Lunatic Lawyer Lays Siege to Elderly Couple’s Home

15 Jul, 2016 by Dave Blount

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In each issue of its magazine American Rifleman, the NRA runs a section called “The Armed Citizen,” made up of news reports submitted by readers that feature law-abiding citizens defending their persons and property by exercising their right to bear arms. Probably more than a few readers will be sending them this one from Ringgold, Georgia:

A Chattanooga attorney was shot Tuesday after police say he broke into an elderly couple’s house, threatened them, vowed to leave, returned anyway, climbed on the roof, and threw plants at them. …

Police say [29-year-old Matthew Jack ] Fitzharris walked into the couple’s home Tuesday evening at 1019 Cloud Springs Road, uninvited and carrying a blanket. When Alice Hanshaw, one of the homeowners, asked the stranger to get out, Fitzharris screamed, “I’m not leaving your f****** home,” records show.

Producing a gun got him to leave, but then he came back, banging on the door of their niece’s upstairs apartment and hurling plants at them.

Fitzharris threatened to “f*** y’all up.” Then he promised to kill himself. Then he tried climbing the roof of a nearby shed. Instead, he bolted down the stairs, tried to hit Alice and Delbert Hanshaw, and ran to the front of the house, records show.

A warning shot did not persuade Fitzharris to go away. Instead, he lunged at Delbert Hanshaw.

In self-defense, Delbert Hanshaw pumped two rounds into Fitzharris’ right arm, records show. When police responded around 11:55 p.m., they found Fitzharris in his car. He was loaded into an ambulance, taken to Hamilton Medical Center in Dalton, Ga., and returned to jail with a cast.

The lawyer’s lawyer surmises “that a suspected psychological problem may be at play.”

Too bad Fitzharris doesn’t represent himself. The trial would be a hoot.

Before graduating from the law school at Ohio Northern University, Fitzharris earned a degree in psychology. He ought to at least testify in his own defense regarding his mental state.

The lesson is reinforced once again: it’s a scary world, and even scarier when you are not armed.