SHELBY COUNTY, AL — A man was shot and killed after trying to follow up on a threat he made to a female neighbor between the time he was arrested for the threat and the time he was to appear in court, AL.com reports.
It just goes to show — even if law enforcement tells someone to behave real nice, there’s no substitute for personal protection.
As ABC 33 reports:
Just before 6 p.m. Sunday, Helena Police were called out to the Fox Valley Apartments in Maylene in response to a shooting call.
When officers arrived, they found 39-year-old Jim William Boykin, who lived at the complex, dead from a gunshot wound. After taking witness statements, police said it appeared that Boykin was behaving erratically, accosted a female neighbor at her apartment, and she shot Boykin in self-defense.
According to police, the 46-year-old female recently filed a report with Helena Police and said that Boykin threatened her with physical harm. A warrant was issued for Boykin in that case, and he was later arrested. He was out on bond pending a court date.
AL.com reported on the police statement, which fleshed out the circumstances before the shooting — it’s not pretty.
“After taking witness statements, it appears that Boykin was behaving erratically and accosted his neighbor (a 46-year-old female) at the neighbor’s residence and the neighbor shot him in self-defense,” a police statement read according to AL.com.
“The neighbor had recently filed a report with the Helena Police Department and reported that Boykin had threatened them with physical harm. A warrant was issued in that case and Boykin had been arrested and was out on bond pending a court date. This case remains under investigation and no further information is available at this time.”
So Boykin had been arrested for threatening this woman (and possibly her family) before — but had been bailed out and was hangning right where he could hurt the very neighbor he threatened.
I don’t know whether his neighbor had gotten a firearm before or after the previous close call with Boykin, but man am I glad she had it when she needed it.
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