BY T OM WILMOTH Editor [email protected]For years the family feud had been simmering—on Monday it boiled over. The result: Two people shot, one house burned and one man charged with critically injuring his brother and neph- ew. Since Jan. 1, 2009, the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office had received 59 calls from the residence at 1497 Haven Heights Dr. just west of Bedford off U.S. 460, most for noise complaints. But on Monday, at 3:30 p.m. a 911 call came in for that address stating that two men had been shot in the front yard. Deputy Allison Key, an eight-year veteran of the BCSO, was the first on the scene at 3:40 p.m. She found Glen Caldwell, 61, and his son, 35-year-old Michael Caldwell, lying in the yard with gunshot wounds to the stomach and thigh. Both had lost a lot of blood. Inside the home of 55-year-old Dennis Roy Caldwell at 1497 Haven Heights Dr. she could hear more gun shots—and an explosion. She quickly pulled the two men to a safer location, out of harm’s way. “She was very, very brave,” stated Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown about Key’s actions. “She certainly put her life at risk.” Soon other units from the BCSO and the Bedford Police Department arrived on the scene. Those officers quickly set up a perimeter around Dennis Caldwell’s house. They could see a subject moving around inside the residence. Smoke was coming from the attic area of the house. More units arrived. So did fire and Photos by Tom Wilmoth Rescue and law enforcement personnel bring Dennis Caldwell down Haven Heights Drive to an awaiting ambulance. Caldwell, charged with shooting his brother and nephew, was transported to the University of Virginia Medical Center and treated for burn inhalation. Two men shot prior to suspect's standoff with police Debra Caldwell Witt, the mother of Michael Caldwell who was shot Monday, rushes to the scene. Witt helped law enforcement with the layout of the house where Dennis Caldwell, the alleged shooter, was hiding from police. FEUD BOILS OVER Students head back to school See FEUD 12A
For years the family feud had been simmering—on Monday it boiled over. The result: Two people shot, one house burned and one man charged with critically injuring his brother and neph-ew. Since Jan. 1, 2009, the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office had received 59 calls from the residence at 1497 Haven Heights Dr. just west of Bedford off U.S. 460, most for noise complaints. But on Monday, at 3:30 p.m. a 911 call came in for that address stating that two men had been shot in the front yard. Deputy Allison Key, an eight-year veteran of the BCSO, was the first on the scene at 3:40 p.m. She found Glen Caldwell, 61, and his son, 35-year-old Michael Caldwell, lying in the yard with
gunshot wounds to the stomach and thigh. Both had lost a lot of blood. Inside the home of 55-year-old Dennis Roy Caldwell at 1497 Haven Heights Dr. she could hear more gun shots—and an explosion. She quickly pulled the two men to a safer location, out of harm’s way. “She was very, very brave,” stated Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown about Key’s actions. “She certainly put her life at risk.” Soon other units from the BCSO and the Bedford Police Department arrived on the scene. Those officers quickly set up a perimeter around Dennis Caldwell’s house. They could see a subject moving around inside the residence. Smoke was coming from the attic area of the house. More units arrived. So did fire and
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A shootout, just before mid-night Thursday, left one dead and one wounded. According to Bedford C o u n t y Sheriff Mike Brown, the county’s dis-patch center received sev-eral calls around 11:30 p.m. report-ing gunshots being fired at a residence on Johnson M o u n t a i n Road. According to police, wit-nesses reported that a green Mustang was in the area and the people in the car were fir-ing a firearm and Michael Loboschefski, 29, who lives at 5402 Johnson Mountain Rd., was returning fire with a .22-caliber rifle. Deputies arrived at 11:43 p.m. and there were about 10 to 15 people, adults and children, in the vicinity of Loboschefski’s trailer when they got there. Investigators found a dozen expended .22-caliber rimfire cartridges and three 12-gauge shotgun shell casings. The shells had been loaded with 00 buck-shot. Each shell would have held nine pellets. Brown said that investigators have deter-mined that four shotgun shells were fired. “At this point we have not determined who fired the shot-gun,” Brown said. At 12:05 a.m. deputies learned that a man with a gun-shot wound to the leg and an unresponsive female were in the emergency room at Lynchburg General Hospital. The wounded man was identified as Josh Hughes, 27, of Amherst. The woman, who was pronounced dead at the hospital, was identi-fied as Audrey Michell Bryan, 25, of Amherst County. Both had been in the Mustang, which had been abandoned at the scene of the shootout. Joy Bryan Gallier, Bryan’s older sister, was also identified as having been in the Mustang at the time of the shootout. Brown said that investigators are trying to determine who took Bryan and Hughes to the hospital. They are also trying to determine who fired the shot-gun. “What we have is a very fluid situation at this point,”
See SHOOTOUT 3A
Photos by Tom WilmothRescue and law enforcement personnel bring Dennis Caldwell down Haven Heights Drive to an awaiting ambulance. Caldwell, charged with shooting his brother and nephew, was transported to the University of Virginia Medical Center and treated for burn inhalation.
Two men shot prior to suspect's standoff with police
Debra Caldwell Witt, the mother of Michael Caldwell who was shot Monday, rushes to the scene. Witt helped law enforcement with the layout of the house where Dennis Caldwell, the alleged shooter, was hiding from police.
FEUD BOILS OVER
Students head back to school
Oksana Kittrell, a LIberty High School student, helps out with the annual Pack a Bus held at the Bedford Wal-Mart last week.
While summer won’t offi-cially be over for another month, it practically ends for about 10,300 Bedford County students Monday. Summer vacation is through—the 2011-2012 school year is set to begin. “We’re just excited to have the students back,” stated Superintendent Dr. Douglas Schuch. “We’re very excited and enthused about another school year and all of the great things we have in store for the students in the year to come.” And there will be changes.
Superintendent: AYP results becoming less relevant
Six Bedford County schools reached their adequate yearly progress goals for last year; 15 did not. The results reflect a nationwide trend that has more schools failing to meet increasing federal requirements that many say have to be revised. “I have a lot of concerns about the No Child Left Behind law as it is currently written,” stated Bedford County Schools Superintendent Dr. Douglas Schuch. The initial implementation of the law expired in 2007 and Dr. Schuch said it was supposed to go to Congress and the President for revisions. But the federal government has failed to act and the initial goals remain in effect. “Sadly because Congress and the administrations, since 2007, have not been able to find agreements, we march on under the original provisions of this law. That’s making it
See FEUD 12A
Michael Loboschefski
See SCHOOL 3A
A weekend stormuprooted a large tree at Big Island Mill.
Page 2A
Big tree down
See RESULTS 3A
Page 12A The Bedford Bulletin, Bedford, Va., August 17, 2011
rescue. The two men who had been shot were carried down from the scene and placed in rescue units. U.S. 460 was shut down and two Lifeguard helicopters landed on the road to take them to Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Meanwhile, inside the home at Haven Heights Drive, law enforcement officers made phone contact with Dennis Caldwell, now known to be the alleged shooter. They would try to talk him out of the home; he wouldn’t com-ply. He quickly cut that con-tact off. The stand-off between Caldwell and law enforcement would last four hours. Close to 40 officers from the BCSO, the Bedford Police Department, ATF in Roanoke and the Virginia State Police respond-ed. At least that many more representatives from area fire departments and rescue crews were also at the scene. Non-flammable tear gas rounds were fired into the home. By 7:15 p.m. the smolder-ing fire had erupted into intense flames inside the home. Firefighters entered the residence. One group went in the front door. Flames blew out the door and over the firefighters’ heads, according to Brown. “It became a very tense and dangerous situation when the fire erupted in the house,” Brown said. “It scared the heck out of me.” The firefighters going into the basement found Dennis Caldwell in a corner, with the alleged .45-caliber pistol by his side. He was unconscious. “They pulled him from the house, basically saving his life,” Brown stated. “He would have certainly perished in the fire.” Caldwell was treated and was transported down the road on a backboard to a rescue unit waiting at the road’s entrance off U.S. 460. He was flown from the scene in a helicopter and taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center for burn inhalation in his throat. Warrants were obtained charg-ing him with two counts of aggravated malicious wound-ing and two counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. More charges are like-ly, according to Brown.
The feud Neighbors who waited at the entrance of Haven Heights Drive Monday as the events unfolded, said the feud between the two brothers had been going on for years. Glen Caldwell and his son, Michael, lived next door at 1493 Haven Heights Dr. The feud, neighbors said, was over noise and property lines. The shooting took place in front of where Glen and Michael Caldwell were build-ing a garage. “The two had bad blood,” stated Johnny Ruff, a long-time neighbor of the Caldwells. “I’ve seen it coming. … I told them they needed to get along.” Heather Keyes, another neighbor, agreed. “The two were always at each other’s throat, fighting back and forth. … It’s scary.” Debra Caldwell Witt, the mother of Michael Caldwell and ex-wife of Glen Caldwell, learned about the shooting of her son while at a convenience store. The clerk at the store told her. “I hauled it over here,” she
said. “I didn’t stop (for any-thing).” She said the two brothers had been arguing for years, ending up in court pitted against each other several times over “stupid stuff.” “But I wasn’t expecting this today,” Witt said. “You don’t ever expect anything like this.” While at the scene Witt provided law enforcement with a layout of Dennis Caldwell’s home, several times answering questions relayed down from the officers sur-rounding the residence to the officers stationed at the road’s entrance where she and several neighbors waited for the situa-tion to be resolved. What escalated the feud Monday is not yet known, and might never be known for sure, according to Brown. It is believed that Dennis Caldwell had other guns and a large amount of ammunition in the home. On Monday night both shooting victims were listed in critical condition and had been in surgery. Hospital staff could not provide an update on their conditions Tuesday morning.
The response Sheriff Brown said the goal of the response was to resolve it by keeping law enforcement officers and the fire and rescue units at the scene safe. “I cannot say enough about the firefighters and rescue squad members (who respond-ed),” Brown said. Several firefighters and deputies were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation. “It could have been much, much worse than it was,” Brown said of the danger the firefighters and law enforce-ment officers faced. “They went above and beyond. They were heroes.” Brown added he was grate-ful for the efforts of the Tactical team and other law enforcement officers who responded. “It’s the biggest standoff situation (we’ve had) since I’ve been here,” he added. Bedford Fire Chief Brad Creasy said firefighters entered Dennis Caldwell’s house after seeing smoke build in the house for about 30 minutes. “We were given the OK that we could go in,” he said. Creasy said the conditions were such that anyone in the house would have been uncon-scious or dead. “We agreed we would go ahead, put the fire out and locate the subject,” he said. “We went ahead and proceed-ed business as usual for us. … There was so much smoke coming from the house and for such a long time, we really weren’t concerned about there being any threat from him (Caldwell).” He said it wasn’t really any different than any other fire response. At one point, because of a lack of ventilation upstairs, several firefighters exited through a window until it could be established. “Conditions worsened very rapidly on the first floor,” he said. Ventilation is used to improve conditions on the interior to push smoke out. “All ended well,” he added about the response to the fire.
From Page 1A
Feud: Standoff lasted four hours
Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown commended Deputy Allison Key's efforts in protecting the two men shot on Monday. She was the first deputy to reach the scene.
Two Lifeguard helicopters land-ed on U.S. 460 to transport the two shooting victims from Monday. A Tactical Response Team from the Virginia State Police joined with law enforce-ment personnel from the Bedford County Sheriff's Office, the ATF and the Bedford Police Department at the site of the shootings on Haven Heights Road. Firefighters and rescue personnel from Bedford and county agencies also respond-ed. The home of Dennis Caldwell erupted in flames around 7:15 p.m. That's when firefighters were allowed to enter the house and begin working the fire. The two vic-tims had been working on build-ing a garage next door to Caldwell's home, prior to the shooting.
Photos byTom Wilmoth
Local heroes In general, people are trained to run away from life threat-ening situations…law enforcement officers and fire and emer-gency personnel, on the other hand, are trained to run toward these types of situations. Yesterday on Haven Heights Drive they did just that, they ran into a situation that could have resulted in the deaths of deputies and firefighters. In what turned out to be a three hour barricaded criminal stand-off, that left two victims critically injured and multiple shots fired during the three hour stand-off, the men and women of the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office and the Bedford Police Department placed their lives on the line in an effort to protect the injured and arrest the subject who was accused of shooting the two victims. These same men and women also tried every conceivable way to convince the subject to give himself up before more people were injured, including him. Time and time again they placed themselves in Harm’s Way to protect citizens and end the highly volatile situation. The firefighters, under the leadership of Chief Creasy and Assistant Chief Stevens, in the final minutes of the stand-off, performed in a manner that would have made any fire chief proud…they don’t have to take a back seat to anyone, large department or small! Their efforts to put the fire down and help my deputies rescue the subject who started the fire were both heroic and professional. I observed their entry into the upper floor of the house and had to swallow hard when I saw the flames boiling out of the door directly over their heads. Their entry with our Tact Team deputies, which I didn’t observe, on the basement level where the subject had taken refuge was also above and beyond. Standing close by, ready to rush in if public safety person-nel were injured, were members of Bedford EMS. Their train-ing was called into service when the subject was pulled from the burning house. Their quick evaluation and treatment of the subject until he could be placed on the medivac chopper con-ceivably saved his life. I have had the honor of working with law enforcement and fire/emergency personnel the world over and I couldn’t be prouder of our public safety here in Bedford County…God bless them all.
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