Deputies: Teen shot by girlfriend's stepfather

I’m from Rhode Island where there’s always a story behind the story. Here’s a tale from Apopka, Florida – the Indoor Foliage Capital of the World and birthplace of disgraced NFL defensive lineman Warren Sapp – that raises more questions than it answers. But one thing we know for sure: pointing a shotgun at someone to break up a bad relationship is never a good idea – unless the pointee is an imminent threat of death or grievous bodily harm. (Trust me, it happens.) Feel free to speculate after this all-too-brief description from orlandosentinel.com . . .

When the teenager arrived at his girlfriend’s Apopka home around 4 p.m., he saw two men — his girlfriend’s stepfather and her stepfather’s friend — each with a shotgun, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Office. The dauntless teen [!] pulled the barrel of the gun to his face and said he was not scared, according to deputies.

50-year-old Alvin Gene Knight, charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, was set to bond out of Orange County jail on Monday morning.

That’s when the stepfather, 50-year-old Alvin Gene Knight, pulled the trigger, deputies said.

The teen was grazed on the face by the shot and transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.

Knight will be charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, according to OCSO spokesman Paul Hopkins.

Acccording to court records, Knight has a criminal history that includes convictions for burglary, assault, various drug offenses and driving violations.

You know all those jokes about threatening your daughter’s boyfriends with a shotgun? It’s a joke. Unless, as I said above, it isn’t.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

33 COMMENTS

  2. Sounds more like the youth pulled the barrel at his face, causing Knight to instinctively grip harder. This seems like attempted suicide to me.

  3. Boy those FBI background checks really worked to keep this criminal from posessing a gun…

    • And as such “Common Sense ” dictates that Florida should have Better Uber Longer Lasting background checks. Because giving law abiding folks BULL over somebody else breaking the law is how crime is defeated.

  5. If I feel the need to separate you from my daughter, (when I have one some day) I can only imagine that at the point I need to use a firearm to do so, that I intend to kill you…..uh I mean neutralize the threat with it.

  6. I am always hanging around my house in the yard. At 4AM. With a shotgun. With a shotgun armed friend. NOT!

    Lots of non-think here, time enough to call a friend to come visit, and oh by the way bring your shotgun! Why not call the cops while waiting inside in air-conditioned comfort. Let the cops explain to dim bulb that he is trespassing and needs to go away. If he chooses to kick in the door and make entry, then he created his own bad outcome.

    There are lots of guys who have the attitude “If I can’t have her, cain’t nobody have her!” It is one of the duties of being a father to step in between your daughter and that sort (when and if she will let you). I have been fortunate that my own daughter has exhibited good judgement in avoiding this kind of guy, that is not always possible as we have seen in these pages.

    • A friend of ours had to do so. A gentle soul, he is a very religious, ex-Marine and ex-power lifter, not tall but built like the proverbial brick sh*t house. His wife and daughters are quite literally tiny. A young man at the local college started harassing one of his daughters and got physically aggressive. Dad confronted the young “gent,” lifting him off the ground, and told him if he ever bothered or touched his daughter again, there would be severe consequences. Problem solved.

  7. Thug tries to act tougher than he is. Thug, unfortunately, does not have a proper demonstration of why a face is not rated to stop buckshot.

  9. Well. there is always two sides to a story. Was the juvie, since any criminal record would be sealed, a member of a violent drug gang, that the two felt the need to have two shot guns available for showing the youth they were serious?

    And like someone said, maybe in pulling the gun towards his face, the youth may have pulled the gun against the guys trigger finger, causing a negligent discharge.

    Most of what journalists report is wrong, distorted, lies or fabrications, I would wait for more of the back story for the truth. Whatever that is.

    They should have called the cops, but since they were felons, unjustly denied thier second amendment rights and they probably don’t trust cops any way…..but hind sight is twenty/twenty, well, you know.

    • Unjustly denied their second amendment rights? What?

      First off, they both committed a violent crime here. They shouldn’t have guns in the first place. They forfeited that right.

      Second, while I don’t know about the friend, the stepfather’s lengthy criminal conviction record includes violent crime. He forfeited his RKBA even before this crime.

      Finally, these laws are approved by the state legislature and governor, not the police. Setting aside differences over policy, distrusting the police because you’re a criminal who doesn’t like the law you’re violating, is silly.

      • Please cite one other right that convicted felons “forfeit” after they severe their terms…

        Freedom of speech? Nope.
        Religion? Nope.
        Association? Nope.
        Right to not have their house used as a barracks by the government? Nope.

        Seems like it’s not only the ACLU who can count to ten in nine steps.

        • Association? Yes.
          Parolees may not associate with felons.
          Sex offenders may not be alone with children or in some cases live in the same house. Depending on their crime, some ex-cons may be barred for life from certain professions, including financial services.

          Search and seizure? Yes. Parolees are subject to random home searches.

          Self incrimination? Yes. Parolees can be compelled to provide specimens for drug and alcohol tests.

          Voting? Yes. Felons are barred from voting.

          Civil service? Yes. Felons may not serve on juries or hold public office. They may not enlist in the military.

          Equal Protection? Yes. Felons are ineligible for certain public benefits, among them, federal public housing, state or federal grants, cash assistance, SSI, food stamps, student loans, among others. Furthermore, felons can be refused employment when justified by a business necessity.

          Due process? Yes. Judges can consider felon status in divorces and custody battles.

          Other non-enumerated rights? Yes. While felons may hold U.S. Passports, their travel to foreign countries is governed by our treaties with those countries. Ratified treaties carry the force of law. Many countries bar felons from obtaining visas for entry.

          Shall I continue, or is that enough of a stuff, or a burn, or whatever the kids are saying these days, for you to sit down and STFU until you actually know what you’re talking about?

          The sad thing is, this could’ve been a nice conversation; but as always, you had to play the prick card right from the start. Don’t you ever learn?

  11. The original article doesn’t provide much in the way of motive, other than that the stepfather didn’t like the boyfriend. Given that this is a 50 year old stepfather, not a biological father, to a teenage girl, I suspect his motive is jealousy and that there’s definitely more to this story.

    • Riiight… because no step father could possibly love his step daughter the way a normal father would… Me thinks you’re projecting. Would you like me to break the dolls out?

      • Nobody but you and your strawman special friend said “no step father.” I’m just throwing out a reasonable suspicion based on well documented behavior of pedophiles seeking out relationships with mothers of minor children. Such behavior can present in other forms of lack of impulse control, too, such as a criminal record.

        Touched a nerve, did I? Bring back memories of when you were touched elsewhere? Or are you the one doing the touching now? Or both? Research shows that cycle of abuse repeats, you know. Of course you know!

        Now, you can get defensive and stick your head in the sand, or the other place it’s usually stuck, and deny that my suspicion is reasonable, or you can grow up and quit being an argumentative little nuisance with nothing intelligent to contribute. Your choice.

    • Back when I was 17, I discovered this 10th grade girl liked me. She was a mystery girl, you would see her in school, but hardly ever anywhere else. She lived out the same country road as I did, a few miles farther out. Her grandfather was an ex-Sheriff, and she lived with her grandparents for some reason I never really knew. Word was the old man was a bastard, and kept her on a short leash. She worked with him, doing courier work for some of the businesses in town, and I would often see her drive by the house in her little Dodge Ram pick up as she either headed out on her pickups in the early evening, or sometimes later when she returned. I got a message to her that I wanted to meet her down by the church between our homes, and when the time came, I walked down there and waited for her.
      After some time her truck pulled in, and at the time it never occurred to me that the truck pulled in at a weird angle that prevented me from seeing the driver, I ran up behind, opened the passenger door, and hopped in. It was not her, it was gramps, and he had a 44 pointed at me, and he was shaking like a leaf, and started yelling at me about her being under age (I was 17…) etc. etc. I was sure the old coot was going to ventilate me. Then a miracle happened. Another car pulled into the church drive, and in that instant his attention diverted and I made my break, sprinting across the lot, hurdling the fence around the cemetary, and ran straight toward the trees in the middle. That’s when I heard the crack crack of 2 shots. 1 went God knows where, and one hit a tree about 10 yds if front and right of me. By then I was lost in the trees, but could not head straight home as the coot knew where I lived. I wound up climbing the highest pine tree near my house, and watched him stalk my house for at least an hour, when he finally drove away.
      At the time I was scared to call the cops because I knew I was probably in the wrong, I was just a few weeks shy of 18, and due to go into the USAF, and was afraid gramps probably had undue influence over the coppers there. I just laid low for a couple of months until I went off to basic, and sort of forgot about it, though I had confided in my Dad, who gave me a high five for the effort, LOL
      About 6 months after basic, My Dad sent me an article from the local newspaper. It seems that after his encounter with me, he went farther off his rocker, and put her in the Hospital. It came out then that he had been molesting her since she was 12. Suddenly, it made sense why he was so wound up about me. I was the only guy she had ever expressed interest in, and I almost paid with my life.
      I doged bullets that night, both literal and figurative.

      • Now THAT’S a story! And a real life one, at that. You should submit it to TTAG for the firearm contest.

        Aside from sporting/recreational use, I tend to think of firearms use in stark terms: bad guys use them to attack, while good guys use them to defend. The old pervert in your story presents a different angle, though. He’s the bad guy using it to attack, but I wonder whether he actually saw it that way. He may have thought he was in the right, in his sick mind perhaps defending her from you.

        That’s a scary bit of truth about guns right there.

Comments are closed.