Article Archive

Date

FIVE: FirstMerit victim zone robbed again

Last week, a new policy of banning firearms in FirstMerit Bank began to be enforced. Signs were posted in several branches, with word that they will be posted in all Ohio branches. Unfortunately for residents in Pennsylvania, who have been able to bank at FirstMerit for several years without being confronted with discriminatory signs, we have learned the bank plans to post them there too. That state has had a concealed carry law since the late 1980's.

OFCC has learned that yesterday marked the FIFTH robbery at an Ohio FirstMerit in the past two weeks.

May 26 robbery: Akron FirstMerit Bank at 727 N. Main St.

May 25 robbery: Columbus First Merit Bank at East Powell Road and Polaris Parkway

May 20 robbery: Akron FirstMerit Bank branch at 1060 Kenmore Blvd.

May 17 robbery: Akron FirstMerit branch at 840 Brittain Road

May 14 robbery: Akron FirstMerit Bank ATM customer in 1400 block of South Arlington Street

Ohio has one of the highest bank robbery rates in the nation. The Ohio Banker's League is distributing instructions on how banks can ban CHL-holders. But clearly bank robbers could not care less about FirstMerit's discriminatory signs.

FirstMerit has been serving Northeastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania for over 155 years. Pennsylvania has had a concealed carry law since the late 80's, and In the time they have done business in that state, FirstMerit has never been posted with discriminatory signs!! (our sources say that may soon change)

Customer Contact Center - 1-888-554-4362
In the Akron area, please call 330-996-6025.
Email: customerservice@firstmerit.com.
(If you would like to hear back from a FirstMerit customer representative, please indicate that in your message.)

Thugs don't need licenses, don't care about gun bans, and often don't use guns

Akron Beacon Journal:
Two residents held up within minutes of each other - Kent crime victims describe same robber
Two Kent residents were robbed at gunpoint by the same person within several minutes early Wednesday, police said.

The first victim, Melissa Ann Lemr, 25, told police she was getting out of her vehicle in the parking lot of the Lake Street Apartments at 12:06 a.m. when the robber approached her, put a gun to her face and took her money, Kent police Lt. John Altomare said.

While patrol officers were responding to that call, the second victim, Theodore O. McFrederic, 34, flagged down an officer and said he had been robbed on Lake Street at 12:09 a.m. by a man matching the description of the first robber, Altomare said.

Cancer patient dies after April assault/ robbery in home
A cancer patient who allegedly was beaten and robbed for his painkillers at his East Avenue home last month has died.

Jerry Dent, 65, died Monday, according to a newspaper death notice.

Akron police have said that Dent was attacked April 15 after he refused to reveal where he kept his prescription drugs -- OxyContin and morphine. Paull and Renee Dalton, a Barberton couple whom Dent hired to repair his home, have been charged with felonious assault, aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary.

Dent was hit in the head and knocked to the floor during the incident, police said. As he lay on the floor, he was kicked several times in the ribs and chest, they said.

Canton Repository:
Gunmen rob delivery driver of $20 at downtown post office

Two men robbed a mail delivery driver at gunpoint of $20 at a downtown post office and then forced all the other employees inside to lay on the ground early Saturday morning.

An alarm scared the robbers away, police said.

The robbery occurred at 5:15 a.m. Saturday at the post office at 220 Fourth St. SW.

After they robbed the driver, the duo entered the building through a door on the south side and ordered all the workers to the floor, said Sgt. Ralph Ketchum.

Dayton Daily News:
Woman attacked in home after ride - police say suspect may be serial rapist
She knew him as a customer at her place of employment," Flanders said, which is a carry-out/fast food type of business.

The two went to the victim's apartment, where Flanders said Henley talked his way inside and then raped her sometime between 5:15 and 6 a.m.

"He stabbed her and tried to suffocate her with a pillow. . . . He pulled a knife and stabbed her twice. Once in the side and once in the hip," Flanders said, adding that the knife did not come from the victim's home. "She did fight for her life."

The victim escaped, ran and boarded a RTA bus about 6 a.m., Flanders said. She was taken to an area hospital suffering from serious injuries, he said.

Flanders called Henley extremely dangerous and said, "there is a possibility that there are other victims," offering no other details.

Man arrested in beating death
David Reed, 56, died shortly before 7 a.m., Burke said. Police said they think Reed and Neeley got into a verbal argument on a patio behind a business at 1333 E. Third St. before the argument "escalated to a beating."

No weapons were used, said Burke.

WKYC.com:
Gunfire sends youth soccer team running
KENT -- Young soccer players are practicing under police protection tonight, after someone fired several shots at a soccer complex this weekend.

Soccer isn't considered a dangerous sport but what happened at Al Lease Park on Sunday might make any soccer mom reconsider.

Four booming shots sent 20 children running from the park Sunday afternoon. Remarkably, the parents and coaches reacted very well.

The alleged shooter, 25-year-old Lavon Eichelberger is out on bond tonight. Expect him to be charged with inducing panic.

Pizza Hut fires deliveryman for defending own life on company time

May 18, 2004
Indianapolis Star

Deliveryman: 'It was my gun or his'

Marion County prosecutors will decide if any charges will be filed against a pizza deliveryman who killed an armed man during an apparent robbery attempt Monday night on the city's Far Eastside.

"I'm just satisfied it was him and not me," said Ronald B. Honeycutt, 38, of Carmel this morning.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

Op-Ed: Whither Gun Control?

May 23, 2004
By John R. Lott, Jr.

What is happening to the gun control movement?

This month, the Million Mom March in Washington drew an anemic showing of only 2,000 people, while this year, all of the Democratic presidential candidates— however unenthusiastically— spoke of Americans’ Second Amendment right to own guns. These are just a few of the signs that the facts finally seem to be catching up to the movement. The future for the movement looks even worse.

Whether the subject is concealed handgun laws or bans on semi-automatic so-called “assault weapons,” gun control debates have been filled with apocalyptic claims about what will happen if gun control is not adopted. One common prediction is that laws allowing the carrying of a concealed weapon will result in crime waves, or permit holders shooting others. However, with 37 states now having right-to-carry laws, and another nine states letting some citizens carry, permit holders have continually shown themselves to be extremely law-abiding. It is becoming more and more difficult to attack those laws.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.