Forest Hills homeowner wounds burglary suspects
A Forest Hills man shot two armed burglars at his home early yesterday morning and, police say, the burglars were lucky that Roy Luckett grabbed his wife's gun.
When the burglar alarm went off at 2 a.m. in Luckett's two-story home at 939 Tyne Blvd., it woke him and his wife, Patsy. Luckett had the choice of two guns in their bedroom his .45-caliber handgun and his wife's less powerful, .38-caliber pistol, loaded with "snake shot" pellets.
He grabbed the .38 and went downstairs.
After searching the first floor, Luckett, 67, went to the basement, where a door near the garage was cracked open, his attorney Clark Spoden said.
Luckett thought the wind had blown it open; he closed the door and was about to go back upstairs when Patsy called down to him.
"She said, 'Did you check all the rooms?' " Spoden said. "(Luckett) was in a storage room adjacent to the furnace room and heard this noise."
Luckett opened the furnace-room door to find two figures standing in the darkness, and he fired three times, emptying the gun, Spoden said.
Police say the two burglary suspects were masked and armed with rifles, Spoden said.
The pellets hit one suspect, Micah R. Ladd, 20, in the arm. The other suspect, a juvenile, 17, whose name police withheld, was hit in the face.
Luckett ran upstairs and grabbed the .45. The suspects struggled to get the garage door open and once they did, fled through the garage, police and Spoden said.
The pair fired 14 rounds from at least one of the rifles into Patsy Luckett's sport utility vehicle, piercing its body and shattering a window, Spoden and police said.
When police arrived in the neighborhood, where homes are appraised in the $1 million range, they followed a trail of blood from the Lucketts' furnace room, through the garage and into the woods, where they found a black mask and a flashlight.
Metro police say the two wounded suspects stopped near the Harding Place/Humber Drive intersection and phoned for medical help.
Ladd, who was treated and released from a hospital, admitted to the burglary, according to a police statement, and led detectives to the two rifles that he had stashed at his home at Hillview Heights near Franklin Pike before calling for medical help.
The juvenile is being treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and will be booked into juvenile detention upon release, the police statement said.
The Lucketts were not injured. Metro police spokesman Don Aaron was quoted in a television report saying that the two suspects were fortunate Roy Luckett chose the gun he did.
Luckett said he does not know why the suspects stayed in the house after the alarm went off.
"They were lucky I didn't take the .45," he said.
"No telling what would have happened. God just guided me through that night."
Break-in suspect is Chase's son
Originally ran here
as:
Break-in suspect is Chase's son
by Sheila Burke, Staff Writer
The Tennessean
May 21, 2002
Break-in suspect is Chase's son
Longtime television talk show host Charlie Chase yesterday acknowledged that his teen-age son was one of two males accused by Metro police of breaking into an Oak Hill home to rob a 67-year-old man and his wife early Sunday.
The son, David Bernard, 17, was in stable condition last night at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after being shot in the face by the homeowner, Roy W. Luckett, of 939 Tyne Blvd. Charlie Chase is the professional name of Charles W. Bernard.
While not naming the teen, police said a 17-year-old and 20-year-old Micah Ladd broke into the home armed with a Bulgarian rifle similar to an AK-47 assault rifle and a .22-caliber pistol.
Chase, in a statement released to the media said his family was "in complete shock." Chase declined through a spokesman to give an interview.
"My family and I simply don't understand what has happened," the statement said. "We're in complete shock. We are just now beginning to learn details. The whole matter seems so unreal.
"Whatever did happen, we are thankful that David is alive. It was traumatic for everyone involved, including Mr. and Mrs. Luckett. Our thoughts are with them, as well."
The intruders had duct tape, police spokesman Don Aaron said, and "we believe that they intended to rob Mr. and Mrs. Luckett and in the process bind them while the robbery took place."
Still unknown, police said, is how the pair acquired the weapons and why the Luckett home was targeted.
Chase sold a home on Tyne Valley Boulevard, less than a mile from the Luckett home, in April, property records show. He bought the home in 1997.
In his statement, Chase said it was important for the family to support David, and he asked for "prayers and support and for the understanding that would allow David and us to deal with this as private individuals."
Chase and Lorianne Crook launched a television variety show, Crook & Chase, in 1986. It aired for a decade on TNN, then in syndication in 1996 for a year, before it returned to TNN. The network dropped the show in late 1999.
The duo are now hosts of Crook & Chase Country Countdown, a nationally syndicated radio show.
School officials said records show a Charles D. Bernard is a student at Overton High School, at 4820 Franklin Pike. Several Overton High students contacted last night declined to comment. Messages left for former Overton High Principal Michael Hammond and current Principal Monica Dillard were not returned.
When the injured teen is released from Vanderbilt, he will be charged as a juvenile with charges including aggravated criminal trespassing, aggravated robbery, unlawful weapon possession, felony vandalism, possession of burglary tools and criminal attempt to commit aggravated robbery, police said.
Ladd, who was shot in the arm by the homeowner and has since been released from the hospital, was in the Metro Jail last night in lieu of $100,000 bail. He was charged with aggravated burglary, police said. Police expect additional charges against Ladd, of 831 Hillview Heights.
Police said Ladd has admitted his role in the burglary and led police to the weapons at his house. "Unless they have been modified, (the weapons) are not on their face illegal," Aaron said.
At a press conference at his home yesterday, Luckett recounted the events of Sunday morning. He was awakened by his home alarm system shortly after 2 a.m.
Luckett grabbed his wife's .38-caliber pistol loaded with "snake shot," which is similar to BB pellets, and began checking the house. He went downstairs into the garage and opened the door to a utility closet. Inside, he saw two armed masked figures and shot them, police said. Luckett said he fired all the ammunition in the handgun and then ran upstairs.
Luckett "fired his weapon in self-defense because he feared for his safety," according to Ladd's arrest affidavit.
The two suspects fled but not before one of them sprayed Luckett's Lexus sport utility vehicle with gunfire, he said. There were 13 bullet holes on the side of the vehicle and one, Luckett said, came within a hair of hitting the gas tank.
After fleeing, the two men tried to get help for their gunshot wounds, police said. Police said they tried to drive to a hospital in south Nashville but stopped near the intersection of Harding Place and Humber Drive and called for help. They told responding officers that they were shot while downtown, but police suspected they had just come from the Luckett house.
Luckett said the incident has taken a heavy emotional toll on his wife, Patsy.
"It's a shame that you work hard all your life and then have something like this happen."
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