Home invasion thwarted

[Tim Nunan]

Have to wonder how the sheriff determined the bad guys had "assault weapons" just by looking at the shell casings.
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http://www.citizentribune.com/news/view ... icle=15175

Citizen Tribune
5/11/2010 11:57:55 AM

An alleged female decoy for a pair of heavily armed home-invasion robbers was shot dead early Saturday morning outside the West Hamblen County home of a family featured on a television reality show, authorities say.

Hamblen County Sheriff Esco Jarnagin identified the woman as Holly Ann Repasky, a 29-year-old from Knoxville.

Scott Knight, who lives with his wife, Penny and three children, survived an assault-weapon barrage uninjured and fired the shot that killed the woman, according to Jarnagin.

Jarnagin says he considers the fatal shooting in the Timbercrest subdivision to be a clear-cut case of justifiable homicide.

"Scott Knight is to be commended for a job well done in protecting himself and his family because the law does provide that a man has a right to protect his home," Jarnagin said.

The .22-caliber bullet hit Repasky in the upper-left chest area, and she died as a result of blood loss within two minutes, Jarnagin says.

The sheriff says investigators haven’t ruled out the possibility that Knight hit at least one of the other alleged home-invasion robbers.

Some time after the 1:30 a.m. exchange of gunfire in Hamblen County, a black male walked into the Knoxville St. Mary’s Hospital emergency room for treatment of a small-caliber gunshot wound to his abdomen.

Knight described the men who allegedly attempted to force their way into his home as black males. The injured man, who reportedly was gravely wounded, underwent surgery Saturday afternoon, according to the sheriff.

Jarnagin says the man was under police guard, and Hamblen County detectives traveled to Knoxville in hopes of further developing leads.

The Knights were featured on "The World’s Strictest Parents," a Country Music Television reality show on which hard-to-handle teens lived in their home.

Mr. Knight’s wife, Penny, is a probation officer for the Hamblen County Juvenile Court system, and the Knights have taken in troubled teens as foster children for several years.

The sheriff says detectives are considering all potential factors in their investigation.

Jarnagin says he can’t rule out the possibility that the Knights’ appearance on the television show made them targets.

The sheriff also couldn’t rule out grudges that emerged through Mrs. Knight’s job or fouled relationships with former foster children.

A 17-year-old foster child ran away from the Knights’ home in March and had not been located by Friday afternoon, officials say.

The series of events that led to the shooting began when Repasky appeared at the Knights’ front door, falsely representing she was having car trouble and needed help, according to Jarnagin.

Mr. Knight was suspicious about the complaint lodged by an out-of-town woman in a residential neighborhood.

Knight retrieved the handgun from his bedroom before asking further about the specific nature of the problem, according to the sheriff.

When Knight returned to his front door, the two black males allegedly attempted to force their way inside, Jarnagin said. At that point, one or both of the men opened fire with assault weapons, the sheriff said.

Knight returned fire.

After their accomplice was fatally wounded, the two men fled a in a white compact car, a vehicle that could have been missing one hubcap.

Jarnagin says crime-scene technicians recovered a total of 11 to 13 shell casings.

Assault-rifle shell casings logged as evidence reportedly matched bullets recovered from the Knights’ home, according to the sheriff.

District Attorney General C. Berkeley Bell Jr. says a Hamblen County jury weighs evidence in all violent homicides. Jarnagin says he feels confident that Mr. Knight will be found blameless.

Bell says that in some jurisdictions, prosecutors have sought felony-murder indictments for suspects whose alleged accomplices have died during the commission of a crime.

The district attorney says that’s never been his policy.

Bell says that he’s sought felony-murder indictments only in cases where victims — not perpetrators — lost their lives.