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[Music] thank you [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] garage wherever you are whatever you are
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doing thanks for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always as a man that
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wants you to know that what he does with his pumpkin pie is nobody's business but
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his own here is the cat it's good to be seen and good to see you thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend
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[Music] foreign this week we are very thankful to be sipping on some BBA Jesus loves
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fall Bourbon Barrel aged pumpkin style from the brilliant Brewers at Holy Trinity Brewing where else but here in
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beautiful downtown Columbus Ohio this is the first Bourbon Barrel Age release from Holy Trinity brewing and it's a
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great example of a smooth drinking beer from start to finish featuring obvious notes of Oak and bourbon from fresh
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bourbon barrels from Watershed Distillery smooth they help to smooth out this already smooth coffee flavor
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that just leaves you enjoying a little hint of pumpkin garage grade 4 and a five bottle caps and here's to our
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friends that helped us out with this week's beer run first up a big thank you to Amber Stout and Spokane Washington
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and the big we like your jib to Sherry D and Maple Valley Washington and a big shout out and thank thank you to Heather
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all the way over in Sutherland Scotland everyone we just mentioned helped us out
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this week and if you would like to help out the show go to truecrimegarage.com and click on the Donate button or pick
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something up from our store Page yes sing it with me bwe Double R you win beer run
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and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true
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crime [Music] foreign [Music] we were all teenagers once we all remember being young Carefree
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having fun with our friends and doing stupid things that were pointless done just for the fun of it
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pranks that caused no harm but we're a nuisance an annoyance to others teenagers do these things to Buck
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against the rules to rebel against Authority to give the middle finger to the authority
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but they don't mean for anyone to get hurt but unfortunately sometimes people do get hurt
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sometimes pranks go wrong and property gets damaged or someone ends up injured most of the time
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the prankster feels guilty and likely learned a valuable lesson I'm sure we all have had moments when we
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remind ourselves man I still got a lot of growing up to do but in our story today
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a harmless Prank Went very wrong and it backfired a light-hearted teenager having fun with
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his friends was shot by an enraged victim of the prank a bright charismatic young man was
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senselessly killed for what his involvement in a stupid prank valuable lesson learned
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I think not this is true crime garage and this is a True Crime Story of the still
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unsolved homicide of Garrett Burton foreign [Music] Garrett Burton was a 16 year old Junior
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at Westland High School in Columbus Ohio his parents Patty and George were divorced at this time
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Garrett lived with his mom on the far west side he had two brothers his mom Patty was a
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first grade teacher at Highland Elementary Garrett's father George was a career Columbus Police Officer when this
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happened he retired in 2013 with 33 years of service at school Garrett participated in golf
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swimming basketball and bowling so as we can see this is a very active kid on top
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of sports and school Garrett held down a part-time job at Kroger's on West Broad
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Street this is a large grocery store where Garrett stayed busy stocking shelves and so on Garrett was
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universally described as nice polite and friendly after he was killed other kids
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reflected that he was always smiling kind and helpful he always sensed when someone was down and tried to boost
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their spirits to help them out there was not one whisper that Garrett was the type of kid that was going down
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the wrong path or a troubled youth that was not the case here Garrett had a loving family he had positive role
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models he had everything going for him quote he was a good boy growing up to be a good man said Patty Burton to 10 TV
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she admitted that Garrett's youthful exuberance and good nature meant that he sometimes was late for class and failed
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to complete his schoolwork but no one not friends teachers School administrators no one suggested that
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Garrett was anything other than a fun-loving mischievous teen Garrett's High School nickname was Winnie the Pooh
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yes he was the kind of kid that bought other kids a lunch or helped a teacher carry her things even though he was just
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16 Garrett was a big dude he was six foot one inches tall 240 pounds so he was the big teddy bear type his favorite
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cars were Mustangs and Hummers he loved rap music and was a big sports fan cheering on the Buckeyes Bengals calves
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and Spurs on Labor Day 2008 there was rumors that a student had been killed techs were flying among the students at
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Westland High School they were all saying that Garrett Burton was dead the students were reeling Garrett was a good
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kid popular and well liked throughout the school but everyone was hearing that he had been shot which really made no
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sense to his classmates Garrett wasn't in a gang he didn't fraternize with those who were he didn't do drugs and he
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certainly didn't sell them so everybody was wondering when could this be true and if so how could this be yeah and you
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don't get the nickname Winnie the Pooh unless you're a big teddy bear a gentle giant is how I picture Garrett now the
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kids were saying that Garrett had been involved in a prank that had gone horribly wrong
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now normally Captain when kids hear about others pranking people and things not going as planned they expect to hear
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that someone's property got damaged or maybe someone was injured possibly that the kids got caught by the police and
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had to pay for repairs or restitution the result usually when a prank goes wrong is that kids get
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grounded or they get community service yeah or they get caught by the schools so they get detentions or suspended no
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one expects to hear that the kid got killed police knocked on the door of Patty Burton and the wee hours of
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Saturday morning August 30th it was still dark outside the police asked for a photo of Patty's
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son Garrett then the officers had to tell Patty that the unthinkable had happened later Patty
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told 10TV quote they said you need to sit down I said sit down for what they said ma'am your son has been murdered
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end quote of course this horrible news is beyond belief Patty called the officers Liars saying
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she refused to believe them but sadly it was true then police went to the home of one of
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their own to notify fellow officer George Burton that his son had been murdered hundreds of people attended
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Garrett's funeral at Trinity United Methodist Church Garrett was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery and a marble bench
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was installed as a memorial there was a moment of silence observed in honor of Garrett at the next high
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school football game and the band dedicated their performance to him as well students were shocked and horrified many
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of them knew Garrett and his sudden death was very traumatizing to all of the kids to say the least yeah it's a
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situation that just doesn't make a lot of sense so let's dive into the timeline of the events as we know the timeline is
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so important to any of these investigations we're going to start off on the Friday which would be kicking off
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the Labor Day weekend on this Friday this is August 29th Patty Burton dropped her son Garrett off at
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school now she's unaware at this time that this would be the last time that she would see her son alive
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knowing her son was too old for public kisses she patted his arm told him to have a
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blessed day after school Garrett was picked up by an older kid the Burton Family said was a
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trusted friend the family didn't know what Garrett was up to that evening but they would tell
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10TV that his curfew was 11 30 pm and that the friend had promised to get Garrett home by that time
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now in full disclosure here Captain there is another article that says actually that Garrett had planned to
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stay overnight at the friend's house right but either way if Garrett was coming home or whether he's staying at a
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friend's house teenagers curfew in Columbus Ohio would be in the house by midnight so that was supposed to be the
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events for that evening but later Garrett's family found out that the friend took Garrett to a house party
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with other young adults that's how this group of peoples described other young adults people that were older than
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Garrett whom he likely did not know regardless of what went down or what was supposed to go down Garrett did not make
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it home that night this is going to lead us to 2 45 A.M on Saturday August 30th when a man named Romero
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he's opening up his door because he's woken up to police pounding on his front door
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he opens up the door police ask him hey have you heard any gunshots he says no the officers then leave they return
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about a half hour later they knock on the door again this time they're telling him don't go outside because there's a
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dead body in your backyard the police had been summoned to the scene by a 9-1-1 call from a young man
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who was with Garrett that night they said quote I have to report a murder the voices clearly panicked on 9-1-1 he
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was calling from the house where Garrett had been hanging out with the older teens so
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we got to break this down a little bit and give a little bit of reference here there was the house party
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where Garrett Burton is later shot and killed is not at that house party they had left that
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party and the party was somewhat nearby but one of the individuals that Garrett left with returned to that house to make
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the call to 9-1-1 to get officers in an ambulance to the scene seems funny to me
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that if he's out with a few other teenagers committing pranks that one of the individuals would have a cell phone
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on them and could have made a call from where they're making the pranks from if that makes any sense the first Clues
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police responding to the scene noted were eggshells on the road this is Hilliard Rome Road the cops learned that
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the boys had been throwing eggs at passing cars on Hilliard Rome Road it's been reported pretty consistently that
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Garrett was with a group of boys by some reports the group was Garrett and three
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young men who were in on the prank together Garrett from my understanding from the
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reports that we have seen Captain says that he is the only juvenile in the group so basically Garrett's
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hanging out with a couple older guys they decide to leave the party okay hey let's get some eggs and let's throw them
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at cars passing by on Hilliard Rome Road which is a pretty busy road it is pretty busy but again
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Columbus is the kind of city that as large as it is late at night you don't see a lot of
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traffic on some of these roads especially the ones that are out in the suburbs and this would have been the
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hour of these events to me are very much key and we're going to circle back to those in just a minute Garrett's body
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was removed by the coroner's office this at 8 30 a.m that morning by that point it's now broad daylight presumably
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police were searching the area for shell casings tire marks broken eggshells shoe
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prints and so on they would be trying to reenact what happened based on the statements of Garrett's friends about
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where they were standing where they found the eggshells they want to piece this whole scene together to get a
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better idea of what went down that night leading up to this murder now 10TV or wbns did quite a bit of reporting on
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this case and we are using them as one of our main sources for our information that we're delivering here today on this
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week's True Crime case their piece on the day after the shooting says Garrett Burton and some
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friends were throwing eggs at passing cars near Hilliard Rome Road when someone approached the group and shot
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Burton in the head killing him okay so that makes me think that the person that approached them is approaching these
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individuals on foot the scene itself and the way everything goes down is a little
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confusing because surprisingly to me Captain the police have been a little Hush Hush on what
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happened now I have some questions and concerns about that and we'll get into those as we go but the the location
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is also very key here right so Garrett was actually shot to death in the backyard of a home
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that is located in a neighborhood on a quiet cul-de-sac the address is 5402 Ripple Mead Road
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this is south of I-70 of Interstate 70. so this is technically I believe Galloway Ohio by this point right the
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home belongs to that Romero person uh who I'm only going to give out his first name as he likely does not live
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there this to this day and doesn't have much to offer in this case as far as information as we said he was sleeping
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at the time and said he didn't hear any gunshots so the home belongs to this Romero person
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he's the guy that was awakened by the police his backyard backs up to Hilliard Rome Road and it was separated from the
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roadway with a white fence and a line of evergreen trees picture this look where
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we have a wonderful audience the True Crime garage Army deputies whatever we're supposed to be calling them I I
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haven't been told lately what to call them but the wonderful people that that tune into our show the filthy animals
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they're great people they're sexy I don't believe that all of them have been Saints their entire life I'm sure
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somebody has thrown a a roll of toilet paper at some point or maybe has done something that they regret as as an
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adult but picture this this is kind of the perfect setup as the captain said this
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is a busy roadway it would be less busy at this time of night but if you were looking to egg some cars
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this is almost your perfect setup you have the fence you have the evergreen trees you can hide behind them of course
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if you're going to throw eggs at motorists which is dangerous for many many reasons it's a it's a stupid act
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but again he's 16. we've done we've all done a lot of stuff it's a stupid act but it's not terribly uncommon and it
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doesn't mean that he's a bad person but you can see the setup where this is a an ideal spot for this type of
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activity because you can hide you could launch your eggs at the cars that you see coming down the road and then you
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can duck and hide as they get close and then you probably you know you have the kids snickering and laughing and and
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really kind of just yucking it up as the cars go by if I was driving down the Hillyard Rome Road and I got hit
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buy a couple eggs I'd be a little pissed off but not that big of a deal drive your car through the car wash and it's
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not the biggest deal but I also want to point out for the younger listeners out there that this is dangerous because you
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could potentially the motorist could be shocked scared Disturbed enough to lose control of
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their vehicle and now we're talking about a whole different situation that nobody wants to be a part of so just it
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is it's a very dangerous a very dangerous thing to to surprisingly dangerous thing to be doing well and
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also the the difficult thing here is if you're hit with like a water balloon or something the water is going to wash off
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the car so if you get hit let's say on the windshield not so with a egg that egg smear and
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basically blind their vision for a minute so that's another reason why this is also dangerous so this spot as I said
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to me sounds like an ideal location for this type of activity the house party that Garrett and The Trusted older
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friend were at this was a cross Hilliard Rome Road a couple of hundred feet away
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so up the road the address was 300 Smith Road so this is in within walking distance but just to be clear here
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The Party location and where the eggs were being thrown from two different locations within walking distance a
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couple of hundred feet away right it appears that the boys had crossed Hilliard Rome Road and hidden themselves
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among this tree line bordering the fence selecting that area because again it's ideal vantage point for egg throwing
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there was also a wide open area behind a neighborhood of homes so there was plenty of space for the boys to make use
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of so it seems the boys were standing in this open space near this man's home probably hiding behind the trees
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watching for headlights to come down the road and then hurling eggs at the vehicles in the dark the drivers would
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almost certainly not see the projectiles launched at their cars until they are hit yeah I agree with you that this is a
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a convenient spot to throw eggs but it's also possible that they weren't hiding in the tree line and then they're closer
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to the road and so that the people driving by might have actually seen these individuals throw the eggs well
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and as we said this was all reported by Word of Mouth to his classmates and friends that
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Garrett was killed in a prank that went horribly wrong all right we're gonna we're gonna have to lead up to that
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because look all across America throwing eggs at houses and cars kids do this and they don't end up dead but I I
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do want to point out I read a disturbing article that that unfortunately it's not so terribly uncommon for
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someone to end up getting killed in this type of situation and that's why we want
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to point out how dangerous this type of activity actually can be well but the thing about
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this when you're a kid and and we we both did this you know you'd sneak outside your house with a couple of your
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buddies and maybe it was just to roam the streets well if you're roaming a neighborhood
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and let's say you you decide to play ding dong ditch you know where you ring the doorbell and take off running
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you could startle somebody and they're on their property they're at their house this is happening and the wee hours of
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the morning where people are going to be on higher alert you know what I mean so
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just doing any of these pranks or you know the common prank where they take a a bag of dog [ __ ] and light it on fire
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and put it on you know and ring the doorbell what but what you're doing because of
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the wee hours of the morning you're putting yourself in a dangerous situation well and I think anytime we
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talk about property damage too you're putting yourself in a dangerous situation you don't know how the
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person's going to react the article I read and I'll reference it earlier or I'll reference it later it's in my notes
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here and I'll find that so that people can go and find it and read it for themselves but the article basically
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states that here's a here's a handful of cases where an egging situation went horribly wrong where either the a
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motorist loss control these are aren't all situations of throwing eggs at cars most of them are but the motorists lost
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control and had an accident and died in the vehicle or the person who got egged reacted very violently and killed the
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person who was egging them or a scuffle broke out between the two and the person
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that was throwing the eggs killed the person they were throwing them at there's also a situation where one
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person started chasing the person that was throwing eggs in their vehicle and that ended up in a vehicular deaths this
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is is dangerous stuff you know you don't when you go and decide to do something that nobody likes to somebody
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the reaction you don't know what you're getting it's you're spinning the wheel of what could this reaction be and
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you're playing a a bit of a dangerous game yeah and and let's go back to the idea that Garrett's a good kid he has
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good parents he's involved in a lot of activities and sometimes or in this case Garrett made a bad decision by by
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getting involved with this prank but that doesn't mean that he deserve to die oh clearly not clearly not now
00:25:06
Garrett's parents stated that they were told by police based on statements from the other kids that were with Garrett
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that the shooter first scolded Garrett and then shot him in the head 10TV quoted George Burton as saying about the
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shooter quote he said get your hands up or I'm going to blow your face in Garrett put his hands up and said okay
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and barely got out a third okay and the guy just pulled the trigger end quote this information came from an eyewitness
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as we said the witness was one of Garrett's friends who was according to this article about 20 feet away from
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Garrett when he was shot but unfortunately this friend did not get a good look at the shooter and then we get
00:25:54
some more details in 2019 again a piece from 10TV that said police say Garrett was with friends and throwing eggs at
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passing cars near Hilliard Rome Road when someone reportedly mad about the prank approached the group with a gun
00:26:10
Patty Garrett's mother says what happened next is a first-hand account from one of Garrett's friends who was
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hiding behind a tree about 10 feet away and he said to me he saw Garrett put his
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hands up and say I did not throw any eggs at your car but he said I can help you wash it off Patty goes on to say the
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person persisted and demanded Garrett who was six foot one inches tall 240 pounds get down Garrett because of his
00:26:39
size was having a hard time trying to get down on one knee and the shooter put the gun right on Garrett's neck
00:26:47
the dispatch reported that Garrett's father George did not know the other youths his son was reportedly with that
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night and he did not know anything about egg throwing activities in the past it wasn't like this was a regular thing
00:27:02
for Garrett he implied but somehow Garrett had ended up paying for it with his life quote it was basically an
00:27:11
execution as far as I'm concerned end quote this is what George told the dispatch
00:27:19
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stores head over and shop today thank you all right we are back cheers mates cheers to you Colonel cheers to you as
00:29:31
well Captain so we can see how this plays out right the boys are hiding behind some trees it's very dark outside
00:29:40
at that time it's nearly three in the morning there was no moon that night question
00:29:46
for you because I I don't see it reported anywhere but do we know how many people were out with Garrett the
00:29:55
reports state that it was a total of four three people plus care so it's very possible that Garrett isn't even
00:30:01
responsible for hitting this murderer's car correct and we have that statement from earlier where one of the boys
00:30:09
reported that he heard Garrett tell the person I did not throw eggs at your car but I'll help you wash it off
00:30:18
the the problem here with some of these statements by the people that are with Garrett is I think that once they were
00:30:25
aware that somebody else was there they might have all been quite frightened and
00:30:31
again we have the statement two different statements one where we have uh another individual that's 20 feet
00:30:38
away and then another statement that says there was an individual 10 feet away neither of them are able to describe the
00:30:47
shooter or or as it's believed neither of them got a good look at the shooter yeah it doesn't seem like anybody has a
00:30:56
good eyewitness report of the vehicle either exactly and so that's the problem here with this case if the police have
00:31:04
this information and they're holding it back I don't know what the hell they're doing here because this is the kind of
00:31:10
case that you're going to need the help from the public and now this was 2008 when Garrett Burton was killed it's 2022
00:31:17
today right and if they have additional information this should have been released throughout that period of time
00:31:25
to lead to who this killer was we need to keep in mind regardless of some kids throwing eggs or whatever
00:31:32
that night this person walked up in In Cold Blood shot a 16 year old right in the head
00:31:41
this is a very dangerous individual even though they may have been victimized leading up to this and again we don't
00:31:51
even know if this person's car was was actually hit like I said it is it possible that these
00:31:58
kids were were doing something and uh they throw something and so he sees that the guy sees that they're throwing
00:32:04
something but his car is not hit himself and he just gets out and then decides to
00:32:09
take the law in his own hands or is it possible that he was one of the neighbors and saw these kids doing that
00:32:16
and then you know went around the corner to see what was going on and and then lost control or something I I I I don't
00:32:24
know it's just seem so ridiculous well and you're going to see where the possibilities of
00:32:31
who our suspect is opens up and gets a little more difficult as we go through this information because as you said you
00:32:40
can see a situation where these kids are hiding in the dark hiding behind trees in a fence and they are not spotted by
00:32:49
any drivers but it looks like in this case at least one of the drivers may have seen them stopped and pulled over
00:32:57
or stopped and pulled over and figured out where the eggs were coming from it's not clear though based off of the
00:33:05
information and the reports that we've seen if the kids if the boys had any idea
00:33:10
that there was someone coming after them right because we don't have in within those
00:33:16
statements there's nobody saying oh we saw this guy approach us or we saw some guy Park his car
00:33:24
and here here's what kind of car it was and we started to flee it doesn't sound like anybody was in the in in flea mode
00:33:32
at that point it sounds to me like they were all still kind of standing around or do we have a situation where yes they
00:33:39
spotted this guy in route to them and they decided to hide and be quiet right and I wish the reporting was
00:33:49
better but also I still think it's a possibility that if these individuals are 10 feet away 20 feet maybe even
00:33:57
further away from each other and they're hiding on this tree line that backs up to properties is it possible that
00:34:06
somebody that lived in those properties comes out because they hear some Ruckus and here's some people talking I mean if
00:34:14
I'm in my house and I start hearing some people talking at three o'clock in the morning outside of my house and they
00:34:22
sound like they're coming from my backyard I'm going to go and check that out you know what I mean and so is it
00:34:29
possible that it was one of these neighbors that went to check out to see what was going on
00:34:34
and and then this uh horrible tragedy happens not only that think about this too if you look at the lay of the land
00:34:42
here and you look at a road map with Hilliard Rome Road and where this neighborhood is that backs up to
00:34:49
Hilliard Rome Road keep in mind the time of night yes this is a busy road but at 2 33 in
00:34:57
the morning I would argue that the overwhelming majority of people traveling on that road are traveling on
00:35:04
that road to get to their destination they're not just out driving around right they're not out looking to go pick
00:35:11
up some fast food the probability of the person traveling on Hilliard Rome Road in that direction
00:35:18
at that time of night and them living in that neighborhood that backs up to Hilliard Rome Road I would think that
00:35:25
probability would be fairly high right and so you may have a double whammy situation where it's not just a driver
00:35:32
on Hilliard Rome Road but it's also somebody that was driving to that neighborhood anyway yeah and like you
00:35:40
said their cars hit with an egg they drive back to their house they're in their driveway
00:35:48
then they hear some kids talking behind their house and they go oh I'm going to go inside
00:35:54
and get my gun and teach these kids a lesson well you nailed it and of course we have Garrett's parents who are grief
00:36:01
stricken as any parents would be but they also Express the sense of disbelief that any logical person
00:36:09
would have such an incredible overreaction to the situation and Garrett's father
00:36:17
George said to the media quote it was a dumb juvenile prank you get your car wash don't kill my kid
00:36:24
right we have Garrett's mother Patty she's saying something very similar that you were saying here Captain she told
00:36:32
10TV quote it wasn't something they should have done talking about her son and the boys but they certainly did not
00:36:39
deserve to be shot in the head over some eggs this is a sick person and quote she
00:36:45
goes on to say if I could just reverse this I would much rather go downtown and take my son out of jail yeah and this
00:36:53
person easily could have just walked away and I guarantee you old Winnie the Pooh Garrett
00:37:03
it shows you what kind of kid he is hey I one I didn't throw the egg at your car
00:37:08
I'm I you know I'm sorry uh but but I'll wash your car I'll help make this right
00:37:16
for a kid to say that and you have to look straight at that kid and pull a trigger
00:37:23
and take that kid's life there's something really wrong with you I think Gunner no gun I think the
00:37:32
appropriate response is okay kid which house is yours because we're knocking on your door and telling
00:37:40
Mom and Dad right what you and your buddies have been out doing I think that's the appropriate response but
00:37:46
again or I'm going to call the cops yes when you're and you can do some community service but again when you do
00:37:54
these types of things when you are they are you know let's not sugarcoat it too much they are victimizing random
00:38:03
people and when you do that you do not know nobody can calculate what the reaction will be
00:38:10
and speaking of what we don't know there is a lot that we don't know about this case most things in fact for example the
00:38:17
police have never released the following information where Garrett went and what he was doing
00:38:23
in the approximately 10 hours or 11 hours between the end of school that day and when he was found shot
00:38:29
we don't know the range at which Garrett was shot other than we had the statement
00:38:35
of that the gun one of the boys believes that he saw the shooter put the gun right to
00:38:42
Garrett's neck whether more one shot was fire we don't know if the bullet was recovered it could have been recovered
00:38:50
from Garrett or elsewhere at the scene right whether shell whether shell casings were found
00:38:57
and we also don't know whether Garrett died instantly or was he able to say anything
00:39:04
we know he died at the scene but was he able to say anything to one of his friends or to a first responder or what
00:39:12
were the actions of his of the guys he was with because it's hard to say that these guys
00:39:19
were even friends with them because we have no report of this vehicle and I know that they're probably in a huge
00:39:26
State of shock but that would be my first thing oh my God they just killed my buddy
00:39:31
for us doing this stupid prank and what's his vehicle what's the license plate what does this guy look like well and I
00:39:42
don't want to come down too hard on Columbus Police Department because I do believe that they do as a whole they do
00:39:47
a great job they keep us safe Captain so we can't be too strict with them but this to me I'm a little disappointed
00:39:57
because this to me looks like a solvable case or at least it would have been in 2008 all of these years later I don't
00:40:05
have a lot of confidence that this case is getting solved but in 2008 2009 I would have had a lot of confidence that
00:40:13
this case would have been solved but again we should throw out the reminder and remind ourselves as well that
00:40:21
the egg throwing portion of this story is totally random right they are tossing eggs at random passerbys right and then
00:40:32
the person that shot Garrett is a little random itself so you throw in all of those variables and the
00:40:40
randomness of those variables and you can see how complicated you can see how complicated and convoluted this case
00:40:47
gets from Jump Street yeah but let's let's go back to the road for a second this Hilliard Rome Road okay even if
00:40:57
Garrett's and you can call them buddies or whatever you want to call them I don't think their buddies not not
00:41:03
because they didn't do any it seems to me that they did nothing to figure out who shot their buddy but there's not a
00:41:09
lot of cars on this road so you'd think if they put this out blasted it all over
00:41:15
the news hey this kid was shot for throwing eggs we believe that the person that killed
00:41:21
him the murderer had their car parked on Hilliard Rome Road during this time so during that time
00:41:31
there would have had to be a handful of cars that passed that vehicle parked on the side of the road probably with their
00:41:39
lights on who knows right and so to see this car you know at almost 3 A.M parked
00:41:46
on the side of the road you're going to have cars you know passing them on northbound or southbound you know I mean
00:41:52
so you're going to have some other person that could come forward and say well I saw this type of vehicle parked
00:41:59
on the side of the road because at least if you have that that starts narrowing it down a little bit I get it I actually
00:42:07
I wish there was more information by the three dudes that were with him that night but I I kind of get it I see it
00:42:14
playing out like when we say when the papers say this was a party a house party that was full of young people that
00:42:22
that's that's the words that they chose to use and they're TR they're purposely being vague the media and police on some
00:42:29
of this because we are talking about a child victim essentially with a 16 year old Garrett Burton being the one who's
00:42:36
killed right and the report in the paper is that he was the only juvenile out of
00:42:42
that group of four but what I'm guessing here and inference I'm choosing to make
00:42:47
is that those other three dudes are like likely 18 maybe 19 at most and I can picture the situation as if I were there
00:42:56
myself I think these other dudes they're hiding and they either hear this person
00:43:01
approaching them or at the very least they're going to hear the person scalding Garrett right we know that from witness
00:43:09
statements and then they hear the gun go off again we don't know how many shots were fired but
00:43:14
I'm picturing a situation where these other three dudes are hiding in the trees or hiding nearby and they're
00:43:20
probably [ __ ] bricks they are probably [ __ ] bricks and so but you bring up some really good
00:43:28
questions here and again this is things that I think look Delphi is a case that's on everybody's mind
00:43:37
right now and has been for five and a half years and we all have looked at that case and looked at many other cases
00:43:44
and questioned how much of a strategic Advantage is it to not release information and when is
00:43:52
it a strategic advantage to release certain information and in this case in Garrett Burton's
00:43:57
case we don't know very much you know again we don't know these were all be things that would help the public
00:44:05
help the police we don't know did the car stop do we know for certain that a vehicle stopped
00:44:10
because as you pointed out it seems to me like somebody would have an idea if a vehicle stopped
00:44:16
is it possible that it was a neighbor who saw the boys and what they were up to so if you don't see a car no one see
00:44:22
a car or or says hey we don't know where this guy came from there's a chance he may have come from the neighborhood can
00:44:29
you tell us what the eyewitnesses claim that the shooter said well that's very interesting because we have two
00:44:36
different reports and again we have three guys there so maybe that is the reason for having different eyewitness
00:44:42
reports but what makes it to the paper is one where the individual says I was standing about 20 feet away I heard the
00:44:52
shooter scold him and it sounds like Garrett was trying to reason with this person and then he shoots Garrett right
00:45:02
and then the other statement is that Garrett again trying to reason with the person but the shooter is ordering him
00:45:11
to get down on the ground and based off of the statement it sounds like the witness was one close enough
00:45:18
and could see Garrett attempting to get down on one knee or getting down on 1D but he's not getting down fast enough
00:45:25
for the shooter and then the shooter reacts puts the gun closer to Garrett and pulls the trigger the other thing
00:45:31
too there is a possibility some of these guns have a hair trigger and it may have
00:45:37
just gone off on the person I tend to believe that that's not a high probability in this case but it is
00:45:46
certainly somewhat of of a possibility but it goes beyond seeing a car park or not right they would know what kind of
00:45:54
gun he was shot with right so that's information that could help the public two yeah maybe you didn't get a good
00:46:01
look at the shooter but did you get a good look at anything he was wearing was he wearing dark clothing light clothing
00:46:07
did he appear to be tall or short we know that they heard the person's voice because the Witnesses are describing or
00:46:15
trying to relay almost Verbatim what they believed they heard the shooter say what did the the guy's voice sound like
00:46:23
right because if you you start there and go was it male or female oh it was male
00:46:28
okay was he was he black was he White could you tell right and again did a car park because I
00:46:39
could like I said I could see a situation where you hear these kids laughing and and making noise and all
00:46:45
this stuff it's 3 A.M and and the guy comes out and and again very irresponsible because there is a big
00:46:53
possibility that this guy comes out and just says you guys are throwing eggs at cars do you think that's funny you know
00:47:00
what I mean and because like you said hair Trigger or whatever but there is a possibility because of
00:47:09
Garrett's size that this individual goes out he gets his gun he he's he's nervous
00:47:16
and then he accidentally pulls the trigger you know what I mean because he because he put him himself in the
00:47:23
situation he shouldn't have been in if you are approaching a six foot one 240 pound individual in the dark that you do
00:47:32
not know I think you're going to be nervous gun or no gun so that's certainly a possibility here and the other thing too
00:47:40
with his voice did he have a high voice did he have a low voice did he sound like he was out of breath you know
00:47:46
there's a lot of things that we could we could learn or be told by police and possibly help out back in the day here's
00:47:55
another idea I wonder did they track Garrett's phone according to his parents he had a cell
00:48:01
phone and he had his phone on him did they did they retrace his movements that afternoon that evening leading up to the
00:48:10
shooting and maybe that's of no useful information at all but it's something that I'm wondering if they did here's
00:48:18
the big thing did they look at surveillance footage from nearby homes and businesses yes
00:48:25
it's 2008 so you don't have as many ring doorbell cams or Simply Safe cameras on
00:48:31
people's homes but we have businesses in that general area we also have traffic cameras in that area on Hilliard Rome
00:48:41
Road 100 2008 they would have had traffic cameras right this is a major thoroughfare with
00:48:49
commercial businesses most of which of those businesses would have cameras so Columbus
00:48:55
as what's reported on the national scale Columbus has more cameras than most American cities
00:49:01
I would wager that surely police pulled the footage and wrote down every car that they saw on Hilliard Rome Road that
00:49:08
night between the hours of two and three A.M did they look for tire tracks to try to
00:49:15
identify the shooter's vehicle or where it possibly pulled over well and also you have to deal with the fact that
00:49:22
these people that he was with his quote-unquote buddies are they telling us the truth did they go out to throw
00:49:31
exit cards and then did it escalate where they throw in branches at cars were they throwing rocks at cars did
00:49:39
they do something that escalated this situation even further I mean who knows it's very suspicious to me that your
00:49:48
friend is shot you have kids that probably have cell phones and there's no call that's made at the scene of the
00:49:56
crime you should be calling 9-1-1 right from there but they go back to the original location to make the phone call
00:50:03
to police well and police seem to possibly be working with the theory that maybe the shooter was someone holding a
00:50:13
grudge from a previous incident so this is from the Chillicothe Gazette in an article dated September 25th 2008
00:50:21
so not terribly long after the shooting it says the group of teenagers may have thrown eggs at cars prior to that night
00:50:29
that Burton was killed investigators think it is possible that someone that teens hit with eggs may have come back
00:50:36
and shocked Burton this is because it was reported that other residents who lived nearby said
00:50:44
eggshells were found along the road earlier in the week as well now we're not saying that Garrett was a part of
00:50:52
these other possible situations yeah but it's possible that his buddies that he was with
00:51:00
they did this a week before and then they said hey let's go out let's go out and do this again Garrett just happened
00:51:06
to be with them and you know what when we talk about a house party with young adults or young people there
00:51:14
you might have a situation where Mom and Dad go away for a whole week or longer they leave their 18 year old 19 year old
00:51:24
son or daughter at home who has a party or has friends over regularly during that time period that the parents are
00:51:31
gone and maybe this is an activity that they had done once before leading up to this or twice before leading up to this
00:51:38
and maybe you had somebody who was driving around hoping to be hit one more time because this was
00:51:46
you know a vigilante type of person who was going to take justice and take the law into their own hands almost a
00:51:55
I like in this case to that of a road rage situation [Music] you know where somebody loses their mind
00:52:05
goes off the rails and does something so terribly overboard and out of bounds in reaction to something that happened
00:52:14
to them right I think that's one of the problems with even solve in this case is it could be really a very normal guy
00:52:24
that was just a little pissed off a little nervous shouldn't have brought a gun into that situation
00:52:32
and made a horrible mistake here's where I think the public can still help here Captain because this
00:52:39
this is what I'm gleaning from this situation if the if the gun accidentally goes off
00:52:46
or the the shooter was terrified scared shaken in his boots shaking in his Nikes
00:52:52
and accidentally pulls the trigger I feel like we have a situation where this guy is turning he's he's learning
00:52:59
the next day or two oh my God I killed a 16 year old and maybe he's turning himself in or or getting a lawyer and
00:53:08
going to police and saying hey I was that guy that night because again I think Garrett's parents
00:53:16
are absolutely spot on with their evaluation of the shooter this is not a normal person a normal person even with
00:53:23
this overreaction would have come forward they they the guilt would kill them the guilt would kill them they would not
00:53:31
be able to sleep at night they would slowly go crazy and have to relieve themselves of that
00:53:37
pain and that Misery by turning themselves in what I think we might have here is
00:53:43
somebody that is the opposite of that and if they were seeking out some type of vigilante type Justice or if this was
00:53:51
a one-off road rage type situation I would believe that you have a guy that would be
00:53:59
almost bragging on on rare occasion but bragging to somebody that says oh he this would be the type of guy that that
00:54:08
when you're discussing different situations or you see something on TV or hear something in the news this is the
00:54:13
type of guy that says not me if that happened to me oh I teach those boys a lesson oh I'd straighten that kid
00:54:22
out or I'd straighten that guy out you know what I do with him I stick my gun right in his face you know I think that
00:54:29
that's the type of individual that we might be dealing with here and if people know somebody like that or this there's
00:54:37
a chance that somebody could have told a story that is vaguely familiar to this story oh you know what
00:54:43
happened to me one night I was driving home minding my own business and these this gang of kids gang of of dudes
00:54:51
started effing with me oh I straighten those guys out I got out of the car I went up and I found one of them right
00:54:58
you know it's I think that this person may have told somebody I think that there's also
00:55:04
a certain probability that this individual may have lived in that neighborhood and if that person if the
00:55:11
shooter did live in that neighborhood then there's a chance that they were hit previously that week if there were other
00:55:19
egg throwing incidents that were going on yeah if I'm law enforcement my first thing is do I
00:55:26
believe the individuals that were with Garrett because their actions afterwards to me seem suspicious so I want to know
00:55:34
their actions beforehand and afterwards and do I believe them but here in Columbus in December of 2006 we had a
00:55:41
similar incident where a young boy 14 years old Danny Crawford he and two of his buddies they were out
00:55:51
egging cars on West Broad Street this in the hilltop area of Columbus they splattered This SUV with a couple
00:56:01
of eggs and it wasn't a situation where the vehicle's owner flipped them off or hit
00:56:07
the horn and drove on no this person instead pulled behind North Terrace Avenue and chased the kids
00:56:17
and opened fire on the teens and Danny in that group of three was shot and killed and it took
00:56:26
till February of 2010. when they finally arrested an individual that lived on East 11th Avenue in South
00:56:36
Linden which is also part of Columbus the shooter at the time was just 19 years old
00:56:44
and so that's just another situation now these two situations are not related in any way at all they happen in the
00:56:54
same city a couple years apart but this is another situation to show you that this is not
00:57:02
completely out of the realm of possibility when this type of behavior is is going on
00:57:09
yeah and again just to reiterate this Gary was a good kid yes but he made a mistake and and his parents say that too
00:57:19
but again have him arrested or you know have his parents come pick him up I mean and the thing that really
00:57:33
bothers me is like if it's a true statement hey I'll even wash your car this kid is showing
00:57:42
remorse for something that maybe he he didn't even do that actual you know I mean he didn't throw that actual egg but
00:57:49
he's he still knows that hey I'm in a bad situation or doing a bad thing and he's showing remorse right away
00:57:59
and it's just it's such a it's such a loss because this kid was 16 years old and um you know and his mother
00:58:11
was a teacher and his father was a a police officer look he he might have grown up to become one of the finest
00:58:17
police officers on on CPD Force you know but we'll never know what he would have
00:58:24
become because he he made a bad decision that night and then this person took the
00:58:31
law into their own hands and that's not okay Garrett's case stalled and in 2010 the family pled for any information to
00:58:40
be called into Crime Stoppers they reminded the public that tips can be anonymous there is no call tracing or
00:58:46
caller ID no names need to be given and computer IP addresses are not visible to
00:58:53
those taking the tips and then let's fast forward another year in 2011 three years after the shooting Central
00:59:02
Ohio Crime Stoppers announced that they were renewing a two thousand dollar reward for information in the case
00:59:09
this is interesting though to me here captain this renewed reward was available only
00:59:16
until September 10th of that year which I I don't know if that was a Crime Stoppers thing or if
00:59:23
that was a strategic thing because this is in August late August of 2011 and they make an announcement this this
00:59:31
reward money is still available we're renewing this reward money but it's only available for
00:59:38
basically 10 11 days so I don't know if they were hoping to really get a push for information or if
00:59:45
that was something significant to their investigation that time frame right there one thing of note in my opinion in
00:59:52
the Crime Stoppers write-up is the following language it says quote on Saturday August 30th 2008 at
01:00:01
approximately 3 A.M several teens were throwing eggs at Vehicles driving on Hilliard Rome Road north of West Broad
01:00:09
Street sixteen-year-old Garrett Burton was one of the teens as a result of one vehicle being struck
01:00:17
a yet unidentified male suspect pursued and shot Garrett sixteen-year-old Garrett died at the scene
01:00:24
so that language is interesting to me because it sounds like there's confirmation that the shooter was in a
01:00:33
vehicle that was hit by one or all of the teens now they could just be making leaps right of their own based off of
01:00:41
what they believe the interaction was between Garrett and the shooter but the interaction is Garrett saying I
01:00:48
did not hit your car so it's all very confusing I again I think this language to me indicates that indeed police have
01:00:56
information possibly from well presumably it'd have to be from Garrett's companions the ones that were
01:01:01
with him that night that one of them did hit this person's car and the shooting was a direct result of that event this
01:01:09
would definitely be a difficult case to investigate but if they know the make and model of this vehicle police should
01:01:16
release that information exactly and the thing is too if if this vehicle was hit
01:01:22
by an egg this would set up a likely situation that one of the survivors that was with Garrett that night could have
01:01:31
possibly if even if they didn't get a good look at the shooter did they get a good look at the gun did
01:01:37
they get a good look at the vehicle it well that goes back to my theory that if you're law enforcement you have to
01:01:43
figure out if you believe these guys are not are they changing the story to benefit themselves was it an SUV was it
01:01:51
a sedan was it a pickup truck I mean there the questions are endless here to trying to lead us to get some more
01:01:59
information about who is responsible for this now I know that everybody's different but one thing that me and a
01:02:05
couple of my buddies we kind of prided ourselves on when we were teenagers and even in our early 20s was the ability to
01:02:14
identify a vehicle make and model in year roughly year based off of a vehicle's headlights
01:02:21
uh because they have specific types of headlights and that was something that we were able
01:02:28
to do at a probably a 90 to 95 success rate so it's one of those situations where
01:02:34
you just go we need more information the public needs more information to see if we can
01:02:39
help here in this situation help Garrett's parents out help solve this case and any information would be good
01:02:47
information makes me sad for the city of Columbus because this is a case that should have never went away from the
01:02:55
public Spotlight this is a case that we should have been outraged about a 16 year old kid being
01:03:02
executed it's just it's it's very sad and as I had referenced earlier there's plenty of
01:03:11
history of pranks like the one Garrett and his buddies were engaged in going bad going horribly wrong specifically
01:03:18
egg throwing has resulted in some serious payback the lethal kind the article that I cited earlier Captain was
01:03:25
from a New York Times article in 2010 it states Halloween agings have left a violent Legacy in New York City since
01:03:36
1984 at least 24 people have been seriously wounded or killed in stabbings shootings beatings or accidents sparked
01:03:46
by egg throwing confrontations around the Halloween holiday all 24 cases played out in roughly the same way a
01:03:54
group of boys hurled eggs at pedestrians cars or houses the targets confronted the
01:04:01
throwers and then violence erupted and it goes on to site 24 such examples of this in this 2010 New York Times article
01:04:14
what articles like these tell us is it sadly fatalities directly resulting from egg throwing
01:04:22
are much more common than one would think these incidents highlight the total lack of regard for human life and
01:04:30
total loss of perspective similar to road rage that can escalate from mundane teenage pranks
01:04:38
Garrett Burton may just be another casualty of a bad egg throwing decision but his life mattered and he in no way
01:04:46
deserve to be snuffed out just because someone's paint job was tarnished across marks the spot
01:04:54
where Garrett was shot it's a reminder to passerbys of the senseless murder of a young man filled
01:05:01
with promise hopefully it also serves as a reminder to his killer that his evil actions destroyed a young
01:05:09
life and hopefully his killer is a haunted man foreign [Music] thank you guys so much for joining us
01:05:33
here in the garage Colonel do we have any recommended reading for the beautiful listeners
01:05:38
we'll give you some recommended listening this week we are recommending solving the Black Dahlia available on
01:05:45
Audible this is a case that has fascinated the captain and I for many many years and the solving the Black
01:05:52
Dahlia from audible was the shot in the arm that I needed to restore my Fascination in this case and regardless
01:06:00
if you have Audible or not you should check out my interview with Douglas laux on our other show off the Record
01:06:06
available on Stitcher premium Douglas not only narrates solving the Black Dahlia but spent years conducting his
01:06:14
own investigation which is a breakthrough as Douglas is a former case officer with the CIA check out solving
01:06:22
the Black Dahlia only on Audible and check out our interview with Douglas louks on off the record this week you
01:06:30
can find that title and many more on our recommended page at truecrime garage.com
01:06:35
until next week be good be kind and don't litter [Music] [Applause] [Music]