Louisiana serial killings suspect arrested

A man suspected in the killings of five women was arrested peacefully outside a tire store, ending a months-long manhunt in a case that terrified women across Louisiana.

Derrick Todd Lee, 34, was taken into custody by three police officers Tuesday evening, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said. Authorities had just missed apprehending Lee at a homeless shelter and then at a motel.

"We have taken a very dangerous person that is a serial murder suspect off the streets," Pennington said. He said Lee could be returned to Louisiana as early as Wednesday.

Click on the "Read More..." link below to find out how this case applies to Ohio's fight to restore self-defense rights.

Lee was charged Monday with murder and aggravated rape in the killing of Carrie Yoder, 26, a Louisiana State University student who became the serial killer's fifth suspected victim in March. A fugitive warrant issued for Lee before his arrest says DNA evidence indicates the same person who killed Yoder killed four other women starting in September 2001.

Although the warrant accuses Lee only of Yoder's murder, it says DNA evidence removed from her body matched that taken from the other four victims.

When it first became evident that a sexual predator and serial killer was on the loose in Lousiana, that state's Governor did the right thing: he told women to exercise their right to self-defense.

According to federal crime statistics, Columbus has the highest rate of reported rapes among the largest U.S. cities. At least two serial rapists have stalked Columbus in recent months and years, and at least one is still at large. But Ohio's governor Bob Taft, the Ohio Highway Patrol, and even the Fraternal Order of Police (along with the Million Mom March and Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence), want potential victims of these predators to remain defenseless.

Raw data from the Justice Department’s annual National Crime Victim Survey show that when a woman resists a “stranger rape” with a gun, the probability of completion was 0.1% and of victim injury 0.1%, compared to 31% and 40% respectively, for all stranger rapes. For all rapes, woman who resisted with a gun were 2.5 times more likely to escape without injury than those who did not resist, and 4 times more likely to escape uninjured than those who resisted with any means other than a gun.” (Southwick, Journal of Criminal Justice, 2000)

“Unfortunately 88 percent of the violent crimes reported to the National Crime Victimization Survey in 1992 were committed away from the victim’s home.” Gary Kleck, Targeting Guns.

A Dept. of Justice survey found that 40% of felons chose not to commit at least some crimes for fear their victims were armed, and 34% admitted having been scared off or shot at by armed victims. (James D. Wright and Peter H. Rossi, Armed and Considered Dangerous, Aldine de Gruyter, 1986)

"Murder rates decline when either more women or more men carry concealed handguns, but the effect is especially pronounced for women. An additional woman carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for women by about three to four times more than an additional man carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for men." More Guns, Less Crime. John R. Lott, Jr.

Not all women must choose to carry a concealed firearm to benefit from the reformation of Ohio's self-defense laws.

In 1966 the police in Orlando, Florida, responded to a rape epidemic by embarking on a highly publicized program to train 2,500 women in firearm use. The next year rape fell by 88 percent in Orlando (the only major city to experience a decrease that year); burglary fell by 25 percent. Not one of the 2,500 women actually ended up firing her weapon; the deterrent effect of the publicity sufficed." (Congressional Record, 90th Cong., 2d sess., January 30, 1968, p. 1496, n. 7) Five years later Orlando's rape rate was still 13 percent below the pre-program level, whereas the surrounding standard metropolitan area had suffered a 308 percent increase.

Every day that Ohio's Republican leadership waits to pass concealed carry reform increases the defenseless victim list in our state, and forces otherwise law-abiding citizens into making a choice between facing felony arrest or being unable to defend themselves. This simply should not be.

Click here to read the entire story in the Akron Beacon-Journal.