Axe-wielding thug allegedly threatens Florida car-wash employees — then 1 victim violently turns the tables on him



An axe-wielding male allegedly threatened a pair of car-wash employees in Ocala, Florida, last week — but one of the victims managed to violently turn the tables on him.

Marion County Sheriff's deputies responded to the Tidal Wave Auto Spa on SW 95th Street Road over a reported disturbance around 8:30 p.m. March 8, officials said.

'I timed [it] so that once he lowered [the axe], that’s when I shot the takedown.'

Upon arrival, deputies said they found an 18-year-old victim restraining 36-year-old Bryce Thayer.

The investigation revealed that Thayer approached two employees at the car wash as they were closing, officials said.

Thayer was told to leave the property, officials said, but Thayer became angry and approached the two victims in a threatening manner while wielding an axe.

Officials said the 18-year-old victim lunged at Thayer in an attempt to disarm him and was able to get him on the ground. The second victim then was able to remove the axe from Thayer's grip, officials said, and the 18-year-old victim restrained Thayer until deputies arrived.

RELATED: Teen robbers open fire on victim behind Texas Family Dollar, but victim also has a gun — and turns the tables lethally

Leodan Pino, 18, told WOFL-TV that his instincts took over amid the unnerving ordeal.

"I hear some screaming, someone yelling something," Pino told the station. "Something along the lines of, ‘Where’s my wife? I can’t find my wife.’"

Pino added to WOFL that he knew he had to act.

"I timed [it] so that once he lowered [the axe], that’s when I shot the takedown," Pino told the station. "I got on top of him, and I controlled the situation."

WOFL reported that one of the car-wash workers — presumably Pino — hit Thayer in the face several times to disorient him.

Thayer was taken into custody, officials told the station, and he was found in possession of drug paraphernalia — a glass pipe believed to be a methamphetamine pipe.

He faces two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill and a drug paraphernalia charge, WOFL said.

Thayer was taken to the Marion County Jail, and bail was set at $65,000, the station reported.

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Male breaks window of home after midnight. Homeowner warns him he has a gun — then uses it when intruder keeps advancing.



A male broke the window of a Pennsylvania home after midnight Monday and demanded to be let in. But the awakened homeowner warned him he had a gun — and then pulled the trigger when the intruder kept advancing.

State police said in a news release on X that troopers were called to a home on Locust Street in Somerset Township around 2 a.m. for the reported shooting, KDKA-TV reported. Somerset Township is about 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

'Another one bites the dust.'

Investigators found one person dead near the rear of the residence with an apparent gunshot wound to the head, the station said.

State police said the homeowner told investigators he woke up when a male demanding to be let in the residence was banging on his kitchen window, KDKA said.

The station, citing the news release, reported that the male soon broke a window and tried to enter the home.

The homeowner told authorities he warned the male that he was armed and then shot him when he continued trying to enter the home, KDKA said.

RELATED: Florida home invader threatens homeowner with weapon, advances toward him, refuses to leave. But crook picks wrong victim.

While the homeowner was detained and taken to the state police barracks in Somerset, a preliminary investigation found that the homeowner was acting in self-defense, the station said.

The identity of the fatally shot male was not released as of Monday evening, KDKA said.

No other information was released Monday, the station said, adding that those with information can contact the state police barracks in Somerset at 814-445-4104. State police told KDKA the investigation is continuing.

Somerset County District Attorney Tom Leiden previously reported that no charges have been filed at this time, and there is no danger to the public, according to WJAC-TV.

Commenters under WJAC's Facebook post about the incident seemed pleased with the outcome:

  • "Good for the homeowner," one commenter wrote. "Defending his property & his life."
  • "It’s exactly what people will do to protect themselves and their families from harm from people that have no business being there," another user said. "99% would do the same thing."
  • "Another one bites the dust," another commenter declared.

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Machete-wielding females beat up homeowner in robbery try, cops say. But victim ends attack with single shotgun blast.



A pair of machete-wielding females beat up a Georgia homeowner in a robbery attempt late last month, but authorities said the victim grabbed a gun and shot both of the suspects with a single round.

Deputies with the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to Grove Mobile Home Park in Douglas on Feb. 21 concerning individuals who were shot, authorities said.

But the homeowner ultimately grabbed a shotgun and fired a single round, which struck both suspects, officials said.

Arriving deputies found two adult females — 35-year-old Stephanie Ann Nicole Castillo and 27-year-old Elisabet Gaspar — in a home with apparent gunshot wounds, officials said.

Emergency Medical Services rendered aid at the scene, officials said.

Deputies determined the shooting occurred at a different home after Castillo and Gaspar — who were allegedly armed with a machete — attacked the homeowner.

The victim told deputies Castillo and Gaspar arrived at the residence with the intent to commit a robbery.

RELATED: Police shoot New Jersey man who allegedly charged them with machete — then find gruesome scene inside his home

Image source: Coffee County (Ga.) Sheriff's Office

A lengthy physical struggle ensued, officials said, adding that the homeowner was beaten and assaulted.

But the homeowner ultimately grabbed a shotgun and fired a single round, which struck both suspects, officials said.

After Castillo and Gaspar were taken to Coffee Regional Medical Center for treatment and medically cleared, officials said they were taken into custody and transported to the Coffee County Jail.

Castillo and Gaspar both were charged with two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of armed robbery, and one count of home invasion in the first degree, authorities said.

The sheriff's office said aggravated assault involves attacking someone with a deadly weapon or something capable of causing serious injury and carries a penalty of one to 20 years in prison per count.

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Female, 46, forces her way into home, attacks homeowner, cops say. But it's yet another poorly chosen home invasion target.



A 46-year-old female forced her way into an Iowa home over the weekend and attacked the homeowner, police said. But the homeowner was armed with a gun and used it to shut down the attack.

Des Moines police were called just before 11 p.m. Saturday to a residence in the 1500 block of Guthrie Avenue in the Union Park neighborhood after a 911 caller said an intruder was attacking the homeowner, KCCI-TV reported.

Investigators told KCCI the homeowner reported hearing someone yelling in the back yard — and then someone banging on the back door.

While officers were on their way to the home, the caller told dispatchers the intruder had been shot, the station said.

When officers arrived, they found Stannita Wilson inside the home with multiple gunshot wounds, KCCI said.

Officers provided first aid until Des Moines Fire Department rescue personnel arrived and transported Wilson to MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center for treatment, the station said.

Investigators told KCCI the homeowner reported hearing someone yelling in the back yard — and then someone banging on the back door.

When the homeowner unlocked the door, Wilson allegedly forced her way inside and began assaulting the resident, the station said.

But the homeowner was armed with a handgun and shot Wilson during the incident, police told KCCI.

RELATED: 'Anyone who breaks into someone's home should expect to get shot': Gun-toting Florida homeowner takes care of business

Wilson’s injuries were described as minor, the station said.

After she was treated and released from the hospital, KCCI reported that Wilson was charged with second-degree burglary, a Class C felony.

Police added to the station that Wilson was not known to the homeowner — and as of Sunday, no charges had been filed against the homeowner.

Radio Iowa indicated that the homeowner is a male.

The incident remains under investigation, KCCI said.

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Behind Japan’s pacifism hides a nuclear escape hatch



Japan transformed from an expansionist military power to a pacifist state within a decade after World War II, adopting a firmly non-nuclear posture after suffering atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet Japan possesses one of the most advanced civilian nuclear infrastructures in the world, technically capable of creating nuclear weapons.

As debates in the United States intensify over alliance commitments and burden-sharing, questions about the credibility of America’s extended deterrence are growing. If that credibility weakens, Japan may find itself increasingly alone in deterring China, North Korea, and Russia.

As Japan becomes more militarized, nuclear pacifism may begin to be replaced with nuclear realism.

Japan is already reinterpreting elements of its postwar restraint, evident in the modernization of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the acquisition of long-range counterstrike capabilities for “deterrence by punishment.” Will Japan do the same with nuclear weapons?

The nuclear threshold is near

Japan lacks nuclear warhead expertise, dedicated delivery systems, and secure nuclear testing infrastructure, but it does have the industrial, material, and financial resources to begin a nuclear weapons program.

Japan possesses full-scale nuclear fuel cycle facilities, accumulating over 45 metric tons of separated plutonium, enough to make thousands of nuclear weapons. Japan is projected to increase reliance on fast breeder reactors; these reactors produce more plutonium than they consume.

Japan is also building facilities that eliminate the need to outsource its spent fuel for reprocessing, allowing Japan to domestically produce separated plutonium. Some analysts estimate that Japan could develop a small nuclear arsenal within a year.

Despite Japan’s nuclear latency, it has not crossed the nuclear threshold. Other than public consensus and constitutional restraints, Japan is held back by technical and financial costs. Japan needs to develop nuclear weapons design expertise, delivery systems, and secure infrastructure, all financially and politically costly endeavors.

Furthermore, Japan’s civilian nuclear facilities operate under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. That makes it difficult to run a clandestine nuclear weapons program. While the costs are substantial, they are not prohibitive for a country with Japan’s industrial and technological capacity. Given its advanced nuclear power program and infrastructure and increasingly sophisticated military, Japan can develop the technical requirements for a nuclear weapons program in short order.

Hedging nuclear bets

Japan is a nuclear latent power, so the central issue is intent. Japan adopted what strategists call “insurance hedging,” entailing a cost-benefit analysis of U.S. extended deterrence to determine whether relying on U.S. nuclear weapons is worth the risk of Japan not having its own. Should U.S. extended deterrence fail or be perceived as too weak, Japan will claim insurance by developing nuclear weapons for its own protection.

Japan became an insurance hedger for two reasons: It wants the option to develop nuclear weapons and does not want to forgo U.S. extended deterrence. Japan relies on U.S. extended deterrence for security, but pursuing nuclear weapons could remove Japan from America’s nuclear umbrella.

RELATED: Trump’s Iran gamble: Peace Prize or Persian Gulf firestorm

Photo by Tajh Payne/US Navy via Getty Images

Insurance hedging allows Japan to stay within U.S. extended deterrence while preparing for the possibility of abandonment or failure by the United States. Nuclear latency serves as leverage. If U.S. security guarantees weaken, Japan would retain the ability to respond independently.

Nuclear latency was always the plan

Japan’s nuclear latency is not an accident. As early as the 1950s, Japan deliberately preserved nuclear latency while relying on the United States for deterrence. Japan understood the deterrence value of nuclear weapons, especially in a security environment surrounded by nuclear powers and potential nuclear powers.

For Japan, the United States would serve as its nuclear deterrent, which allowed Japan to maintain its pacifist posture. Nuclear pacifism is still dominant in Japanese strategic culture, but as Japan becomes more militarized, nuclear pacifism may begin to be replaced with nuclear realism.

If U.S. extended deterrence no longer offers Japan the protection it needs, and domestic consensus against nuclear weapons is resolved, Japan could shift in favor of nuclear weapons. To create the JSDF, Japan reinterpreted Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution; Article 9 is an explicit “Renunciation of War” mandating that Japan never maintain “war potential.” Japan once reinterpreted Article 9 to build the Self-Defense Forces. Reinterpreting nuclear pacifism would be far more controversial, but not unprecedented.

Editor's note: This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.

Teen robbers open fire on victim behind Texas Family Dollar, but victim also has a gun — and turns the tables lethally



Armed teenage robbers opened fire at a victim behind a Family Dollar in Beaumont, Texas, last week, police said.

But the victim also had a gun and turned the tables — lethally.

'I just think that it's sad that our babies are just dying left and right, and nobody's doing anything.'

Police said its investigation — helped by witness accounts and video surveillance — determined that Jayson January and Brenden Earnest, both 17, as well as two juveniles acted together in a plot to rob the victim near Avenue B and Harriot last Friday, KFDM-TV reported.

All four suspects attacked the robbery target and fired shots at him, police told the station.

However, the victim also was armed and returned fire at the suspects, KFDM reported.

One of the suspects — January — was hit by gunfire and died in a grassy field near the store, the station said.

KLVI-AM reported Monday that Earnest turned himself in and was charged with aggravated robbery — but the two juveniles, ages 15 and 16, were still at large.

Earnest was being held at the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on a $1 million bond for the aggravated robbery charge as well as a $10,000 bond for unlawfully carrying a weapon, jail officials told KMBT-TV.

By Wednesday, the two juveniles also turned themselves in, police told KBTV-TV, adding that there had been warrants out for them on aggravated assault charges.

RELATED: DA reacts to store clerk fatally shooting 16-year-old armed robber: 'Once somebody puts a gun in your face, the rules change'

Detectives are continuing to investigate and complete their findings so the case can be submitted to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, KBTV said.

One woman reacting to the incident told KFDM during an on-camera interview that "I just think that it's sad that our babies are just dying left and right, and nobody's doing anything." The woman asked, "What are they doing about these kids getting out of school and being in the streets during school times?" She also declared, "Something is not right here. Make it make sense."

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Florida home invader threatens homeowner with weapon, advances toward him, refuses to leave. But crook picks wrong victim.



A home invader in Tallahassee, Florida, picked the wrong victim late last week.

The Leon County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to a report of shots fired in the 5400 block of Touraine Drive around 9:40 p.m. Friday and found a male suffering from a gunshot wound.

'Completely justified! Homeowners have a right to defend their property, their lives, and their families.'

Detectives determined the male entered a home uninvited and refused to leave after multiple requests from the homeowner, officials said.

The suspect then threatened the homeowner with a weapon while advancing toward him, officials said.

With that, the homeowner fired a single round from a semi-automatic handgun, striking the suspect, officials said.

The suspect was taken to a hospital in critical condition, officials said, adding that no other individuals in the home were hurt.

Officials said charges are pending in the ongoing investigation.

RELATED: 'Anyone who breaks into someone's home should expect to get shot': Gun-toting Florida homeowner takes care of business

Image source: Leon County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

As you might expect, commenters under the Facebook post about the shooting from sheriff's office were decidedly backing the homeowner's actions:

  • "This the epitome of 'fawk around and find out,'" one commenter wrote. "I hope those 'pending [charges]' aren't against the homeowner."
  • "Completely justified!" another user said. "Homeowners have a right to defend their property, their lives, and their families."
  • "Good for the homeowner having a gun and defending himself!" another commenter declared. "This is one of the EXACT reasons we have the Second Amendment! Thank heavens!"
  • "Multiple requests to leave?" another user asked. "Um, you're lucky if you get ONE request to leave."
  • "Shouldn't have to be transported to hospital," another commenter said, adding that it would "be much better if they transported the subject to morgue."
  • "Ain't no intruder gonna survive to tell at my house," another user promised.
  • "I love a happy ending," another commenter said.

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Woman fatally shoots 15-year-old home invader; cops arrest his fleeing alleged accomplice — who gets even more bad news



A Mississippi woman fatally shot a 15-year-old home invader over the weekend — and police later arrested his alleged accomplice.

Jackson police told WAPT-TV that two males wearing ski masks broke into a unit at the Park at Inverness apartment complex on Ridgewood Road around 2:30 a.m. Sunday.

'To be honest, they got what they deserved.'

Police told the station that the woman in the unit, fearing for her safety, grabbed a handgun and fired multiple rounds, hitting one of the masked males.

The masked male fell to the floor and later died, and his body was partially inside the apartment when police and investigators arrived. The coroner confirmed that he had been shot several times, WAPT said.

The second suspect who fled the scene — identified as 18-year-old Quintavion Myles — was located and arrested the same day, WLBT-TV reported.

The fatally shot suspect was identified on Sunday afternoon as 15-year-old Kaden Young, WLBT added.

The woman involved in the shooting was taken to police headquarters for questioning and later released, WAPT reported, adding that authorities said the shooting might be justifiable under the state's Castle Doctrine law.

RELATED: Top 5 of 2025: Women who fought back when coming face-to-face with crooks

Myles was booked into the city holding facility, WLBT reported.

Myles appeared in court Monday, WLBT said in follow-up story, and while he was granted a $150,000 bond for burglary of an occupied dwelling, he was denied bond on a murder charge.

Jackson Police Chief Tyree Jones told the station why Myles also was charged with murder: “As a result of their conspiracy to allegedly take this crime on their hands or to be involved in this crime, there’s a result of a loss of life. And by them acting in concert together, they’re both being, or they could both be held responsible for whatever happens."

The police department plans on sending its findings to the Hinds County District Attorney’s Office to consider whether they can be presented to a grand jury, WLBT said.

Jones added to the station that this crime should serve as a warning to young people.

“These things have to be considered when our youth are making decisions," he told WLBT. "You would hate to use this as a story to tell our youth about, but here we are. We’re having to use this as a story to our youth to show them ... this is what can potentially happen if you make the wrong decisions."

Tre Ingram, a resident of the Park at Inverness, told WAPT he has little if any sympathy for Myles or Young.

"To be honest, they got what they deserved," Ingram told the station. "They broke into her house. She had the right to defend herself."

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'Anyone who breaks into someone's home should expect to get shot': Gun-toting Florida homeowner takes care of business



An armed Florida homeowner fired shots in self-defense amid a burglary attempt Wednesday night, the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office said.

Deputies responded just before 8 p.m. Wednesday after a homeowner reported two suspects attempted to break into a house on Clearwater Road, officials said.

'This is a serious crime with real consequences.'

The homeowner fired a gun and struck a juvenile male suspect, who was later transported to a local hospital, where he was in stable condition, officials said.

A second suspect — later identified as 18-year-old Anson Shawn Drew of Fernandina Beach — fled the scene but was located shortly after with assistance from NCSO’s Drone Unit and K-9 Unit and air support from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, officials said.

WJAX-TV reported that the juvenile suspect was shot in his lower back. The station, citing the sheriff's office report, said Drew left one of his shoes behind when he ran off and was later arrested at his home.

Drew was charged with two counts of burglary, officials said.

According to victim statements, the homeowner heard voices and movement outside the residence and observed two individuals in the yard, officials said, adding that one suspect then forcibly opened the front door and shined a flashlight into the home.

The homeowner — in fear of bodily harm — fired two shots, officials said. Detectives determined that the homeowner’s actions were justified under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, the sheriff's office said.

"Anyone who breaks into someone's home should expect to get shot," Sheriff Bill Leeper said. "This is a serious crime with real consequences."

RELATED: 'I have a gun; don't move!' Concealed carrier protecting his wife and kids confronts burglar — and shocked crook wises up

Image source: Nassau County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

Leeper added that the “individuals said they liked to break into vacant homes to smoke weed," WJAX reported, adding that the sheriff’s office said the suspects didn’t have any marijuana on this occasion.

Drew was booked into the Nassau County Jail & Detention Center on a bond exceeding $10,000, officials said. Drew was not listed in the jail roster Friday morning.

The juvenile suspect will be charged pending a warrant for his arrest, officials said.

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Don’t Assume Your Church Is Prepared To Stop Threats Like Active Shooters And Left-Wing Mobs

Christians and churches are under attack. Here’s how they can best protect their flocks against rising threats of violence.