Inclusion Daily Express -- Mugger's Attack On Wheelchair Grandma Backfires

Inclusion Daily Express Logo

International Disability Rights News Service
Click here for today's headlines & home page

Keeping advocates informed, inspired and connected since 1999.
Click here for daily or weekly delivery . . . OR
Try Inclusion Daily Express for ten days FREE . . .

Mugger's Attack On Wheelchair Grandma Backfires
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
September 14, 2006

NEW YORK, NEW YORK--You can't tell a book by its cover.

And you can't tell what a grandma in a wheelchair might be packing.

Hopefully, that's what Deron Johnson learned last Friday.

Mr. Johnson, 45, allegedly came up behind Margaret Johnson, who is not related, and grabbed her around the neck in an apparent attempt to steal her necklace.

Deron didn't know that the 57-year-old woman is licensed to carry a .357 magnum pistol, or that she knows how to use it: She has at least a dozen trophies for marksmanship.

In fact, Margaret was on her way to target practice at the local shooting range when Mr. Johnson nabbed her.

She instinctively pulled her gun and shot her attacker in the arm, she said. When Deron ran away clutching his elbow, she called 9-1-1.

"I feel bad, but it was his choice," Margaret told the New York Daily News. "I think he's stupid. I think it's really wrong to take advantage of the disabled."

"There are people like him in the world who like to take advantage of people like me," she added. "Obviously, he didn't know me."

Police said Deron Johnson was arrested and charged with robbery. He was treated at Harlem Hospital for a single bullet wound in the elbow.

Click here for top of this page

Purchase this story for your website or newsletter . . .

Here's what subscribers say about Inclusion Daily Express. . .

Keeping advocates informed, inspired and connected since 1999.
Click here for daily or weekly delivery . . . OR
Try Inclusion Daily Express for ten days FREE . . .

Get your news here!