From: [s--o--a] at [oak.circa.ufl.edu]
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Armed home owner stops gunman's rampage, saves family.
Date: 22 Nov 1995 01:06:54 GMT

Associated Press
Friend's call helps save family from gunman
*A man upset over being fired from a bank goes on a three-town shooting
spree, killing four people.

Columbus, Ohio -- A call from a friend helped save the live of a woman
whose ex-boyfriend went on a shooting spree, killing four people
before he kicked in her back door as she was fleeing with her family.

        Jerry Hessler was upset over being fired from a bank more than
a year ago, police said.  Two of the dead and two others who were
wounded worked at the bank.

        
        The fourth home Hessler invaded Sunday was that of Judy Stanton,
a woman he dated at least 15 years ago, police said.  Her friend,
watching television coverage of the three-town spree, recalled their
relationship and tipped her off.

        Mrs. Stanton, her husband, Douglas, and their four children,
ages 5 to 13, were met by Hessler as they rushed out of their back
door.  They slammed it shut, but he fired three shots into the
door and kicked it open.

        The husband, armed with two handguns, returned the fire and
hit Hessler in the chest.  He was wearing a bulletproof vest
(my comment:  do they mean bullet resistant?) and fled in his car.
He was captured a short time later on a road in Ashland, 75 miles
northeast of Columbus.

Hessler, 38, was held in jail Monday, charged with felonious assault.
More charges were expected.

        Police Detective Sandra Ladley wouldn't identify the quick-
acting friend and had no other details.

        Neither Mrs. Stanton, 38, nor her husband and children were
hurt.  Calls to their home Monday went unanswered.

        Hessler, from suburban Westerville, was angry about being fired
from the credit card division of Bank One after he was accused of
sexual harassment, police said.

        The spree began when Hessler broke into a Columbus home and
killed the bank employee Brian Stevens, 36, his wife, Tracy Stevens,
25, who was also a bank employee; and their 4-month-old daughter,
Amanda, police said.

        Investigators said he then headed north to suburban 
Worthington, where he killed P. Thane Griffin.  Griffin, 64, had just
retired last spring after 22 years as the president of Ohio United
Way.  He had never worked at Bank One.




Mike