Armed Robberies on the Boulevard (some disturbing content)

(Some disturbing content.)

Armed Robberies on the Boulevard

We were having a series of armed robberies on Tusculum Boulevard … the service stations, 7-11’s, motels. Well, we got a call one night that there was an armed robbery in progress and Gilbert Burger was the first on the scene. He went in and somebody run outside, out by him - got away.

But the proprietor had one lying on the floor. The guy’d pulled a weapon, demanded money. Was a 32 automatic, I believe, is what the perpetrator was carrying. Instead of giving money, the owner of the motel had pulled a single action 22 pistol out and fired three shots, and all three shots hit him (the perpetrator) around the heart, one of ‘em penetrated the heart, so he died on the spot, but, he’d shot the proprietor in the knee with his 32.

So, the guy that got away was caught later walking towards Kingsport on Kiser Boulevard. I was questioning him about who was who, and what was what, and how many people were involved. Found out there was three, and I told him his friend was dead and he wouldn’t believe me. He said, “you’re joking.” I said I wouldn’t joke about something like that.

Well, before we’d caught the guy that got away, I’d gone to the hospital to view the cadaver, and I thought, well, I’ll make a line up using his photo to see if I can clear up some of these other cases of armed robbery on the boulevard. Well, the guy had an expression on his face of sheer horror, and his mouth was open and his eyes were wide. And I’d push his chin up and it’d pop back open. I was trying to get a good photo for a photo line-up. Finally, I propped his chin somehow and got a picture, and took it in the photo line-up to the victims of the other armed robberies and they identified him as being the perpetrator. So … uh ... I don’t think he was expecting to be carried back in a body bag when he came to town that night.

The person that did the shooting was, uh … he never did get over it. He finally sold his motel and moved out of town. I don’t know what happened to him. But, I commented to him to try to make him feel better that he did what was necessary, and that seemed to make him feel a little better.