Meals on Wheels driver shoots robber
The retired police officer had just delivered a meal
Leon Fletcher had just gotten home from a hospital appointment Friday when the Meals on Wheels driver stopped in to set a tray of food on the table.
After a brief thank you, Fletcher turned away and “the next thing I knew, he went back to his car and my wife yelled out, ‘I hear gunshots.’”
Fletcher, 70, a Vietnam veteran, ran to the street and saw a young man slumped at the wheel of the delivery driver’s car. He told me, “He tried to rob me. I had to shoot him.”
Meals on Wheels, run by Lifecare Alliance, has thousands of volunteers who delivered about 1.5 million meals last year to central Ohio communities, Chuck Gehring, president and CEO of the organization, said this is the first time in his 19 years that something so violent has happened.
“We have never had anything even remotely close to this,” Gehring said.
His driver, 75, a retired police officer whom he declined to identify, was actually being paid $8.70 per hour plus mileage, necessary because there aren’t enough volunteer drivers, Gehring said. “He’s not paid enough to do what he’s doing.”
According to Columbus police, authorities were called just after 11 a.m. to the 1200 block of E. 18th Avenue, where neighbors had found the teen slumped in the seat of the delivery driver’s car.
Police said the driver had just delivered a meal, had turned to leave the residence, and was accosted by two armed teens.
One of the them forced his way into the car, at which point the driver fired.
Three cones outside the vehicle
marked shell casings
The teen, believed to be 14 and shot in the side, was taken to Nationwide Children’s Hospital in stable condition, said Sgt. Chris Odom.
The other teen left with the driver’s phone and other items. Police have not identified the teens or the driver.
Odom said that it appears that the driver was justified in using force to defend himself.
“It is an affirmative defense to use force when you are in fear of being hurt or killed,” Odom said.
Manorris Stinson, who lives in the neighborhood, said the teens live nearby. And he wonders why they
weren’t in school.
“My feeling is that they never should have messed with that guy,” Stinson said. “It’s wrong when his entire intention in being here is charity.”
Gehring wants to assure his drivers that the job is safe and valued. He’s heard many stories of people in rough communities helping the delivery drivers.
“We’ve had gang members in the city help people with car trouble, telling them, “I’m helping you because you delivered to my grandmother every day.”
Fletcher said the well-liked driver needs to be supported for defending himself.
“It hurts me because I don’t want to see him go to jail when he’s in the right.” dnarciso@dispatch.com @Deannarciso