Image via WSIU public television/NPR

Some people think that violent crime almost never happens in small towns. The reality is that horrific crimes do sometimes occur in sleepy, small towns, including the wholesale slaughter of entire families. While we read more about what happens in places like Philadelphia, Portland, Chicago and their endless parade of violent crime, bad things happen in small town America, too.

In the teeming metropolis of Elderon, Wisconsin (pop. 159), a 79-year-old man was accosted outside his home at 2:30 a.m. as he stepped out of his car. It seems his attacker followed him home intent on robbing the older man.

Unbeknownst to the attacker, the homeowner carried a pistol. Police say that Mr. Homeowner, after being stabbed in the face, shot Alexander T. Watters once in the chest.

Watters, 22, managed to wrest the gun away from the elderly man, but before he could turn it against his victim, Watters fell down and expired.

From WAOW . . .

The Marathon County Sheriff’s Office has identified the 22-year-old suspect that was shot and killed by a homeowner during an armed robbery home invasion on Tuesday at a residence on Pike Lake Road in the Town of Elderon as 22-year-old Alexander T. Watters of Wittenberg.

According to the press release from Marathon County:

Based on the findings of the investigation, it is believed the suspect followed a 79-year-old man home from a local establishment and there is no threat to the community. Deputies from the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched at approximately 2:37 am to a residence on Pike Lake Road in the Town of Elderon for a report of a man who was assaulted and stabbed as he exited his vehicle in his garage. The man was in possession of a firearm and fired one round that struck Watters prior to the firearm being wrestled away from him. Watters received a gunshot wound to the chest and died while fleeing the scene. The 79-year-old homeowner sustained non-life threatening injuries and is recovering at a local hospital.

The dead attacker’s friends dispute the old man’s story, despite the vicious knife wound to his face.

From the Wausau Pilot & Review . . .

Marathon County Sheriff’s investigators describe the incident as an “armed robbery home invasion.” But friends of Watters are questioning that conclusion, saying that he and the man who shot him knew one another and were seen drinking together in the hours leading up to the shooting.

Maybe they were seen together earlier. But most drinking buddies don’t follow the other one to their home and stab them in the face in their driveway.

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98 COMMENTS

  1. Okay, so a young thug meets an old man at a bar, talks to him to see if he might be worth anything, then follows him home. Is this supposed to be uncommon? all victim selection starts somewhere.

      • From your link…
        “Alexander Thomas “Alex” Watters, age 22 of Bowler, passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday morning, January 3, 2023.”
        I bet he wasn’t expecting it! 🤣

        • He was hoping his victims would go along with lil’dtards illogical premise.

          You know, the ‘if I comply and do everything the armed criminal wishes, I MIGHT get to live’ logic. 🤪

      • “While in high school, he played the trumpet and coronet in the school band.”

        Damned musicians, always sucking up to the adults, getting all those brownie points. They’re all up to no good when no one is watching them!

        • “……he was employed at Nueske’s Applewood Smoked Meats in Wittenberg…….”

          Kinda funny how someone who worked at smoking meats ended up working his way into getting his OWN meat smoked.

      • If he was such an all around good guy, hard worker and valued volunteer at charity events, what possessed him to attack an old guy in the old guy’s garage with knife? Do we infer that somehow the old guy insulted this outstanding young man and the old guy was such a bad ass that the young man had to defend his honor with a knife to the face in the old guy’s garage?

        Sorry, my experience in court was that most armed robbers did not start out with ADW and aggravated battery with grave bodily injury on their first rodeo. It usually took them a couple or more convictions before they jumped to long-time stay state prison offenses. I think there are several large omissions in this young man’s curriculum vitae — or obituary, however you want to classify it.

      • Can’t judge a book by its cover but looks like another waiting to be an Inmate, hanging around till it’s his turn to go on vacation at the nearest gated community, called a correctional facility. The only thing missing is his mommy telling us what a good boy he was and one of the mommies of his children saying he was turning his life around.

    • “let me guess… another obama son???“

      No, this was apparently one of Trump’s sons who took his advice to “fight like hell!”

      “While in high school, he played the trumpet and coronet in the school band.”

      Yes, he planned to be a rocket surgeon and be the first American to walk on the moon, just like Rep. George Santos.

  4. good piece of garbage got what he deserved. I would love to catch somebody doing something like that to an old person, there’s nothing more cowardly. except maybe being a Democrat.

  6. There over 1,300 criminal knife attacks against victims daily across the United States. They rarely make the news.

  7. Let’s see…. “Friends” of the attacker say….. (whatever, who cares) a skell, is a skell, is a skell (ergo, so are the “friends”) they have zero credibility with me. If somebody stabs me/attacks me trying to kill,rob, whatever, I will shoot them. Maybe, the shooter drank w/ this fellow earlier (a mistake in judgement on his part) but he was followed home and attacked in his own driveway so all bets are off that this guy was his “friend” and is now a threat. I have a firearm, end of story (hopefully). MSM HAS to make the person with the gun the BAD guy!. that’s what they do. We have to be aware these days, head on a swivel, ( as you people has said over and over (thankfully) Don’t go to stupid places, do stupid things, with STUPID PEOPLE!. I may have botched that quote sorry, but the message is clear. Danger is all around us all the time. I am grateful for the knowledge you guy’s and gals so freely expound daily. So thank you Potg one and all, I am happy to be part of the 2A /PotG community.

    • Thank you FWW and nice to hear from an Astoria boy 70 U Code RT! and SAFEupstate we had a little Motel in Kingston NY in the 70’s it had a bitchin’ river runnin’ behind it, you cold leave the car windows open,luggage in the back overnight if you were too tired from the drive, Good times brother, SAFE times….now we are in the s**t ! semi-retirement may be short lived huh?

  10. Don’t mess with old men, we don’t play. We don’t heal like when we were young, so we will just shoot you. Long jail time not that big of a deal. Prison can pay for my hip replacement and my meds. They let a lot of us out to save money. Also life sentence different when you are 60, than when you are 18.

    • As the saying goes…

      In a world where men are glorified to die young, beware the man who learned to survive to become old.

  11. Oh, almost forgot. I took your advice and I pealed off all of stickers from my truck the other day. To me they were innocuous (spelled right?) . “patriot” based, Biden slam (“does this ASS (his picture) make my truck look big?) etc. I now have a black truck that’s free of “advertisement” that I carry, support 2A, don’t support the dim’s etc…..and I honestly feel better about it! I don’t need a broken window or worse, idiots looking for a gun that’s not there, or a biden fanatic who HATES what those stickers say. I wasted the money on them when I could have put i in my monthly ammo fund, but that’s ok, lesson learned. Thanks again for that tip TTAG. It sung to me.

      • You have to view l3ftists as members of a religious cult. If they can’t convert you they will cancel you.

        • Up my way we have a collection of cults with the watchtower types being the least harmful/obnoxious to deal with. At least NXIVM is scattered and mostly neutralized (still have bureau directors whose houses belong to that cult)

  12. Local news wont release images of the thug, only the name; Im thinking that there was a good chance that when he followed the victim home he was jogging.

  15. Next time you use Wikipedia think about how its being used to control information…

    Saudi Arabia jails two Wikipedia staff in ‘bid to control content’ > https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jan/05/saudi-arabia-jails-two-wikipedia-staff-in-bid-to-control-content

    Wikipedia admin jailed for 32 years after alleged Saudi spy infiltration > https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/01/wikipedia-admin-jailed-for-32-years-after-alleged-saudi-spy-infiltration/

    • Thankfully, I don’t live in Saudi Arabia.

      Coincidentally, Dan Bongino *just* made fun of Wikipedia yesterday and said he’s patient with all callers to his show with the lone exception of any mention of that site. He said as soon as anyone says its name or refers to it, he’ll immediately terminate the call on the basis that the person must be an idiot.

      I used to visit Wikipedia years ago when it was new, but the bias became clear once Trump won in late 2016 and the woketrolls came out of the woodwork to mess with all the pages.

      • Maybe dacian and meaner 69’ers “other Job” they must be doin’ boomin’ business from their mom’z basements. ‘Professional troll’ on the business cardz.

      • It’s likely fine for mundane crap like figuring out what engines they stuck in a 1970 Pontiac Lemans but anything to deal with politics not so much.

        • Andrew Lias gets it.

          Wikipedia is one of many possible sources and likely a good source for various non-political elements.

        • Nowadays the only thing I use Wiki for is to see how old a certain actor/actress is.

          (and yes…it’s “actress” for a female…just like “stewardess”, “Governess”, etc)

      • It’s the “World Book” encyclopedia of the Internet.

        Unfortunately there is no “Encyclopedia Britannica”.

  17. The only places open after midnight are legs and the ER…
    Chris Brinkley…
    😂🤣😅😅🤣🤣😅😅🤣🤣😅🤣

  18. “The dead attacker’s friends dispute the old man’s story”.

    “friends” aka Local S-birds.

  19. Hey guy’s, I posted this Reply (earlier today on a jan 3rd( ‘shotgun article) and it may never be seen. So here it is again because i would really like your thoughts, its kind of important to me. thanks for your understanding in this ‘repeat’…

    I was looking @ the “Panzer Bullpup 12” 5 shot ($350) as Home defense, the Tokerev ($250) just made me leary..for an unexplained reason Turkey maybe?… I have been looking for a side by side “Alley cleaner” coach like I had back in NYC when I drove Armored, I took out a skell that tried to hold us up w/ it (.00 buck @ the time ) I gave him both barrels.and he dissapeared (headshot one barrel, center mass second barrel) The first shot was the stopper but I was rolling…I got lucky. You don’t have a head, the engagement stops instantly. I have a 20′ hallway now between myself the front door and my only family member left in the world who I love dearly. My room is first down the hallway, she is outfitted w/ my little taurus G3 and hollow points if I get taken out. She knows the whole behind the bed, get on the phone asap deal and is a great shot ( Shoulder surgey prevents her from using a scattergun. I want the ‘incident’ if/when it ever happens to be just as fast and final. One last thought is I REALLY want a Springfield HELLION (pricy: $1600) but I think they only come in .556/.223. I would like a .300 Blackout AR if I go the AR route, I feel a 200 gr. compared to 55gr is what I am looking for…sorry for the long babble, but this is REALLY important to me. Lastly I have a chance to get a ‘radical AR/.556’ for a third of the price of the Hellion ($500+), bare bones Iron sights (if I outfit that w/ a strong flashlight and maybe a red dot that might be an option for me. Is a .556 enough? What ammo? My problem is are these options the best for my situation? I don’t want to keep going back and forth between a shottie and an AR, it gives me a headache 😪 what do you guy’s think? I of course include Debbie and any female PoTG’s because I value all PoTG opinions. I live in a pretty decent neighborhood and fortunately I’m outta the city (Albuquerque) it’s dark as s**t (no street lights). I’ve got good driveway spots w/ motion sensors and a security door w/ a solid front door behind it my vunerability is my double back doors (NOT sliders– with double deadbolts) . I made a steel crossbar for across those doors but the sneeky little feller’s could come thru the back pictue window too! (or slither under the crossbar). I also mounted a spot light in that hallway (its blinding) if I have the time to get to it and rewired my hall lights to my room and her room for added illumination. The only thing I didn’t do is a ‘pungy stick pit ‘in my tiled hallway (kidding). Well that’s the situation. Am I on the right path? Claymores are out I am partially deaf already ;c)….any comments/suggestions, different plan adjustments appreciated. let ‘er rip! Thanks in advance

    • I had a 12 gauge pump handy until I got ARs. Either one will get the job done. Use whichever one you’re more comfortable with. It would be best to get something she could use as well which would probably mean the AR. 5.56/.223 works fine. It’s cheaper and easier to find than 300 BO. It’s hard to go wrong with defensive ammo as long as it functions and you can hit a target. I think Rittenhouse used plain Jane 55gr FMJ in his defensive use. I bought Speer Gold Dot soft points before the prices went up. I like the 62 grain.

      If I was going budget brand name AR, I’d look into Ruger. If you get a standard AR, you can always switch out the upper in the future for a different caliber.

      • This is an excellent suggestion all the way through. You could get fancier 5.56 ammo like underwood controlled chaos but soft point and fmj will do utterly devastating things to a human body at contact distance (within 20 yards) from any rifle and several “pistol” length barrels. For the shotgun a used Mossberg 500 or Remington 870 would have been my advice a decade ago but supply sucks around my area so depending on your market the AR may be the cheaper while still reliable option. Either way EARPRO or you will be talking like ntexas in real life. Electronic ear pro (walkers is an ok starting point) recommend so you can hear before and after shooting indoors.

    • Guardian Angel,

      Your budget may dictate your answer.

      At any rate, here are some points of fact, keeping in mind that your application is close-quarters home defense:

      Fact #1
      Pretty much any AR-pattern rifle is fine, meaning there is no need to spend over $800. You don’t care about long-range accuracy. You don’t care about your rifle operating in sandy environments. You don’t care about your rifle operating in damp/humid environments. And you don’t care about your rifle working in super high or low temperature extremes. In fact you don’t care about much if anything other than that your rifle cycles reliably. In that regard, there are dozens of AR-pattern rifles which will work just fine in that regard, and many of them under $800

      Fact #2
      At inside-the-home distances, pretty much any bullet weight or construction in .223 Remington or 5.56x45mm NATO caliber will perform pretty well. Having said that, since you don’t have to purchase thousands of rounds, you can spend a modest extra amount of cash for optimum home-defense bullet construction and weights. I like heavier bullet weights (62 grain minimum) with soft-point or (better yet) hollow-point bullets.

      Fact #3
      A pistol-caliber carbine may be the ideal choice for your wife. The longer barrel length increases muzzle velocity and equally important: it significantly increases control/accuracy as well as increasing the speed of follow-up shots. As an added bonus, pistol caliber carbines tend to be pleasantly light in terms of weight–weighing under 5 pounds usually. Of course recoil is basically non-existent. There is another bonus: pistol caliber carbines generate a LOT LESS muzzle blast than a shotgun or rifle chambered in .223 Remington / 5.56x45mm NATO. Significantly decreasing your risk and/or severity of permanent hearing loss after a self-defense event is obviously very attractive. And it could even be an important safety consideration: you have a much better probability of being able to hear, respond to, and interact with any law enforcement personnel who roll-up to your home after defending yourself. That could literally be the difference between life and death.

      Fact #4
      Shotguns loaded with slugs or buckshot (#1 or larger buckshot) are guaranteed man-stoppers at inside-the-home distances. They are exceedingly simple to operate. And you can purchase a perfectly fine/reliable home-defense shotgun for under $350 brand new.
      Their only down side is that their ammunition capacity is typically limited to 5 or sometimes 7 shells. Having said that, I believe that you can purchase an inexpensive accessory for Mossberg 500 series shotguns which enables you reliably shoot mini-shells–which in-turn enables you to load an extra two or three shells into your tube magazine. Also important: you can purchase reduced-recoil shells, although I doubt that these reduced recoil shells will reduce recoil to the point that your wife can tolerate it.

      Final thought: if you can only afford one firearm and your budget is up to $700 or so, I would purchase a pistol-caliber carbine chambered in .40 S&W. Both you and your wife can handle it. It is light-weight, highly maneuverable, and very accurate. It reduces your odds/severity of permanent hearing loss if you ever have to use it for self-defense without hearing protection. And that platform will launch lighter bullet weights (around 135 grains) at around 1600 feet-per-second. I don’t imagine too many people will have the determination and/or physical ability to keep attacking you after taking one or two of those rounds to “center mass” or their face.

  20. A 79 year old man and out tooling around in his car at 2:00 am.
    Then followed home and stabbed.
    Sounds too me like that 79 year old got caught at Mr. Watters girlfriends house to me.

      • Yeah, unless he were really drunk, I can’t see a 79 y.o. making a pass at a twenty something at 0200. I’m a little older, but two o’clock one comes once a day for me and that it during daylight hours. I just can’t imagine getting romantic ideas about twenty something at 0200. Maybe it is just me, but even at 79, I wasn’t that studly and rarely if ever drank enough to make me feel that studly.

  21. “would like a .300 Blackout AR if I go the AR route…. .”

    300 is easy if you already have an ar15 lower, all you need is an upper. but .300 is a little wasted for home defense and doesn’t provide any thing at home defense that you can’t get with .223/5.56

    Panzer Bullpup 12” 5 shot … not too bad.

    the Springfield HELLION is really nice. my brother has one, its nice. is pricey though. but for home defense that sits around a lot its a little wasted and a regular “quality but more on the budget side” basic AR will do you just as well.

    • Thanx .40 and Dude,
      I think w/ your suggestions I am going for the Panzer 12G bullpup (5 round mags, maybe 2 connected together for 10 rounds of .00 Buck) for the home D, and the Ruger AR .556 Davidson Exclusive in FDE (nice weapom) for range/home D @$350 and $800 it’s easy peasy w/ the money I squirreled 😎(or is that Possumed????) from OT last year. I can save up for my wish list Hellion or DD-M4 later on this year. (if it’s still on my radar but w/ the Ruger AR might not be necessary) This should replace ALL the firearms I lost last year in a tragic boating accident on Elephant Butte lake (southern NM) when I got hit w/ a freak rogue wave left by a drunken surf skier…all those weapoms gone…poof , a true tragedy, as for Dude’s other suggestion of gettin’ something my family member can use also, I had a chance to purchase an M&P .22-15 from a widow who just wanted to ‘get rid” of her late husbands collection for a $150 w/ ten mags full of CCI Tactical .22 ! she can handle that and her Taurus G3 I gave her . I’ll bring it to my LGS Manana to have it cleaned and checked out so it’s ready to rock when needed and it’ll be a good range gun without spending $$$$ on .556 for practice…. Thanks for the info gentlemen, I appreciate the suggestions. I feel these choices will releave the brain-run-on I have about Defensive purchases. Albuquerque is getting a little Wild lately w/ some people getting real pissed @ the Dims laws/choices recently…
      https://www.koat.com/article/new-mexico-elected-leaders-homes-shot/42407353

      • For your wife just remember that 22lr has a habit of misfiring randomly. CCI I have seen less of it than say Remington or Federal but it still happens. Great firearm for getting used to AR patterns though so may want to consider a his and her AR set down the line with a center fire for both. (Budget depending of course)

    • Would .300 be a bit quieter (re hearing loss) than 5.56 for the same length of barrel or does the extra expansion volume not effect that db enough to be noticable?

      • in doors in home defense – .300 sound energy (not the perceived loudness) will do the same type of damage to hearing that 5.56 does no matter the length of the barrel.

        Perceived loudness is not what does the damage, its why its bogus to claim, for example, “The suppressor sounds more quiet so its hearing safe.” and its why ‘suppressors’ based upon the ‘hearing safe’ context is not an acceptable argument to have them approved as a ‘safety device’ and why the argument fails. Its the sound energy its self that you can and can’t hear that also does the damage …. there is a lot of sound energy left (in context with levels that can damage hearing) from firing that you can’t hear in upper frequency ranges even if you use a supressor and that energy can do damage to hearing also but it just takes longer so repeated exposure to supressor fire without hearing protection can also over time still damage hearing which makes a suppressor not actually ‘hearing safe’. There is no such thing on the commercial consumer market as a suppressor that is actually ‘hearing safe’.

        The damage may not be immediately obvious as with a supressor (even though the damage is there) but you fire .300 or 5.56 indoors you are going to notice it and noticing that sort of sudden pressure sharp like low (or high) level ‘pain’ is that damage actually happening. Outdoors the damage is still going to happen also, its just the energy is not as confined as it is indoors but you will still notice it. If you use a supressor its just going to be at lower levels but the energy is still there to damage hearing (to some degree) over time gradually with repeated exposure.

        ‘supressors’ are advertised in ways that make them seem ‘hearing safe’ and it doesn’t help that people using them claim they can be used without hearing protection and are ‘hearing safe’. The laws of physics for energy simply do not work that way no matter how many ‘study’s’ or measurements are made. Energy its self is always there, it never goes away, it is either stored energy waiting to happen or its kinetic in some manner – it can not be ‘suppressed’ away and will always manifest its self in some form and that hearing damage is a direct representation of that energy manifesting its self.

        • Let me add that even if your hearing returns to seemingly “normal” after an indoor shooting event or even outdoor on a concrete pad without hearing protection, the effect is cumulative. You might not notice it right away, but someday down the line, should you live long enough the damage will appear. I started shooting long before hearing protection was even available. During my time in the Marine Corps we were forbidden to even stuff cotton in our ears. “If the Marine Corps wanted you to have shit in your ears, they would have issued you Marine Corps green shit to put in your ears.” They wanted you to be able to hear the range master commands, little knowing that years latter, you wouldn’t be able to understand the range master’s commands even if you could hear them.
          “Grease fire? Where? Oh, cease fire? Okay” When I used to shoot at the police range, some cops stuffed empty .30 sp. cases in their ears. I always thought the metal would conduct the sound more intensely and used cotton in my ears. I would guess that most all of us are now deaf from those archaic practices. I now wear ear plugs AND muffs on the range because the loud noises actually hurt. And I am not stone deaf but if you are not looking directly at me while I stare at you, I can hear noises that sound like voices but not understand a thing being said.

          Take it from one who has been there and done that, always assiduously protect your hearing. Wear double hearing protection. There is no such thing as too much hearing protection. Being deaf sucks.

  24. Well perp’s friends can say all they want but people are frequently followed from bars and casinos and robbed, etc. Followed by people who sometimes small talk to size a victim up. Good news…An armed citizen who was 57 years older than the perp prevailed.

  25. Looks like New York state started the year out with a bang…errr…stab.

    So far, since midnight new years eve to date there have been 247 knife/’sharp instrument’ criminal attacks (including domestic abuse) in New York state. 15 have died, 139 were seriously injured, 85 only slightly injured, 8 escaped ‘stabby/slicy’ harm – none of the victims were armed with a firearm and none of the assailants were armed with a firearm.

  26. “So far, since midnight new years eve to date there have been 247 knife/’sharp instrument’ criminal attacks (including domestic abuse) in New York state. 15 have died, 139 were seriously injured, 85 only slightly injured, 8 escaped ‘stabby/slicy’ harm – none of the victims were armed with a firearm and none of the assailants were armed with a firearm”.

    .40: Holy shit! This is getting out of freakin’ control! We don’t need to be invaded, we have enough asshole home grown anarchists here right now! Our streets are crawling with vermin.
    “none of the victims were armed with a firearm and none of the assailants were armed with a firearm” The criminals don’t need guns attacking unarmed sheep! ” Like Sheep to the slaughter”

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