ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — A twenty year old intruder was found dead at the scene of an armed home invasion in an apartment complex in St. Louis. St. Louis Metropolitan police confirm that two robbers entered the domicile where two women and a man were residing. One of the women retrieved a gun and opened fire on the robbers, fatally striking one.
According to KSDK News, Jarrett Richardson of Cahokia, Illinois, was confirmed dead at the scene by police. His accomplice is still at-large but police are investigating for any leads that may help locate him.
In Missouri, if your criminal buddy dies as a result of the attempted crime, you’re charged with his murder. That may be one of many reasons why criminals don’t have a “leave no man behind” policy for violent crimes.
If Richardson’s accomplice is ever captured, he will likely face a murder charge in addition to first-degree armed robbery.
It doesn’t matter if you’re rich, poor, live in a good neighborhood or the worst one, a gun can make all the difference in the world when fighting back against home intruders. By the time they’re through the door, your life is already up for grabs.
Nobody wants bad guys in their home. Nobody I know wants to kill another human being. Unfortunately, when those two worlds collide, the choice is simple: you have to fight.
Bad guys must come out of a factory somewhere. Because it seems that no matter how many them are killed or incarcerated, there’s always a steady stream of them willing to fill that gap. You would think this is a high-demand career field but it’s not. Most criminals don’t make a lot of money through their violent enterprises.
Think of an average apartment that holds something to the order of several thousand dollars worth of merchandise and cash inside. Even if they made off with the big screen TV and that brand new blender, alongside a little cash, it still wouldn’t be enough to pay for one month’s rent in even the dingiest St. Louis apartment. Because when that big screen TV and that brand new iPhone go to market, they’re not going to get full price. They’ll be lucky to get half or a third of the retail price. So, an apartment filled with $5,000 worth of merchandise and cash is suddenly now worth $2,500. As the occupants of the apartment were home, there’s no chance they’re moving the larger items. Now it’s down to cellphones and wallets. Let’s be liberal about that and say $1,000 all said and done. Now, divide that by two. Each robber would make $500 each.
To top that off, if they’re caught, they face something to the order of 5-10 years in prison. And, in this particular case where one of them died at the scene, now the other one would be facing 15+ years in prison. All of this for $500.
In St. Louis, the average one bedroom or studio apartment starts around $575 and goes up from there. These robbers risked their life for a single score that wouldn’t even netted them a month’s rent.
Who would put themselves at that risk much less die over $500? Not I. Probably not just about everyone reading this article.
That’s the criminal element we’re often stuck dealing with — people bad at life math.
If you think that sort of person is dangerous, you would be right. A person willing to live and die over $500 is a person that probably hasn’t though through his actions. In that scenario, you are probably better off using a gun.
