Eighteen-year-old Leotha Bush thought, allegedly, that he was going to get one up on a group of workmen at a Memphis, Tennessee, home when he pulled a pistol on them earlier this month.
In the end, he was the one who ended up tied to the rails of the front porch of the home.
According to WREG-TV, Bush allegedly tried to rob the work crew in the Highland Heights neighborhood on June 8 using a BB gun that looked like a semi-automatic pistol.
Bush had apparently walked up to the house and asked for a cigarette lighter, the station reported. When none was to be had on the construction site, Bush walked away, but came back a few minutes later and entered the home.
He then pointed the “pistol” at a worker and demanded the man’s keys. WMC-TV reported that the man involved was the homeowner.
It didn’t work out as planned:
The victim said he spoke in Spanish to alert another co-worker doing work near the open front door.
Should the U.S. imprison more or fewer criminals?
According to police, Bush aimed a black handgun at the back of the other man’s head and demanded he hand over his belongings. Instead, the victim turned around, grabbed the handgun, and threw it into the front yard.
Both men wrestled Bush to the ground, tied him to the front railing of the property with a nylon strap, and called police.
Neighbor Walter Holston said, “Thank God that everyone’s all right,” noting that the neighborhood is “just so dangerous now.”
“You have to be careful with everything, you know,” he said. “That’s the first incident that has happened over here in a while.”
According to an affidavit obtained by WMC, Bush admitted to police that he pulled out the BB gun on the owner, but said it was a prank and not a robbery attempt.
Police disagreed, taking Bush into custody and charging him with armed robbery and carrying an imitation firearm. He was being held on $150,000 bond as of June 9.
As for the idea of tying the suspect to the front porch, Holston was impressed.
“I think that is pretty good,” said Holston. “That was less work for [the police]. All they had to do was just charge him, take him on downtown, and get him booked.”
Another neighbor, who wished to remain anonymous — such is the state of things in Memphis, apparently– said that he hopes more thugs like Bush got the same treatment, and that the fact it was a BB gun shouldn’t factor into any decision-making when it came to charging or sentencing.
“I hope it happens a lot because I’m sick of the people around here who do that,” they said.
“A BB gun is just like a real gun. You think your life is in danger. So, you try to protect yourself at all costs.”
A final note: Part of the problem is that Memphis is in Shelby County, where the district attorney actually had a state law passed because of his lax enforcement of cases coming from the Memphis Safe Task Force, a federal agency.
From the Tennessee Lookout, May 27:
Shelby County’s district attorney filed an emergency lawsuit against the state Tuesday to block two new laws he claims illegally interfere with his office in connection with cases coming from the federal Memphis Safe Task Force, according to a statement.
District Attorney Steve Mulroy, a Democrat, contends the two measures, both signed into law May 7 by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, violate the state Constitution and longheld principles of “prosecutorial independence” by micromanaging the DA’s office and giving the state attorney general the authority to seek his replacement. He filed the lawsuit in Chancery Court in Memphis. …
The Memphis Safe Task Force Accountability Act, sponsored by two Shelby County Republicans, Rep. John Gillespie and Sen. Brent Taylor, a congressional candidate and critic of Mulroy as “soft on crime,” requires the DA’s office to make reports every 10 days about the dismissal or settlement of charges filed by the federal task force, which was ordered by President Donald Trump last fall.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton, a Crossville Republican, responded to the lawsuit with a post on X saying, “Nothing says transparency like suing to stop transparency. DA Mulroy is so soft at his job that the Memphis Safe Task Force had to [do] it for him. They reduced crime to record lows but @SteveMulroy901 wants it to go back to the days of old so much, he is suing the State of Tennessee … DA Mulroy is a criminal’s best friend.”
When the state has to pass a law forcing a Democrat DA to take crime seriously, but homeowners are tying up thugs who try to rob them at gunpoint, it’s time to get out of Dodge if you can.
If you can’t, maybe it’s time to start electing some Republicans — or at least the guy who managed to subdue Leotha Bush, whatever his political affiliation.
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