GA prosecutor: No criminal charges against man who fatally shot stranger with Alzheimer's

[The Straight Story]

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia prosecutor: No criminal charges against man who fatally shot stranger with Alzheimer's.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/georgia-prosecutor-no-criminal-charges-against-man-who-fatally-shot-stranger-alzheimers


Families wait for justice in shooting death of man with Alzheimer's disease in Chickamauga
Posted: Feb 23, 2014 10:41 AM EST Updated: Feb 23, 2014 12:57 PM EST

CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. — Deanne Westbrook has woken up alone for the past 88 mornings. Each time, she looks beside her, to the spot Ronald Westbrook occupied for so long. The vacancy surprises her, still.

She says three months of loneliness cannot offset 51 years of marriage, a relationship that ended when a stranger shot her 72-year-old husband dead on the morning of Nov. 27. Deanne, 70, woke up that day with police at her doorstep, and she has slept in her bed alone ever since.

"It's the strangest thing," she said. "I know he's not there, but it seems like he should be there. It is the hardest thing in the world."

http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/24798080/families-wait-for-justice-in-shooting-death-of-man-with-alzheimers-disease-in-chickamauga


CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. (AP) — The last walk that Ronald Westbrook took began as early as 1 a.m. when he slipped unnoticed from his North Georgia home with his two dogs.

It ended three hours later when Westbrook, a 72-year-old who suffered from Alzheimer's disease, knocked in the dark on a stranger's door last month. Police said a man inside that home, 34-year-old Joe Hendrix, got a .40-caliber handgun, went outside to investigate and shot Westbrook in a horrible mistake.

The unlikely collision between two strangers — one deeply confused, another perceiving a threat — illustrates both the difficulties that caregivers face in keeping loved ones with Alzheimer's safe and the consequences of miscalculation in a state that celebrates its gun culture.

Westbrook's widow struggles to comprehend how she lost her husband of 51 years and discussed what happened in an interview in her house this week, sitting on her couch beside her Bible.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/07/suffering-from-alzheimers-ga-man-fatally-shot/3904791/

[In_The_Wind]

1. This just isn't right.

[Demo_Chris]

2. Unfortunate incident for everyone involved. Seems like a reasonable decision by the DA. nt

[enough]

3. I agree it's unfortunate, but the event happened outside the house,

after the guy in the house had followed the man outside. There doesn't seem to be much evidence to know what happened between them out there, but why follow him outside when the police had already been called?

Of course none of this will change anything.