Harry Coleman makes three children orphans over a parking space

[Unamused Cat]

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/snarkyphotos/assholes.jpg
Harry Coleman, Robert Louis "Dutch" Schwerin

An argument and a gun, a flash and a crack, and just like that, three children were made orphans.

That's what happened in the parking lot of the Trinity Commons shopping center in Cordova around 9 p.m. Friday, police said.

Police charged Harry Coleman, 59, with second-degree murder Sunday in the shooting of Robert "Dutch" Schwerin, 52, after the pair argued over how close their vehicles were parked.

Schwerin died in the parking lot, leaving behind two sons, Dallas, 21, and Colt, 19, and a daughter, Savannah, 15. Emilie Schwerin, his wife and their mother, died in 2004 from medical problems.

"He was all they had, after their mother passed away," said the victim's brother, John "Butch" Schwerin.

The incident apparently began outside the Villa Castrioti restaurant, where Schwerin and his children were celebrating the birthdays of his father and father-in-law. But on the way out, according to Dallas, Schwerin and a woman began arguing over how close his GMC Yukon Denali was to her Hummer.

At that point, Harry Coleman joined the argument, which then seemed to dim. But then it boiled over again, Dallas said, leading Coleman to reach into the Hummer for his gun. He then walked back to where Schwerin stood and shot him in the torso, according to the police affidavit.

Police took him into custody there and found the gun in his back pocket. Coleman, who is scheduled to appear in court at 8:30 a.m. today, was granted a state permit to carry a handgun in June 2006.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/feb/08/8shootingweb/

video: http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news/local/story/52-Year-Old-Man-Shot-and-Killed-at-Cordova/hFvO2TzoOk-WZ6t21GaoHQ.cspx

[Unamused Cat]

Witness account:

Joseph Sneed witnessed the altercation and recorded some of it on his cell phone.

He says he almost became a victim when he tried to intervene. Sneed was leaving Panera Bread for the parking lot when he heard an argument erupting over a parking space.

He says he soon realized it was a life or death situation. "Part of my faith is to stand up against wrong," he said. "Decided the best thing we could do was to try to talk him down."

Sneed says he put himself between Coleman and Schwerin, who was with his three children. "Tried my best to plead with him, to humanize the situation and tell him that these were children, this was somebody's father," he said.

Sneed says Coleman said nothing, grunted loudly and then drove the gun into his chest and backed him away. "From seeing the look in his eyes, without him saying it, I felt he was telling me 'I'm going to kill this man. If you decide to get in the way, you're going to get hurt too,'" Sneed said.

Sneed moved out of the way and thought about trying to grab the gun. "No sooner could the thought been processed, he fired," Sneed said. Schwerin collapsed in front of his three children.

Sneed rode with one of the children to the Memphis Police Department to give statements to the detectives.

http://www.kare11.com/news/whatsup/whatsup_article.aspx?storyid=539148&catid=333