Kid Allegedly Shot and Killed Just for Walking on Grass
The press is reporting this as a case of a 15-year-old getting shot for walking across somebody’s lawn. Does anybody else get the feeling that there might be much more to this story?
Irritated but calm, the homeowner called 911 and told the dispatcher that he had finally done something about the neighbor boy — the one, the man said into the phone, who had been harassing him for years.
“I just killed a kid,” Charles Martin said, according to a recording of the Sunday afternoon call (audio) released by police in Union Township, near Batavia, about 20 miles east of Cincinnati.
Martin, 66, is charged with murdering 15-year-old Larry Mugrage, who lived next door to the house where Martin kept a meticulous front lawn with grass that he could sometimes be seen measuring to the inch.
Police said crossing that lawn is what got Mugrage killed.
“I’m being harassed by him and his parents for five years and today I just blew it up,” the caller says on the tape, before identifying himself as “Charles Martin.”
Neighbors said Martin was quiet, often sitting out in front of his one-story home with its neat lawn, well-trimmed shrubbery and flag pole with U.S. and Navy flags flying. In his fenced backyard, he had several birdhouses and a shed painted like a small red barn with white trim.
Neighbor Joanne Ritchie, 46, said Mugrage was known as “a good kid,” and that she always considered Martin to be friendly.
I was at the gym, earlier today, and saw Fox covering this.
When they came back from a commericial, the heading under their video-feed was “Mowed Down”.
Nice… 🙁
They claim fair & balanced, but not compassionate.
And people ask why old people are always depicted saying:
“Get off my lawn you pesky kids!”..
(On another note, Mike.. it’s pretty immature to tie in a political bash with a totally nonpolitical story)
only in america…
Um, Patrick, go stir up a political discussion on somebody else’s post. This one’s about a kid that got shot.
It’s the quiet ones you should watch out for…
Gonna reserve judgement until it’s all out. The kid has one strike against him….a neighbor said he was a *good* kid. Thats what serial killers neighbors always say as well.
I hope there’s more to this than meets the eye. But senseless death is so common anymore.
If I was a retired Vet who fought for my country and my life passion was my lawn, and after asking over and over to have my private property to be respected and some snot nosed kid kept it up, I might just pull the trigger too. I would have probably fired a warning shot first tho. But one things for sure, he won’t cross the lawn again. What happened to listening to your elders? Where are America’s values headed? Didn’t we learn from the Romans what decadence leads to?
Was this guy crazy? Better put yourself in his shoes before passing judgement… Keep doing wrong and you just might have to pay the price, no matter what a political law says you can and can’t do.
I don’t find this being that far-fetched. I can see myself doing it. I mean, you work hard to keep your home clean and beautiful, then some punk keeps coming to ruin the lawn. Sooner or later my patience will be spent, and I have to do something drastic to keep it from happening anymore. But I wouldn’t have shot the kid out right. I’ll make something up to make it look like an accident.
I dont know, you obviously cant say the guy is innocent, althought I will say that if its true he doesnt need death or life w/o parol.
There can be some damn irratating kids out there. That will taunt, harras and almost torture you. For no reason other than they know they are young and you cant punch them out without going to jail.
If the guy isnt in best of mental health(he measures his lawn…he’s not in the best) he could have been sent over the edge by the kid.
I’ev shot kids running around on my property with BB guns(in the ass not the head) and remember when farmers use to shoot kids with a shotgun loaded with Salt Rock ?
Its a sad story…but not a black and white one.
OK, 6.5 Billion people on this rock, kill one, no big deal…get that asshole to kill a couple billion then we have news! And environmental goodness!!
I’d have planted poison ivy where the kid kept cutting across the lawn and let him suffer for ignoring repeated warnings.
Of course, getting to know the kid, developing a friendship, and giving him a positive reason to comply with the request would be a better approach. The “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” principle.
why do people keep planting lawns, when it just leads to this kind of violence. Stop the sod.
Frankly I’m appalled at some of these comments. When people begin valueing lawns higher than a person’s life, something is seriously wrong. If you feel that a bunch of plant leaves is of more value than a human being I’d prefer it if you left my country and didn’t come back. Of course why should I be shocked? I live in a country that kills millions of unborn children every year, and in some states lets the sick or depressed kill themselves with a doctor’s help (or lets a husband pull the plug even when others are willing to pay for the care). Obviously we’re working our way up to 15 year old lawn walkers now. How long before we move the line past your demographic?
It’s the quiet ones you should watch out for…
As George Carlin once said…
Its not really about lawns or plant leaves, its about respect….
Care… You call it care when someone is ready to die and kept artificially alive against their will? Sound like suffering is a better definition. I’m glad I’m not in your “care”! When I’m ready to go, I’m more than willing to let nature decide to take me.
Respect. Some kids just do not understand the concept. Especially when they see adults that don’t respect the rights of others to control what happens with their bodies and life.
If a woman doesn’t want to be a walking uterus for some self-righteous man, or suffer while an agonizing, lingering death slowly sucks the life from you, or doesn’t wish to pay homage to another’s god is their right. To force people to do these things is disrespectful and just plain wrong. And the same thing happens if a neighborhood kid repeatedly cuts across your lawn, purposely scratches the finish on your prized collector car in the drive, or torments your tied up champion Scottish Terrier.
While it is wrong to kill another person, and surely simple trespassing doesn’t rise to the level of defending yourself, I think this guy had the wrong button pushed. There has to be more to this story.
The old coot was crazy. We have a lot of old, crazy, coots around this part of the state. When you’re this close to the Mason-Dixon line, anything (and everything) can happen.
For anyone else in the same position, there are these things called FENCES that will really help the situation. They can be quite decorative and blend in very well with the whole landscape. Besides their decorative powers, they can be made to reduce and even eliminate trespassing. While much more expensive then most bullets, they still come out cheaper then a few hours of attorney time.
The kid and his parents need to respect private property. They had been requested to stay off his lawn and chose to ignore the man.
I’m not saying what he did was the right thing to do, but I understand why he did it!
Our neighbor walks her dog every day. It was almost every day that the dog would take a nice steamy dump by our mailbox. Now on a 100 degree day that really does not smell nice when you get the mail. I have asked the individual to clean up after their dog. There is the usual apology and explanation that there are many people who walk their dogs. Yada, yada, yada. Well, the next day the same thing happened: I go to get the mail and a nice dog loaf is under the mailbox.
Well, I had enough. I knew that she walked the dog between 11:30 and 12 in the afternoon. Many times I work at home so I waited by the kitchen window which is right by the garage. Sure enough there she came with her dog. I opened the garage door, and waited for the dog to get into that nice crouched position. There was the dog in the bliss of loaf pinching glory, the eyes went a little closed, the expression on the dogs face went “ahhhhh,” and the loaf started to get pinched out. Just when the dog was at the point of no return I turned on the sprinklers and gave him a nice shot in the ass. The poor thing had to pinch it off midway and get out of there. The best part is that the owner got wet as well.
See, you don’t need to shoot people to teach them courteously.
What happened to the good old days when you shot people like the kid with rock salt instead of deadly lead? I swear, even old people have lost it.
Wait wait wait….
Are people actually saying they can understand shooting a kid because he was “crossing the lawn”?
Wha..? huh? Who? Where does the interwebs come up with you people?
Jammer, you wouldn’t value a person’s life over some money, so you would of course not shoot someone trying to rob you then?
Thank God I don’t live in America!
My father in law and my best friend’s father were both way more concerned with their lawns and kids cutting across them, than most of us would consider normal. My father in law took care of the problem by putting up a fence and a hedge; this worked just fine. The other guy went to the extreme of moving out of town to a rural area. At any rate, they both took care of the problem in relatively sane ways that didn’t involve lead. Charles Martin could have done the same.
Something that happened to another crazy guy–he ran out in front of a passing car and got killled.
This is why i’ll refuse to go to American, a good 50% of people there are lunatics or mentally unstable.
“where Martin kept a meticulous front lawn with grass that he could sometimes be seen measuring to the inch.”
This statement says it all. Obsesive, compulsive behavior. Sounds like the reclusive,neighborhood wacko, that everyone either avoids or some mock.
Yes, Please DONT come to America if you think you will walk on my private property and not pay a penalty. There is a reason its called PRIVATE!
Since when do signs keep people from doing things? When is the last time you exceded the speed limit? Hmmm…
Killing the kid was an extreme solution and wrong, but there is a lesson to be learned here. If you keep playing with fire, you might just get burnt. Pretty simple logic.Even a 15 year old should have been taught common sense. Probably parental error should be the blame.
Whats with all this wacko liberal parallelism? Stick to the topic!
For those of you from outside the U.S. whom this frightens, I offer only the solace of our justice system. This is not the last story on the event, and right and wrong (admittedly, one might think the death of a 15 year old a simple call on those grounds) determined and punishment meted appropriately.
Meanwhile I choose not to judge a country or religion on the actions of a few, and hope you will return the favor.
“I offer only the solace of our justice system.”
That’s funny! Perhaps he’ll use the Chewbacka defense!