Defensive gun story on front page of Atlanta Journal Constitution

Fatal carjacking was a nightmare in broad daylight
Passer-by praised for quick thinking

By MICHAEL PEARSON, PAUL KAPLAN, DON PLUMMER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/18/05
Through her office window, Becky Porter watched as the white Toyota SUV swerved across Cobb Parkway and crashed into a concrete truck.

Porter remembers a blur of action as she ran outside.

The driver jumped out. Porter heard three shots, then witnessed a scene that brings tears to her eyes.

"The driver ... had a gun in his hand, and the guy who was chasing him shot him," Porter said. "Then he hit his knees and started crying, because he turned around and saw the lady in the car was dead. I heard him say, 'Oh God.' "

The crime was as random as one could imagine.

A stranger carjacks a woman in broad daylight. There's a crash. The woman dies. Her abductor is shot and killed — not by police but by an armed passer-by who gave chase in his truck.

That man, Shawn T. Roberts, has emerged as a hero for trying to help 30-year-old Kimberly Boyd and for saving other lives that police say might have been taken had the carjacker escaped.

"Scores of people were coming up to him and thanking him for what he did," said Scott Cannon, a friend of the Boyds who attended Kimberly's funeral Friday. . . .

Thanks to John Corry for sending me this piece.