update on shooting the mail man :: RunningForums.com

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/0605/30postal.html

Quote:

Mail carrier shot by 'eccentric'
Gunman 'wanted [feds] to take care of him'

By TASGOLA KARLA BRUNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/30/05

Faced with mounting debt and failing health, a Gwinnett County man shot and seriously wounded a mail carrier Wednesday, hoping the federal prison system would "take care of him," a postal service spokeswoman said.

Authorities said Bill Crutchfield, a divorced man who lived alone, stormed out of his home at 4007 Tanglewood Road near Snellville as his mail was being delivered about 11:30 a.m. and shot his regular mail carrier, Earl Lazenby, 52, of Snellville at least three times in the abdomen.

Crutchfield, believed to be about 61, then drove to Snellville police headquarters and confessed to the shooting, said Snellville police Chief Roy Whitehead.

Lazenby, a 28-year employee of the postal service, was in stable condition at Gwinnett Medical Center after surgery, said postal service spokesman Michael Miles. "We are optimistic about his recovery," Miles said.

Miles said Crutchfield wanted to commit a federal crime. He told authorities Lazenby "was a nice guy and he wanted the cops to know it had nothing to do with him," Miles said.

Tracey Jefferson, a spokeswoman for the Postal Inspection Service in Atlanta, said Crutchfield had tracked the case of confessed Olympic park bomber Eric Rudolph.

"He followed the case of Eric Rudolph closely and saw that he was fed three meals a day and was being taken care of," she said. "He wanted the federal system to take care of him, and he thought this was the way he could do it."

Postal officials and neighbors said Crutchfield, a diabetic with a heart condition, was about $90,000 in debt and feared he would lose his home.

Neighbors described him as a "strange" and "eccentric" man who had anti-government stickers on his car and spoke of having a house "full of guns."

Jim Bornac, Crutchfield's next-door neighbor, said he was home when he heard gunshots. He ran outside to see Lazenby screaming and banging on another neighbor's door.

"He said, 'Call 911. The person across the street just shot me,' " Bornac said. Bornac called authorities.

Then Bornac, who suffers from a brain condition, had a seizure because of the incident, he said. He said paramedics were called to come to his house to help him.

"I'm OK now," Bornac said. "I've been rattled all day."

He said he considered Crutchfield an angry man and tried to avoid him.

Bornac said Crutchfield told him he had gotten mad at the gas company and shut off service because of the high price. Bornac said that in the 13 years he had lived next door to Crutchfield, he never saw his neighbor carrying groceries into the house or trash out of it.

"He was a loner and made it known he had guns," said Bornac's wife, Becci Bornac. "He had a voice toward anything anti-government. He didn't like anything. He didn't like anybody."

Jim Bornac said that after Crutchfield had heart surgery earlier this year, he was concerned about his medical bills.

"He had no medical insurance and worried about paying," he said.

"They told him not to worry about it, but I'm sure they still sent bills."

update on shooting the mail man

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