Ronald Westbrook had been an accomplished military commander. The retired lieutenant colonel with the Air National Guard in Chattanooga taught many to fly. When he retired, his son said, friends came from across the globe to for a proper send-off.
But for the past four years he’d battled an aggressive form of Alzheimer’s disease that robbed him of such assurance and ultimately led to tragedy.
Early Wednesday morning, Westbrook found himself in the crosshairs of a .40-caliber handgun 3 miles from home in a stranger’s backyard in northwest Georgia’s Walker County. Joe Hendrix, 34, told investigators he gave Westbrook several verbal commands, but Westbrook “continued walking toward him after he told him to stop,” Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson said.
“He was lost,” the Alzheimer patient’s son, Allen Westbrook, 50, said Friday.
Hendrix, fearing Westbrook was a prowler, began firing, according to authorities.
The fourth bullet, which entered Westbrook’s chest, proved fatal, Wilson said.
Hendrix has not been charged with any crime but the investigation continues, authorities said. No one was at his home Friday and attempts to contact Hendrix were unsuccessful.
For nearly four hours the elder Westbrook had wandered down moonlit streets, leaving the home he shared with his wife, a retired nurse, wearing only a light jacket and a straw hat in below-freezing weather, his Rottweiler Anna by his side.
Along the way he stopped at a home he once lived in on Marbletop Road, retrieving letters from the mailbox. A sheriff’s deputy stopped and questioned him at about 2:30 a.m., but Westbrook convinced him he lived just up the hill, Wilson said.
Just before 4 a.m., Westbrook knocked on Hendrix’s door on Cottage Crest Court. Wilson speculated he was drawn by a solitary porch light on a secluded cul-de-sac.
Hendrix’s fiancee, whose name has not been released by investigators, called 911 to report a prowler.
It would be nearly 10 minutes before deputies arrived. Hendrix, who had moved in just two weeks earlier, told investigators he saw only a silhouette.
“There’s no doubt in our mind that Mr. Hendrix and his fiancee felt threatened,” the sheriff said.
An autopsy is scheduled for Saturday at the GBI lab in Atlanta. GBI spokeswoman Sherry Lang told the Associated Press that agents helped process the scene and are conducting interviews.
The Rainbow Push Coalition, which recently filed a federal lawsuit to strike down Georgia’s stand-your-ground law, said it is investigating the shooting. Twenty-one other states have similar statutes, which allow a person to use force if they believe they are being threatened physically. The statute differs from traditional self-defense laws, which require retreat if a violent response can be avoided.
Robert Patillo, an attorney with Rainbow Push, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday he plans to contact Westbrook’s family next week to see whether they are interested in joining two other Georgia families as plaintiffs in the suit.
Even though he appeared not to have broken the law, Wilson said Hendrix should’ve waited for deputies to arrive.
“I believe that he should have stayed inside the home,” the sheriff said.
Westbrook, who also worked as an engineer with the Tennessee Valley Authority, is remembered as a soft-spoken man who “instilled in you a feeling that you could do anything,” said Allen Westbrook, who lives in Illinois.
Neighbor Carolyn Potter, who knew the family for 36 years, called Westbrook “a hard worker.” The ravages of Alzheimer’s didn’t stop him from frequent walks with his dog, she said.
“If (Hendrix) would have just given him a chance,” Potter said. But she added that she also felt bad for Hendrix since homeowners are frequently on edge these days because of news reports of home invasions.
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