At the mid–year point, here’s a look back at the most kinetic Blotter entries of 2012:
JANUARY:
A gunman met his match when he broke into a 50-year-old woman’s truck and assaulted her. When the masked man rose up from a back seat, pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her, she stomped on the accelerator and began driving erratically to alert other drivers.
After she struck a car and a street sign and jumped the median, the gunman was begging to get out before she killed them both.
Police found 70 dogs found living in filth on East 33rd Street. Officers spent more than four hours removing the dogs and transporting them to the Chatham County Animal Shelter.
Officers responded to a complaint of barking dogs to find the house full of dogs, clutter and waste. In one room waste had been shoveled more than a foot thick. The dogs’ owner was arrested.
FEBRUARY:
A 26–year–old Rincon man was rushed to treatment after leaving a gun show and accidentally shooting himself in the leg outside the Civic Center. He purchased the pistol at a gun show in the Civic Center and returned with it. He unloaded the gun to enter the show and was reloading it outside when it fired.
MARCH:
Police arrested a 55–year–old man after he assaulted several people with a hammer in an apparent argument over which country artist is better: Reba McEntire or Loretta Lynn.
He arrived at the home he used to occupy with his girlfriend. An altercation occurred outside between him and his girlfriend. Two friends of the girlfriend came outside and he attacked them with the hammer. Another friend then came out of the house and engaged the man with a hammer of her own. He left.
APRIL
A Savannah Fire Dept. captain was arrested after threatening his wife, setting fire to her clothes and assaulting two police officers.
Officers found the man burning his wife’s clothing in the back yard.When officers approached, he surrendered a knife from his belt but tried to work his way into the kitchen where a firearm was later found. He grabbed one of the officers when they blocked his path to the kitchen.
Police coaxed him outside and warned of using a taser if he did not cooperate, only to have him head–butt two officers and threaten to kill all those on the scene and burn their patrol cars. He was taken into custody.
MAY
A 60–year–old man drove up to a detective on Broughton Street and told her the man with him had kidnapped him. He later told police his 11–year–old son was being held at his Westside home. The alleged kidnapper left the car and ran, allowing the car to roll into the plate glass window of Saigon Restaurant.
The gunman ran into The Olde Pink House, which police surrounded. SWAT and K–9 officers gained entry and found the gunman hiding on the main floor.
Meanwhile, officers had surrounded the elderly man’s residence in West Savannah. Another alleged kidnapper sped away in a car, which he quickly crashed into some trees. SWAT and K–9 officers tracked him down.
