Published: December 28, 2007 11:07 am            

Young athlete killed, couple taken hostage — top early stories in 2007

The following is the first in a four-part series reviewing the top stories covered by the Weatherford Democrat in 2007.



A new year brings about fresh beginnings and resolutions with each turn to a fresh calendar page.

January 2007 was no different.

However, some of the year’s top stories happened in January, and sadly, had more to do with endings than beginnings.

Weatherford High School student and standout athlete Willie “BB” Fielder was killed in a car crash Jan. 8. His death and the ensuing police investigation into the accident were headlines for months.

Also in January, Shots were fired when area firefighters answered a call near Millsap; a Springtown couple was held hostage in a bizarre bank robbery attempt; and experts correctly predicted an end to the years-long drought which had plagued North Texas.

The rest of the year’s first quarter saw many other stories emerge from Parker County.

A Springtown man was arrested in February for attempting to rob First Bank there; Weatherford police veteran Tommy Taylor was accused of misrepresenting his military career; a March 12 gas line explosion near Lake Weatherford left residents shaken, but unhurt; and a local businessman was claimed to have defrauded at least two investors in his mortgage company and attracted the attention of the FBI.

Fielder died Jan. 10 in John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth after a car crash two days earlier.

The accident was caused when two cars raced from the stop light at South Main and Bethel Road through an area which funnels traffic from two lanes to one. The drivers, each attempting to reach the narrow spot first, collided. One spun and slammed into Fielder’s car.

The 17-year-old student’s impact on local lives became evident immediately following the wreck as students began collecting donations for medical bills, churches began prayer chains, and other organizations mobilized to recognize him and his work locally.

His January funeral attracted an overflow crowd estimated at almost 2,000 to services at North Side Baptist Church.

Fielder’s story was revisited several times during the year, including once when a proposed street was named after the young athlete and once, during the Aledo-Weatherford football game, when his No. 20 blue and white Roos jersey was retired.

Later in the month, firefighters from Brock-Dennis and Millsap Volunteer Fire Departments responded to a call for smoke investigation. They were greeted by a shotgun blast from 61-year-old Andrew Young, who refused to unload and put down his weapon.

County Fire Marshall Shawn Scott said firefighters began seeking cover when the gun went off.

“The firefighters sought cover behind their apparatus and after speaking with Mr. Young, asked him to unload his weapon, which he refused,” Scott said.

The firemen extinguished burning leaves and called for Scott’s help with the situation.

“He admitted to shooting off a round,” Scott said. “He advised me he believed they were trespassing. I asked him if he approached them with the shotgun and he advised me that he did.”

Young was arrested and charged with deadly conduct.

Two masked gunmen took an unidentified Springtown couple hostage in an attempted bank heist in mid-January.

The male victim came home around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16, and was immediately taken at gunpoint and bound with zip ties to a chair, according to Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler. The victim’s wife, a bank teller at Wells Fargo Bank in Springtown, came home about an hour-and-a-half later and was also taken hostage. The couple was held through the night.

At about 6 a.m. the following day, one gunman forced the female hostage to drive him to the bank. While the first crook was riding to the bank, the other gunman drove to the home of a second employee of the same bank and deflated the tires on the car in the driveway to keep the worker from getting to work on time.

However, a witness saw the tire being deflated and chased the criminal and reported the incident to Springtown Police.

Authorities believe the plan fell apart at this point. The second gunman took the purse of the female hostage and fled.

The conspiracy to commit bank robbery brought federal investigators in on the case.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predictions were that North Texas would come out of a drought that had kept the area parched for at least two years.

The predictions proved accurate as the area was blessed with the fifth most annual rainfall on record in 2007. About 50 inches of rain fell on the region in the calendar year.

Still later in the first quarter of the year, 18-year-old Robert Joplin was arrested in Fort Worth for robbing First Bank in Springtown.

Witnesses reported on Feb. 27, Joplin handed a note to a teller which said he had a weapon and demanded money. The robber made off with an undetermined amount of cash.

A pair of Wise County deputies noticed a car matching the description of the bank robbery getaway car and followed it to a convenience store in Bridgeport where Joplin was arrested.

He was returned to Springtown where SPD officials turned him over to an FBI bank robbery task force.

Weatherford police officer Tommy Taylor was called on the carpet in early March by a group of U.S. Army Rangers who said the local cop had lied about his military experience.

Taylor, who also runs Texas Tactical, a police and military training facility in Parker County, listed himself as a former Ranger, as well as a winner of the Purple Heart.

Checks into a military data base showed Taylor was neither a Ranger nor a Purple Heart recipient.

Army Ranger Sgt. Andrew Bell, who pushed for Taylor to be charged under the Stolen Valor Act, said actual Rangers were in an uproar about Taylor’s resume.

“There is a price to pay to be an Army Ranger,” Bell said. “This man did not pay that price.”

Taylor voluntarily retired from the Weatherford Police Department, but still owns and manages Texas Tactical.

A ruptured gas pipeline near Lake Weatherford shot flames high enough into the air to be seen as far as 15 miles away.

The March 12 incident started when a heavy machinery operator accidentally nicked a high-pressure pipeline on the McDavid Ranch. Officials from Crosstex Energy said between 12 and 14 employees were working near the explosion, but no injuries were reported.

However, several vehicles were charred in the aftermath of the blast.

About 2,000 TXU electric customers were without power for about an hour. Tri-County Electric Cooperative reported approximately 5,000 of its customers were without power for a short time because of the explosion and fire.

Reports started filtering in by mid-March about the dealings of local businessman Oscar Black.

Accusations surfaced pertaining to alleged fraud and federal agents began an investigation into his mortgage business, headquartered in Weatherford.

At least two local investors were apparently fleeced by Black, who accepted their cash infusions with a promise of a 12.58 percent return on the cash, as well as the ready availability of the funds, should the investors request it.

Police reported investigators were able to locate documentation to verify the two investors’ claims and that more may be discovered.

Black, who also dealt in real estate and cattle in Parker County, was reported to have defaulted on more than $26 million in bank loans, and is currently still under investigation on numerous charges by the FBI.

See tomorrow’s Weatherford Democrat for the top stories of the second quarter of 2007.

        

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