Soldier, a Vietnam Veteran, Attacks Wife & Grandchildren
Summary:
Paragraph 8 reads: "Richardson said he is a Vietnam Veteran who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and anxiety. He and his family had driven all night from New Jersey, a vacation that had ended on a sour note."
Paragraph 12 reads: "He decided to shower. When he finished, he wrapped a towel around his waist and poured a cup of coffee to take his medications. He heard someone outside calling his name, and answered the door. He wanted to at least get down his PTSD medication."
Warrior man arrested while nude, says deputies ordered him out after he had been in shower
Published: Friday, August 12, 2011, 2:13 PM Updated: Friday, August 12, 2011, 2:37 PM
WARRIOR, Alabama -- A Warrior man arrested nude earlier this month after an argument with his wife said the only reason he surrendered to deputies naked was because he was in the shower when they showed up at his house.
Robert Wesley Richardson, 64, said details released by authorities of his Aug. 3 arrest are misleading. He said he wants his side of the story told.
"They tried to make it look like I was a pervert or something like that," Richardson said Friday.
Jefferson County sheriff's deputies were called to his Wood Knoll Lane home that day on a report that he had ransacked his house and struck his wife and grandchildren. Chief Deputy Randy Christian said family members had told deputies he kept several weapons inside and in the past had aimed a shotgun through the closed front door at deputies responding to another call there. Richardson says it was a BB gun.
Lawmen repeatedly knocked on the front door but Richardson didn't come out initially. When he did, he was nude, wearing only his glasses and drinking a cup of coffee.
He refused the deputies' commands to stop and get on the ground. Authorities said he said, "Shoot me, come on, shoot me."
Deputies used a stun gun to subdue him.
Richardson said he is a Vietnam Veteran who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and anxiety. He and his family had driven all night from New Jersey, a vacation that had ended on a sour note.
"My anxiety had gotten sky high in the van," he said. "We drove straight through."
Upon their return, he said, he and his wife got into an argument. "I was throwing stuff at her; she was throwing stuff at me," he said. "It was a throwing bout."
In the process, he said, one of his grandchildren was struck by one of the thrown objects. His family left, he said, and he thought they'd gone somewhere to cool off.
He decided to shower. When he finished, he wrapped a towel around his waist and poured a cup of coffee to take his medications. He heard someone outside calling his name, and answered the door. He wanted to at least get down his PTSD medication.
"They told me to come out like I was," he said. The towel fell off.
He said he didn't comply with their demands to get down on the ground because the hot concrete would have hurt since he was sunburned. He said he also didn't tell deputies to shoot him, but rather said, "You came to shoot me, didn't you?"
He said he wants to set the record straight.
"It got twisted the way they put it," he said.
Richardson is charged with domestic violence and is out of jail on $9,000 bond.