COVINGTON - A man police say was trying to rob another man ended up in the hospital Thursday because his chosen victim, a man out for his morning walk, packed a .25-caliber automatic in his exercise pants and used it.

Under a 3-year-old Kentucky law, a person with a permit to carry a concealed gun may defend himself with it when accosted on the street.

The man wounded in Thursday morning's shooting, Jamie Kennedy, had tried this kind of thing before, police said. The 28-year-old convicted felon escaped indictment in June after he was accused of poking a gun in a man's face and stealing his wallet. The gun, however, was a toy. Prosecutors could not get enough grand jurors to vote for an indictment.

Thursday morning, Mr. Kennedy's luck ran out, police said.

Using a real gun this time, although investigators later determined it had no bullets in it, he stopped Joseph Megerle as Mr. Megerle did his regular exercising near Devou Park just before 7 a.m. When threatened, Mr. Megerle, 57, pulled out his gun and fired twice. He hit Mr. Kennedy in the chest and head, then ran to a nearby construction site to find someone to call police.

"That's exactly what this (concealed carry) law was designed to do," said Craig Palmer, director of the Kentucky Coalition to Carry Concealed. "This is an honest, law-abiding person who didn't set out to hurt anybody. You don't have to be a victim."

Mr. Kennedy was in serious condition later at University Hospital. Cincinnati police officers, with warrants for his arrest on charges of attempted robbery and attempted murder, will be waiting for him when he is released, Covington Assistant Chief Bill Dorsey said.

Mr. Megerle will not be charged. He told officers that when he saw the other man's gun, he thought he was going to die, Lt. Col. Dorsey said.

Mr. Kennedy has an extensive criminal record in Kenton County. He was sentenced to a year in jail in 1988 for burglary and 10 days in jail in 1995 for receiving stolen property. He was sent to prison for two years in May 1997 on another conviction for receiving stolen property. In exchange for his guilty plea then, a charge of being a persistent felony offender was dropped. Court records did not say when he was released from prison.

Mr. Kennedy is a suspect in a robbery Thursday morning at a Newport Dairy Mart.

Covington investigators think he and two others in a car were trying to avoid main thoroughfares to escape detection by police. Lt. Col. Dorsey said they were dumping clothing in a trash can when Mr. Megerle happened by on his walk. Covington detectives kept the clothing and both guns for evidence.

"I don't know that this course of action is right for everybody," Lt. Col. Dorsey said of the shooting. "Mr. Megerle did what he felt was right for him."

The event likely will prompt more people to be interested in getting concealed-carry permits, he said. Thirty other states have laws that allow citizens to carry guns.

Concealed weapon permit requires test
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Joseph Megerle, the man police said thwarted an apparent armed robbery Thursday by shooting and wounding his alleged assailant, obtained a Kentucky permit to carry a concealed deadly weapon after eight hours of classroom instruction and proof that he had a certain level of proficiency with a handgun.

Kentucky's concealed-carry permit law, passed by the legislature three years ago, calls for a permit applicant to first contact a state-certified concealed-carry instructor.

The instructor conducts an eight-hour class that details the law concerning use of deadly force, the concealed-carry law, and aspects of handgun safety.

The permit applicant must pass a written test, and must also fire 20 rounds with 11 hits on a life-size silhouette target.

When the test results are approved by state concealed-carry officials, the applicant then files with the sheriff in the county of residence, pays $60 and, if the applicant clears a police background check, receives the concealed-carry permit that includes a picture similar to a driver's license.

Concealed-carry law passes first test
Michael Collins and Peggy Kreimer, Post staff reporters

FRANKFORT - A man who pulled a gun out of his pocket and shot a would-be robber in Covington's Devou Park early Thursday morning showed that Kentucky's concealed-carry law is doing what it's supposed to do, said the statute's chief proponent.

''That's what the law was intended to do: Let a legal citizen protect himself,'' said state Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville.

More than 51,000 Kentuckians have obtained permits to carry hidden weapons in the three years since the state's concealed-carry law took effect.

More permits may be issued after the Devou Park shooting, Kenton County Sheriff Charles Korzenborn predicted. He expects the public to view it as an example of the protection that carrying your own gun provides. Already, 160 people have applied in the county for permits this year.

''People have not only a right but a responsibility to take care of themselves,'' said Korzenborn, who administers the permits in Kenton County.

''If you rely on the police to do everything, you would need one policeman for every person.''

Retired Cinergy worker Joe Megerle, 57, of Covington, was walking in Devou Park when a man approached him, drew a pistol and demanded money. Megerle pulled out his .25-caliber pistol and shot Jamie Kennedy, 27, of Covington, in the chest and head. Kennedy is in serious condition at University Hospital in Cincinnati.

Kennedy is charged with attempted robbery, and a charge of attempted murder might be added to that, Covington Assistant Police Chief Bill Dorsey said. A man and a woman who were in the car with him have been questioned but no charges have been filed against either.

No evidence turned up in a police search of a room at the Days Inn in Fort Wright, Dorsey said. The search was connected to the shooting, police have said.

Police say Kennedy's pistol was not loaded, but that doesn't affect the seriousness of his actions, Dorsey said. Megerle believed his life was in danger, and he acted correctly when he shot to save his life, Dorsey said. Megerle has a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

''In that situation, it was the right thing to do,'' Dorsey said.

Megerle's father, also named Joe, was Covington's assistant police chief when he retired about 1970.

Dorsey said the Devou Park confrontation is believed to be the first time someone with a permit to carry a concealed weapon used the weapon in Northern Kentucky since the state law was passed in 1996.

But it wasn't the first such self-defense shooting statewide. Damron, who pushed the concealed-carry law through the General Assembly, said several similar instances have been recorded across the state.

In Bowling Green, a woman who had just gotten a concealed-weapon permit and completed the required firearms-safety course shot a man who broke into her house. The woman later said she would have been unable to defend herself had she not taken the gun-safety course, Damron said.

Critics argued that enacting the law could lead to an increase in violence and vigilantism. But Damron said he wasn't aware of any case in which charges have been filed against a concealed-carry permit holder.

The 51,482 people who have permits to carry concealed weapons have acted responsibly, Damron said.

''I'd match those people's criminal record against any other group in the state,'' he said. ''They are showing that you can trust law-abiding citizens who actually own and keep firearms.''

Dorsey agreed, even though at the time the law was being considered police had reservations about it, fearing it would prompt a rash of irresponsible gun use.

''I follow this. I've been waiting for the first one,'' Dorsey said. ''This is it, and this man did the right thing.''

But state Rep. Jim Callahan, a Wilder Democrat who opposes the concealed-carry law, said Thursday's shooting illustrates the danger of giving people greater access to guns.

''My district is a heavily urbanized area. The last thing we need is more guns in the hands of people who are out on the streets,'' said Callahan, who voted against the law three years ago. ''I still have concerns.''

Callahan said he understood that people have a right to protect themselves. But he said he feared that putting more guns on the streets would lead to more shootings.

Publication date: 08-20-99