Landlord evicts gunshot victim for "being too loud"

Richard M · 04-07-2005, 03:21

I haven't got a link to this because it came from another forum.

Quote:

Landlord Evicts Victim Of Murder Attempt For 'Being Too Loud'
Tenant Is Former Marine, Police Officer

POSTED: 7:44 am PDT July 1, 2005

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. -- A North Carolina woman has a new problem, after surviving six gunshot wounds and a jump from her second-story balcony to escape the man trying to kill her.

Now, she's being evicted from her apartment.

Dorothea Thomas was attacked last Friday. She got out of the hospital on Tuesday. On Wednesday, she found a notice on her front door, ordering her to leave.

The former Marine and police officer was served with an eviction notice for, among other things, being too loud.

Thomas is outraged. In her words, "I was not doing the violence. I was the victim. I shouldn't be treated like the perpetrator."

Peggy Piche, district manager of United Dominion Residential Community, said the owners "truly regret the difficulty she has been through," but they feel "it is in the best interests of everyone involved that she no longer resides at our property."

According to The Daily News, the eviction notice said Thomas had violated her lease agreement because she was attacked on the apartment grounds. She has lived in the apartment since 1996.

"In this case the victim was attacked by someone with whom she had an ongoing relationship and had invited onto our property," Piche said in a press release. "While we empathize with her situation, her guest's actions were not only a breach of her lease, but more importantly, they endangered the lives of every other innocent person in the area."

The apartment manager reportedly told Thomas that she needs to pay her rent until she moves out in a few weeks, and that she could get out of her lease without losing her security deposit.

"She was talking to me like she was doing me a favor for not penalizing me for breaking the lease," Thomas told the Daily News. "I told her that I wasn't the one trying to break the lease."

Thomas was shot in the chest, right breast, right palm, right forearm, thigh and buttocks. Two bullets remain inside her. Her left foot was also broken when she jumped off the balcony.

An ex-boyfriend, Tyrone Burks, has been arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, felony speeding to elude arrest and speeding 115 mph in a 55-mph zone, according to the paper.

Thomas lives in the three-bedroom apartment with her 3-year-old son and 18-year-old niece.

Paul · 04-07-2005, 07:16

Linky
Absolutely rediculous

Kliro · 04-07-2005, 07:55

There is an argument to evict her.

The 'being too loud' does not appear to be connected to the shooting, but general loudness, it also said among other things, so I'm assuming she wasn't the model tenant.

Also you have to think of the bigger picture, the landlord is correct in saying that by letting that man into the premises she endangered the lives of all the people there, and if thats the kind of person she socialises with. s/he doesn't want it happening on thier property again.

Usually landlords don't just evict thier tenants for no reason.

allieyoung666 · 04-07-2005, 08:01

It is such a shame, but if you are not the model person and you are noisy, well I am sorry but you deserve to be chucked out of your appartment, I do feel sorry for her and she sounds like she has been through hell and back, but if you make noise you pay the price I am sad to say

Theodoric · 04-07-2005, 14:34

And I wish people wouldn't use words whose correct meaning they don't know.

Piche [the property's manager] said . . . "While we empathize with her [the victim's] situation"

Empathize? Possibly, but extremely unlikely. Now, if she'd said, "sympathize" . . .