food was later found in Matthew's car. Kim also found a lot of other things that had disappeared over the last year or so in Kim's room - things like some of TJ's tools and also some kitchen items. Kim and TJ feel that Robin was purposely trying to create conflict between her parents for some reason.

In the end you have two extremely distraught parents, who have effectively lost a daughter, wondering what went wrong and our hearts go out to them in their grief.

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The Clark's horror story is a strong reminder to have a gun within easy reach (or better yet, on you), even when at home. Those precious seconds lost while a spouse is running frantically around the house to grab a gun may be the difference between life and death.

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Here is a news story on the event:

From WDBJ7.com: http://tinyurl.com/3hqoeek





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VA-ALERT is a project of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
(VCDL). VCDL is an all-volunteer, non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to defending the human rights of all Virginians. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms is a fundamental human right.

VCDL web page: http://www.vcdl.org [http://www.vcdl.org/]

[VACoastie]

That's just beyond crazy of a story. It also makes me think a lot because I also have a step-daughter myself. I won't say much since we don't know in in-home family situation, how Robin was raised, did she see her real father enough or at all, all those emotion driven type stuff.

What I will say is great on TJ for his self restraint. Reading the story I was hoping he give the kid a front snap kick out the window. Glad to know though that all are alive and somewhat well.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[dragonzfury050]

My wife and I ran into these folks on Saturday at the Roanoke gun show and bought some candles from them. While I was paying we started talking and they told us this story. Absolutely crazy. Though it did get my wife to understand why I don't take off my gun when I get home.

[allingeneral]

What the heck is wrong with kids these days? Once again - the internet gets an impressionable child involved in some stuff that they have no business being involved in.

Bottom line - know what your kids are doing on the internet. Ask them about it. Dig into what they're doing online. Your life and theirs may depend on it!