Friday's Odds and Ends

Thanksgiving Shootings - Maybe the holiday should be banned? Across the Carolina's family squabbles led to shootings, deaths and arrests.

In Charlotte SWAT Officers opened fire Thanksgiving morning after an armed man refused to drop his gun.

According to many reports CMPD was called to a house on Snow White Lane in the Hidden Valley neighborhood around 9:00 a.m. about a suicidal man. According to investigators, he “raised” the gun and started walking toward officers. The man identified as L. C. Furtick was shot twice in the lower body after he ignored repeated orders to drop the weapon, police said.

He was transported to CMC with non-life-threatening injuries, according to police.

More details from FOX News here.

In Charleston a man was gunned down early Thanksgiving morning. Herbert Harvey Jr, 29 died of multiple gunshot wounds shortly after 5 a.m. Thursday. He was pronounced dead at the scene. By 1 p.m., police had arrested Delvon Antonio Collins, 21, and charged him with murder.

Near Beaufort - A Thanksgiving gathering turned into a gun battle after which a Florida man died when a Brays Island Plantation security officer burst into a home in the private community and shot him.

James Piotrowski, 42, of Stuart, Fla., died shortly after he was shot at about 12:09 a.m. Thursday at the Brays Island Drive home of his uncle and aunt, Richard and Carolyn Santee.

Richard Santee, who was shot twice by Piotrowski during the incident, was taken by air ambulance to a Savannah hospital.

The couple and their relatives had dinner and drinks Wednesday night and some began to head to bed at about 10:30 p.m., leaving Richard Santee and his nephew Piotrowski in the kitchen of the large, two-story home, Tanner said.

That's when the men apparently began to argue, he said.

Santee then went into his bedroom and retrieved a long-barreled revolver loaded with shotgun shells from his closet, Tanner said.

Investigators aren't sure what happened next.

People staying in the home told investigators they heard gunshots and first called Brays Island Plantation security before calling 911, he said. The caller gave few details to plantation security, asking only that officers come to the house -- and quickly, Tanner said.

Moments later, a security officer arrived at the home and walked up to the front door. He knocked and rang the doorbell, but no one answered.

As he stood at the front door, the officer looked through a window and saw a man standing in the foyer, pointing a gun at another man, who was slumped at the base of a staircase.

The man inside the home raised the gun and fired, hitting the man on the staircase, who investigators later confirmed was Santee, Tanner said.

The security officer then opened the front door, which was unlocked, and shot the man holding the gun, later confirmed to be Piotrowski.

Meanwhile, a family member had also called 911 and told Beaufort County dispatchers that shots had been fired in the home. EMS crews and deputies arrived to find the security guard and family members performing CPR on both men, but Piotrowski died at the scene.

North Carolina Mountians - A Burke County man shot his stepfather after police say the two began arguing early Thanksgiving morning.

Officers were responding to a domestic disturbance in Connelly Springs at 5:20 a.m. Thursday when the Burke County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a shooting at the same home.

When they arrived, officers said they found Filiberto Rubio, 40, on the back deck, dead from a gunshot wound.

Witnesses told police that Rubio and his stepson, Timothy Paul Bumgarner, 28, had been drinking and began to argue.

Investigators say witnesses told them Filberto Rubio picked up a snow globe and started to throw it at Bumgarner. Bumgarner grabbed a shotgun and fired and then fled on foot.

While officers were at the scene, Bumgarner emerged from the woods behind the home and surrendered.

Bumgarner is charged with murder. More details at WBTV.

Augusta - The bodies of two Aiken County teenage girls were discovered in a wooded lot early Thanksgiving morning in downtown Augusta.

Richmond County Chief Deputy Coroner Mark Bowen identified the victims as Angela Brooks, 19, of the 300 block of Breezehill Road in Warrenville; and Nancy Cushman, 18, of the 100 block of Jones Circle in Warrenville.


Travis Lorenzo Berrian, 26, who authorities believe might have information that could help investigators uncover information about the shooting deaths of Angela Brooks and Nancy Cushman.

Brooks and Cushman were shot and killed early Thursday, according to sheriff's office investigators.

Both were last seen about 12:30 a.m. with an unknown black man.

By Thursday afternoon, police were searching for a person of interest in the case, Travis Berrian, 26. They said he was not a suspect and was wanted only for information.

Berrian has a criminal record that most recently included a February 2008 sentencing to five years in prison and six years probation for aggravated assault.

More details from WAGT News is here.

Open Season on the Palins? - Wednesday Sarah Palin appeared on the Glen Beck show and mistakenly called North Korea an ally. Twice! It didn't take long for Keith Olbermann long to cash in on Palin's slip up. I suppose it won't be long before she is blamed for a war that started before she was born.



On Tuesday Politico.com reported that Bristol Palin had caused a major "controversy" on the show Dancing With the Stars.

Sarah Palin and her family has been fair game for the Opt-Ed folks and the likes of David Letterman who once crudely joked about an underaged Palin girl getting "knocked up" by one of the Yankees during the family's New York visit.

But the latest frenzy shows just how unhinged the far-left is in this country.

Point in case, some have suggested Bristol Palin's dance competitors were voted off the show as part a Tea Party conspiracy.

During the summer a photo of a t-shirt clad Palin created a fire storm when it was suggested that the former Alaska Governor had a boob job. Later spun into a question of whether she had used campaign contributions to pay for the enhancement. Both stories turned up to be bogus.

On Wednesday, Comedian Jimmy Kimmel joked that eventual Dancing With the Stars winner Jennifer Grey was lucky she wasn't shot by Grizzly mama Sarah Palin.

It's not just the far left wackos, Barbara Bush took a shot at Sarah Palin saying "she's a pretty woman from Alaska and I hope she stays there", which was on the heels of John McCains tartlet daughter Megan who quipped that Sarah Palin is an idiot.

Megan McCain ponders the Palin run for the White House in 2012 by saying: "If those citizens only need a gorgeously produced reality show, beautiful family, and well-narrated talking points in order to give someone an opening on the road to the White House, then say hello to President Palin,"

Which by the way is pretty much all it took to elect Barrack Obama.

All said I have to give credit to Palin for taking the heat gracefully and props to Bristol for "dancing like nobody's watching".

Charlotte's Latest Crime Ranking - When you think of cities safer than Charlotte, San Francisco, Austin, TX and San Diego don't normally come to mind. According to CQ Press a Washington DC based analytical publisher, Charlotte comes in at 118.

New York City comes in at 269th in the nation. Go figure but I'd expect CMPD Chief Monroe will spin the numbers as good news.



The complete list is here.

NASCAR Hall of Fame - Charlotte's grand national sized white elephant has been much the talk of the town considering its very lack luster attendance, which in turn has caused the financial projections to be so far of the mark its absurd.

Tuesday the "Local Paper" ran a story blaming the Muesum's troubles on NASCAR say the racing body doesn't provide financial support

So with a Thanksgiving Day Parade crowd estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 75,000-100,000 wandering the streets of downtown, it is mind boggling that the HofF would be closed.



Most everyone agrees the price of $19.95 for adults and $12.95 for kids under 12 and then the added service fees and taxes push the costs beyond a spur of the moment venture inside. But considering the state of attendance it would have been smart to at least open the doors.

Foot Note: Tuesday the "Local Paper" ran a story blaming some of the Museum's troubles on NASCAR saying the racing body doesn't provide financial support. A little fact checking seems to be in order as last Cedar Posts heard NASCAR has been pretty supportive in the cash area.