No Charges In Bingo Shooting

Florida Pensacola  A bingo hall manager will not face charges for shooting and killing an armed robber.
by Jessica Taloney
Published: Thu, October 23, 2008 - 4:50 pm CST
No charges will likely be filed against the manager of a Pensacola bingo hall.

Escambia County Sheriff's deputies say Chad England shot and killed an armed robber who stormed into Beachside Bingo on Jackson Street in Pensacola.

Investigators say Alton Prewitt, 20, entered the bingo hall around 10pm Wednesday. According to witnesses, Prewitt demanded money and fired at least one shot in the ceiling before England grabbed his own gun and fired back.

Prewitt was pronounced dead on the scene. No one else in the bingo hall was hurt.

"It looks like a clear case of self defense," says Glenn Austin, spokesperson for the Escambia County Sheriff's Office. Austin says he believes England was within his rights to shoot the suspect. "He was defending himself and everyone else in the parlor," he says.

Florida has a law that allows residents to protect themselves when they are attacked. The state's "Stand Your Ground Law" makes it legal to use deadly force against an intruder.


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I am happy to see you revised the story to remove the “take the law into his own hands” comment.  Miltonboy is correct in his definition, and it’s nice to see that you corrected the story.

Ms. Taloney wrote me an email stating that “there is absolutely nothing in the story
that suggests Chad England did anything wrong.”  I googled the phrase “who took the law into his own hands” and the most common definition was - “to do something illegal in order to punish someone because you know that the law will not punish that person.”  Does Ms. Taloney have an alternative definition that we just don’t know about?

You are exactly right, Club-E!  That first paragraph makes Chad England sound like some sort of vigilante.  He absolutely DID NOT take “the law into his own hands.”  What he DID do is defend himself, and other innocents, from an armed, low-life thug.  Too bad Jessica wasn’t playing bingo that day.  I’m sure she could have reasoned with the shooter and showed the appropriate sensitivity to what I am sure must have been a disadvantage childhood.  The bingo players were asking for, after all, it by not donating their money to some handout program for troubled youth.  Thank you Ms. Taloney for helping us see that Alton Prewitt was the real victim here!!

This brave Floridian did not “take the law into his own hands,” he defended himself and those around him from a criminal who FIRED his weapon.  When people complain about your liberal bias, this is what they are talking about.

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