That Day!
It was
September 1st the first day of dove season, a day that had been
planned out for Triston and Ethan my two oldest grandsons to have their first
dove hunt.
Ethan would
go in the morning then Triston would go that evening and after Dove hunting
Triston wanted to gig some frogs with his Dad, it was a day of family doing
family things and passing down traditions that turned into a nightmare for us
all.
Adam my son
and Ethan my Grandson and I went dove hunting that morning Ethan was too young
to be shooting a big shotgun so his job was to retrieve the birds and help us
spot them he had a great time, we had set up between a highline wire on the
property where the doves liked to land and our pond where they liked to go get
a drink, the same setup that we had that evening, both of the boys were very
excited about this day, 10m year old Triston was especially looking forward to
gigging frogs after dark, His Dad had recently gigged some and brought them
home and he wanted to go so we set this all up.
That morning
as well as that evening Adam setup by the highline wire with a robo dove and
some decoys and I setup down by the pond with the boys going back and forth
between us having a good time. That evening I went down and set with Adam and Triston
by the highline wire because it was getting close to dark and about time to stop
dove hunting and start frog gigging and Tristons dad Jesse was on his way to go
with us frog gigging, Jesse arrived out there and took Triston for a walk about
the property to possibly roust up some birds for us to shoot and basically
killing time until dark, the Doves had been few and far between not the best of
days but we had fun just because of the boys and how excited they would get.
Jesse and
Triston were walking along the western fence when two men came over the fence,
one had a gun in his hand Justin Yandell,
he asked Jesse who he was and what he was doing there Jesse told him and then
he asked who else was down there shooting and Jesse told him my brother in law
Adam Doty and Justin Yandell interrupted and said is Skip Doty down there which
Jesses replied yes, Jesse and Triston both said that when he found out Skip
Doty was down there he became enraged, he tucked his gun in the back of his
shorts and his brother Josh Yandell told him don’t go down there and do nothing
stupid, to which he replied Skip Doty is
going to get what he’s got coming to him!
After saying
that he charged toward Adam and I neither one of us had a clue that any of this
had taken place we just suddenly look up and see a man charging down the hill
toward us screaming which one of you all is Skip Doty at the same time Jesse
tells Triston to get behind a tree he pointed him to and he is trying to let us
know that Justin is armed through hand signals Jesse was unarmed and had his
child to take care of and that’s all he could do, I am sitting in my lawn chair and said that
would be me, Justin Yandell said you don’t remember me but I damn sure remember
you and by this time he was 6-7 feet away and reached around behind him for his
gun and starts to bring it around when Adam rushes over and hits Justin Yandell
in the head with the butt of his shotgun causing him to drop the pistol, in the
ensuing struggle between them I am getting up out of my chair and a pistol I
had in my chair falls to the ground and Justin gains control of Adams shotgun, I
rise and start screaming for Justin to put the gun down put the gun down with
my shotgun pointed at his head, I screamed it over and over as he was trying to
get it in a shooting position, the thoughts going through my mind was who is
this guy? Why does he want to kill me? I don’t want to have to kill him. And then
the decision is made that I don’t have any choice he is about to kill us and I can’t
let that happen and as I was squeezing the trigger a shot rang out and Justin Yandell
hit the ground, I was momentarily startled because I thought I shot but didn’t feel
the recoil and then instantly knew it wasn’t me it was Adam who shot him in the
knee and dropped him from my gun sights, he had picked up the pistol laying on
the ground and for the second time he chose not to end this Mentally Unstable
person’s life he or I could have shot him when he pulled his pistol to kill me
and he or I could have shot to kill him after he got control of Adams shotgun,
but all Adam could think about was Triston a ten year old little boy that might
be haunted for life seeing a man die, so he chose to shoot him in the knee, the
distance I was to Justin Yandell my only option was to shoot him in the face,
there wasn’t enough time to retreat and gain a different target.
Justin
Yandell hit the ground and threw away the shotgun and begins yelling, I went
from pulling the trigger on his head to asking him where he was hit and how bad
he was hurt, he was wearing shorts no sign of bleeding he pointed to his knee
and I looked and seen a small hole on the center of his knee, I told him looks
like you just got nicked and he said no it went in, I said but it’s not
bleeding, I then told Jesse to take Triston to the truck and to call 911 and
get the police and an ambulance out there, I will never forget Triston running
and screaming they shot my Papaw, that image will be forever ingrained in my
mind the fear that went through this young man, my first born Grandson, later
than night when I finally get to see him again he ran to me and hugged me and
told me he loved me and he was happy I wasn’t hurt…
Justin then starts yelling for his brother, and I tell
Justin dude do not do that, don’t bring your brother down here because if he
comes down here with a gun it’s just going to make things worse, I told him we
are calling the police and an ambulance but he would not shut up and kept
screaming for his brother saying they shot me, I could see this thing getting a
lot worse instead of ending right there, I told Adam to gather our things and
let’s get to the truck away from these people, then Here comes Josh Yandell
wearing his pajamas with what appeared to be a gun in his pocket, I told Josh
we had called the police and an ambulance and he isn’t hurt he isn’t bleeding
the whole time I am holding my shotgun at the ready in case he decides to pull
that gun out of his pocket which thank God he chose not to, he gets on his own
cell phone and calls his dad and tells him that we have shot Justin and I am
thinking this is just great we need to get out of here a short while later from
the other end of the property someone on a 40 wheel side by side comes through
the trees at a fast pace, my original thought it was Uncle Buddy who lived on
that end of the property and then Adam yells Watch out Dad and I jump out of
the way from being run over by Jerry Yandell Justin Yandells Father, he jumped off his 4
wheeler and jumped on me and then Josh jumped on me trying to take away my
shotgun, Adam picked up Justins pistol that was still lying on the ground and
told them both to get off me or he would shoot them, they got off me and Jerry
went over there to where Justin Yandell was laying having been shot in the knee and
then he got back on his 4 wheeler and left Justin his son just lying there on
the ground, instead of putting him on the 4 wheeler and taking him to the
ambulance that was on its way, now you tell me what kind of man would leave his
son like that? Josh is on the phone the rest of the time we were out there talking
about us all being armed and going to shoot and that we were trying to flee the
scene and how his brother was bleeding to death when there wasn’t a sign of
blood coming from Justins knee at all, Josh never went to his brothers side
until after we were gone, he never looked at his wound until much later, you
could hear him saying on 911 call that he was showing Justin where the bullet
exited the back of his knee, now think about this if this boy was bleeding to
death as they claimed he was would it not have been obvious? He was wearing
shorts his knee was exposed bare naked and no blood coming from it the entire
time I was with him, he was crying like a little child the whole time and
screaming at us for shooting him, I tried for a long time to try and figure out
just why someone would do what he did that day, and my counselor told me that
you can’t rationalize irrational behavior.
We finally
get away from them and get to the truck the police are at the end of the driveway
and I unload all our weapons and lay them on the back of the truck we also
bring his pistol with us to give to the police, after all they had been told by
josh on the phone that we were trying to flee and we were armed and all this
stuff the police seemed very apprehensive in coming down to where we were, and
the 911 operator called back on Jesses phone and I told her everything that happened
where we were and that we were unarmed and just waiting for the police to get
there but they wouldn’t come down the driveway where we were so I started walking
toward them and they came on in, they immediately searched all of us and put us
in different cars and had us write statements about what had happened, they
read our statements and they told us we did the right thing the same thing they
would have done one of the detectives said I have both of the pistols taking
them for evidence and I told him he needed to take the shotgun too because that’s
what Justin Yandell had in his hand about to shoot us when he was shot, the
detective replied oh Justin had already told them he had the shotgun so there wasn’t
any need in talking it too, the detectives said Justin Yandell should have
never come over the fence, should have definitely never come over with a gun
and he should have called the Sheriffs office and had them handle it or the
game and fish, you see they claimed that our bird shot was hitting their house
and barn that was over an eighth of a mile away, its physically Impossible for
that to happen, the ballistics on number 8 bird shot distance is around 200
feet.
To be
continued…
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