A Nurse with a Gun

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

No Choice

"There's been a whole bunch of emotions, from joy to being alive to remorse and sadness for the loss of anybody's life. I send my condolences out to the family. They have lost someone," says Heath Miller of Wellington, Florida. Heath Miller"It has been a journey involving me and my wife laughing and crying, and crying and laughing. Bits of depression and bits of joy just to still be here. Every day is a new thing. There have been so many things that have been overwhelming that we just have to breathe and keep going."

Mr. Miller, a soft spoken middle school band and chorus teacher, doesn't wish to discuss with the media the events of the night when 22 year old Robert Tomlin broke into his home with a gun. He does affirm that his dogs, Riley and Jordan, were the real heroes. "They were truthfully heroes. And I owe my life to them, we owe our lives to them," he says. "Normally, if there's something happening on the street or in the neighborhood they'll bark and go to the blinds. You'll hear the blinds rattling. But this particular night they didn't. They started backing up into the bedroom. And that was what really started everything."

On the morning of February 16, 2009, Robert R. Tomlin entered Millers' home wearing a black mask and carrying a .40 caliber pistol. Tomlin had been using a cousin's home several houses away as a mail drop. Robert R. TomlinIt is not known for certain why he entered Miller's home in the dark of night wearing a mask and carrying a gun, but it's fair to say he wasn't collecting letters from his pen pal, and he wasn't impersonating the Lone Ranger. Tomlin had a violent police record. He had been arrested for domestic battery two times, once a with pregnant woman. He had assaulted a police officer, and he had numerous violations of probation.

As the dogs backed up in front of the intruder, Miller saw a silhouette carrying a gun in the doorway . Miller grabbed his own gun, and the two men exchanged gunfire. Tomlin was mortally wounded and collapsed at the back door. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mr Miller and his wife are returning to work and are getting counseling. They had found a home in a safer neighborhood, and had finalized a lease after meeting several unexpected requirements concerning their dogs. Now, the owner of the house has backed out of the contract and moved back into the home they wanted. Oddly, the realtor had asked Mr. Miller about the home invasion he suffered the day before the owner took his property off the market. Unwilling to remain in the home where their security had been violated, the Millers are now living with relatives.

Often the actual shooting is only the beginning of the tribulations in a righteous defender's life. I hope in the coming weeks, months and years that Mr. Miller remembers that he is a good man, a solid man, a righteous man. It was not his choice to take a life. It was his choice to save his own life, and the life of his wife. Robert R. Tomlin forced that decision on Mr. Miller, and he had absolutely no right or justification for doing so. In the end, Heath Miller had no choice.

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12 Comments:

Blogger MauserMedic said...

There seems to be something about anybody that has killed another person that gives the general public the creepy-crawlies. No matter why it was done. This suggests to me that there are many, many people who would make fine victims, and they are extremely uncomfortable with those who are not.

12:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Which is all well and good until the victims-to-be organize and start making laws to ensure they get their chance.

Jim

2:21 AM  
Blogger David aka True Blue Sam said...

.......But the man who has tripped
Between death's legs and then
Recovers himself and breathes again,
Can only laugh or only weep:
He has not the heart to mourn.

Today's first light makes all too drunk
The man who finds himself alive;
He is weak and is amazed
To be dawdling so along the road.
.......

Excerpt from Relief,by Charles Vildrac; Translated from the French by Christopher Middleton

6:53 AM  
Blogger pops1911 said...

I was amazed to hear this story - I attended that school many years ago when we called it a 'junior high'. It was a decent school then & sounds like it still is with that caliber of teacher (pun intended).

We need to continue to help our fellow man to retain the ability to defend thmselves at a minimum at home (& in Fla with CCW). It now needs to extend to all places throughout the US too. Defeat BHo & his elite minions while they are in office until they can be removed!

7:11 AM  
Blogger detroitccw said...

This post drives home the fact that law-abiding citizens, who are forced to defend themselves, are also victims: stigma from the public, the need for counseling, and the feeling that they are never the same in their own home. God bless them. I hope they are healed soon.

8:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hm, the TV station isn't too good at transcription. "inaudible"? I understood what was being said just fine.

Good for Mr. Miller... and good for his wife. I do hope they find the peace they need; anyone who would try to deny that to them is nuts.

9:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

F that landlord. Maybe the ACLU should step to the plate and make sure Mr. Miller and his wife aren't denied that lease because they defended themselves from an armed intruder; are armed and black; or both. Violation of Fair Housing laws and 2nd Amendments???

Mr. Miller, You did the right thing and had no choice in the matter. Instead of the criminal being buried it might well have been you or your spouse burying each other, or your families burying you both side by side for eternity.

9:54 AM  
Blogger Crucis said...

I've gotten that same reaction when some folks learn that I'm a Viet Nam Vet. I was in the Air Force and spent time above VN rather than on the ground.

Doesn't matter to some. I had a once good friend from college refuse to acknowledge me when we met in public.

WV: wooly
I guess they really are sheep.

12:28 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As often as you hear about people breaking into multiple houses in a row, I'd love to have this guy for a neighbor. Someone hits his house before mine, I'll be fine.

2:18 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good shoot Mr. Miller.

2:49 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Perpster, calm down, with your ignorant, ill-informed and filthy comment. The landlord has every right to do what he is doing. The first thing that popped into my head is that the landlord thought, "The friends of that thug are going to try to find and kill him. They may even try to torch the house."

Again, the landlord is completely within his rights. There is no call for your abuse, especially because you have no idea why he made the choice he did.

5:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You did what you had to do Mr. Miller. God bless you.

9:47 PM  

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