Fire starter gets the bullet!

Venom

"Anthony Choate was shot and killed in a Salem garage.


A 16-year-old Aumsville boy has been identified as the intruder who was shot and killed by a South Salem homeowner last weekend.

The parents of Anthony Chance Choate called Salem police Tuesday after reading a description in the Statesman Journal of the then-unknown person, Sgt. Mike Scanlon said.

In their talk with detectives, they identified the victim as their son.

Choate died from a gunshot wound to the neck Saturday morning during a confrontation with the homeowner, who was armed with a handgun.

Choate, who was unarmed, had entered the man’s garage through a side door and started a fire using boxes that he found, police said.

The boy’s family said they are in shock, calling Choate “harmless” and saying he posed no threat to the homeowner.

“He would never have hurt anyone,” said Choate’s 14-year-old sister, Shaundra Choate.

The homeowner, Linn Stordahl, 64, has not been charged in the shooting. Family members had no comment.

Choate had spent Friday night drinking with buddies at a South Salem home two or three miles from where he was killed, said longtime friend Lance Sasser.

“Last time I saw him was at 12:30 in the morning,” Sasser said. “He left with a couple of friends. They weren’t really his good friends, just some acquaintances.”

Detectives think Choate may have attended several parties before a friend dropped him off early Saturday near the Stordahl residence, in the 5500 block of East Ridge Street S.

Police said Tuesday that they still weren’t sure why Choate went into the garage and started the fire.

His family thinks that the friend was supposed to have dropped him off at his Aumsville home but left him in South Salem.

Drunk and thinking he was in Aumsville, he mistook Stordahl’s house for his own and went into the garage, which he mistook for a wood shop they have, Shaundra Choate said.

“The shop has a wood stove, and he would always rip up paper and cardboard to light fires to get warm when he was out there,” his sister said.

Shaundra Choate noted that her brother had a friend who lives three blocks from Stordahl’s residence.

“We think if he would have known where he was, he would have gone there,” she said.

Choate attended Sprague High School, but he withdrew last fall after a bout with pneumonia kept him from classes for two months, Shaundra Choate said.

He planned to take night and summer courses to catch up and to re-enroll next year, she said.

News of Choate’s death rocked the high school Tuesday.

“He had a lot of friends grieving for him at school today,” Principal Mark Davalos said.

School officials set up a crisis room and counseled about 20 kids, Davalos said.

Choate’s family said they were concerned about where he was and said they spent the weekend calling and driving to friends’ homes trying to find him.

They immediately dismissed the thought that the person killed in the garage could have been him, Shaundra Choate said.

“My uncle said, ‘Maybe that was him,’ and we all said, ‘No, that couldn’t have been him — he wouldn’t do something like that,’” she said.

Sasser said that Choate’s mother asked him for phone numbers where her son could be staying, then called three times a day to see whether he had seen the boy.

“He’s been gone before to someone’s house without anybody knowing,” Sasser said. “But Easter came around, and he wasn’t around. That’s when people started wondering where this kid could be.”

Friends and family described Choate as an athlete who enjoyed basketball and football but loved baseball. He played shortstop.

Choate could be quiet, particularly around unfamiliar people.

“He was on the shy side,” said Sue Fowler, his aunt. “Not real outgoing until he got to know you, and then he was a good friend.”

“He was always there when you needed him,” said Sprague junior Jared Tiecke, who played basketball with Choate at Crossler Middle School and remained friends with him over the years.

Shaundra Choate said her brother loved rap music and that he didn’t spend too much time indoors watching television or movies.

“He was always outside with his friends, going places and doing stuff,” she said."


It might have been a very stupid way to die but I agree with the actions taken by the shooter. The whole "he was such a good kid" bit does seem layed on a bit thick imho.

Mighty_Mouse

If the bloke in the house didn't have a hand gun. Then the drunk kid wouldn't be dead.

You have to out yourself in the shooters shoes. If you heard a burgular in your basement. Would you reach for the phone or the rocket-launcher under the bed. Me- i'd dial 999(911) first before I started loading my bad boy.

All he had to do was lock the ****ing bedroom door, or even better lock the garage door or something. I just think that the only time I would be pulling a trigger was if somebody had a gun pointed at me or my family.

I definitely wouldnt get pissed of cause the litte ****er burned my garage and blow his ****ing head off!!!

Venom

That's one way of looking at it. But say the house owner did call 911 and wait for the cops, and the whole house burned down? Say him and his family got either hurt or killed? Could you live with the fact you could have saved your family but didnt?

The gob****e who got killed, broke into someone else'd home and tried to burn it down and got a bullet in his neck for his trouble. As far as Im cncerned he is just one less scumbag on the planet.

Hell, if I ever caught some lowlife peice of crap, acting the maggot in my home, Id do everything in my power to fúck his shít up bigtime.