"Stupid Criminals" and Bad Reporting

Remember how we are constantly admonishing the world to take stalking seriously? (1,2,3,4,5) Apparently this reporter for the LaGrange Ledger-Enquirer missed the memo.

The man had made some threats to the woman, and she had distanced herself from him.

That distance grew close as she and two of the children walked on the sidewalk toward the apartments. At some point, the suspect jumped from his hiding spot, Brown said.

They fought, falling to the ground where the man lost control of the gun. The woman grabbed it and ran back to her car with the suspect on her heels, police said.

“And that’s when she pulled the gun up and shot him,” Brown said.

Officers found the suspect on the ground behind the car with gunshot wounds in a leg and an arm. The woman was nearby in the parking lot. Everyone else was inside, the detective said.

The man was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta for treatment, and will face charges including aggravated assault, stalking, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, criminal damage to property, criminal trespass and third-degree cruelty to children, reports state.

Police don’t anticipate any charges being filed against the woman.

Sounds menacing enough, right? A man was hiding in the bushes with a gun waiting for his former partner to come back to her home with her children. How can you not take that seriously? Oh wait, did we forget to include the article's intro?

You might not call it the most well thought out plan: Hiding in some bushes in the pouring rain around 5:30 a.m., packing heat, waiting for your ex.

But even under those circumstances, to enter discussions about stupid criminals, the suspect would have to get shot by his own gun.

Enter David Jackson, 39, whom LaGrange, Ga., police say was waiting near the sidewalk by the Old Airport Road apartment early Tuesday. It was pouring rain when a 27-year-old woman, her sister and three children pulled into the parking lot, Detective Brian Brown said.

There is a reason that this man was charged with six crimes, including a felony. He could have killed this woman, her sister, and/or her children. Media members, please stop treating stalking as a joke.