Senior citizen uses shotgun to take out violent, escaped con.
An Iowa man shot and killed an escaped inmate on Tuesday after the convict held him and his wife hostage in their home, investigators said.
Jerome Mauderly, 71, and his wife, Carolyn, 66, were asleep when escaped inmate Rodney Long, 38, broke into their rural Bedford home a little after 10 p.m. on Monday, said Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation spokesman Mitch Mortvedt.
Long — who had allegedly shot a deputy pursuing him on Sunday — woke up the Mauderlys and disabled their landline phones except for a line in the couple’s bedroom. He then took a shotgun that Jerome Mauderly, a retired prison guard and farmer, had loaded that night and placed next to the bed before going to sleep.
“(The Mauderlys) knew the situation. There was an escaped inmate, armed and dangerous. They were not the only people in the community that had loaded weapons that night,” Mortvedt said.
The Mauderlys’ home is isolated, surrounded by cornfields with the nearest neighbor about a mile away.
Long took the shotgun from the bedroom and moved it to the kitchen. He held the Mauderlys hostage at gunpoint for about four hours while he rummaged through their home for supplies and used their cell phone.
Around 2 a.m. Tuesday, while Long was upstairs looking for supplies, Jerome Mauderly sneaked into the kitchen and recovered his shotgun, Mortvedt said. Carolyn Mauderly called 911 from their bedroom. When Long walked down the stairs, Jerome Mauderly shot him in the torso.
Long was apparently armed when he arrived, so he took the couple’s shotgun to keep them in control. I just note that for the gun grabbers who might say that if they hadn’t had the gun, the convict wouldn’t have had a weapon. He was already armed.
Joe Biden’s advice to fire warning shots remains some of the worst advice ever dispensed.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member