Cornelia’s police chief is standing by his department’s decision to charge a woman with reckless conduct after she opened fire on a vehicle in a bank parking lot.
Video evidence
Video released Monday by the Cornelia Police Department shows the woman, Mary Leigh Sheriff-Welborn, shooting at the pickup as it drives away from United Community Bank on Level Grove Road. Moments earlier, police say the driver, Sterling Strength, reportedly brandished a firearm when Sheriff-Welborn demanded he get out of her husband’s stolen pickup. Immediately after that confrontation, Sheriff-Welborn returned to her car, got her gun and discharged three rounds from a Taurus 9mm handgun, police say.
A bank teller captured the incident on cell phone. The video starts after the first gunshot. It shows a person running from the parked truck. The silver pick-up then makes a sharp right turn and quickly exits the parking lot as Sheriff-Welborn comes into view carrying a handgun. She takes aim from approximately 43 yards away and fires in the direction of the fleeing pickup. Police say at that point, the truck was at a standstill because a vehicle in front of it was attempting to turn. When Strength turns right onto Level Grove Road, Sheriff-Welborn takes another shot from approximately 56 yards away.
Strength ditched the truck about a mile away from the bank. When police recovered the pickup, it had a flat right front tire but Cornelia Police Chief Jonathan Roberts says it was not blown out by a bullet. He says the only bullet to hit the truck was the one fired at close range inside the parking lot and embedded in the front driver-side wheel. After an extensive search, officers were unable to locate the other two bullets.
No one was injured in the shooting. Afterward, Sheriff-Welborn defended her actions on social media saying she shot out the tire so “they couldn’t get far.” She said she “wasn’t trying to kill anyone.” Some praised her for defending herself and her property; others expressed alarm over the public threat that she posed.
Reckless conduct
After reviewing evidence and interviewing witnesses, including Sheriff-Welborn, Cornelia police took out an arrest warrant against her on September 8. The warrant accuses her of consciously disregarding a “substantial” and “unjustifiable risk” that could have caused possible harm and endangered the public’s safety.
Authorities arrested and booked Sheriff-Welborn at the Habersham County Detention Center on September 9. She was released on her own recognizance the same day. Cornelia police suffered some backlash online from those who disagreed with her arrest. Chief Roberts expressed his support for the Second Amendment and says he understands why Sheriff-Welborn confronted Strength. Still, he says the best thing for her to have done was call 911. He says the charge against her is warranted.
“After reviewing witness statements and video of the incident, I agree with Mary Welborn’s use of her personal defense firearm when Sterling Strength pointed a gun at her, placing her in fear of her life. However, when Sterling Strength fled the area, Mary Welborn was no longer in a position of self-defense,” he says.
As she shot at the truck, Sheriff-Welborn fired in the direction of a shopping center parking lot and a slightly wooded area with an apartment complex behind it.
Citing Georgia law governing the decision to charge her, Chief Roberts says although the law says you can use force to defend yourself from death or great bodily harm, “that does not negate the fact that her actions of shooting a moving vehicle in a high traffic and populated area was reckless. Ownership and use of a firearm comes with the responsibility of using it properly, safely, and appropriately.”
Strength was on the run for a day before Banks County deputies found and arrested him on weapons violations. Cornelia police have also charged him with additional felonies including possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
