Man Shoots Teenager to Protect McCain Sign

Posted by Steven D., Booman Tribune at 8:29 AM on October 29, 2008.

Every election year yard signs for candidates are stolen. I know. I had two Kerry sign stolen from my yard in 2004, and there are numerous reports this year of both Obama and McCain signs being stolen or vandalized. And it's troubling, and certainly annoying if it happens to you. However, I've never heard of anyone going this far to protect anyone's political yard sign -- until now:

WARREN -- A pair of teenage boys thought they were playing a prank by knocking down a John McCain campaign sign Saturday afternoon and yelling, "This is for Obama" to the homeowner.

But the homeowner, Kenneth Rowles, 50, was sitting on the front porch and didn't think it was funny, especially since this was the second time vandals had damaged his campaign signs.

Rowles went into his 1237 Dover St. home in Warren Township, got a .22-caliber rifle and went back to the porch to confront the boys at about 2 p.m.

Rowles said he fired the rifle three times "to scare them" but never pointed the rifle at the boys or the car.

Nonetheless, at about 11 a.m. Sunday, the mother of one of the boys called police -- saying her nephew, Kyree Flowers, 17, of 1205 Dover, had been shot once in the arm, and that her tan GMC SUV had been hit by two other bullets.

Flowers received a minor injury from the bullet and was treated at a local hospital Sunday.

The woman's son, Patrick A. Wise Jr., 16, of Commerce Avenue in Warren, was the driver of the car. He told police: "Joking and playing, I got out of the car and kicked his political sign over. Kyree was in the car and told me to turn around, and I saw the man pointing his gun at me, trying to shoot at me, working the action. I ran into the car, and he shot at us through both the passenger and driver window." [...]

Warren Township police confiscated all of the weapons in Rowles' home: 11 long guns (meaning rifles and shotguns) and four pistols.