By Shane Goodman shane@dmcityview.com

Would you pull the trigger?

What would you do if you saw a person dressed in dark clothes outside your window late at night? Would you yell at the person to leave? Turn the lights on? Call the police? Shoot the person?

Shasta Bell chose the latter in the early hours on March 17 when she fired her shotgun out her window at Terri Burgess. Burgess died, and her boyfriend, Brian Ashby, continues to live with the pain.

This week’s cover tells Ashby’s story as he passionately defends the integrity of his girlfriend, despite her admittedly colorful past. Ashby questions the motives of the shooter and tells another side of the story, a side that most refused to hear.

Editor Michael Swanger takes us into this very serious, but unfortunate situation. You will learn what the police investigators and the county attorney have to say. You will understand what kind of person Burgess was. And you will feel the pain that continues to haunt Ashby. Then you can ask yourself whether or not you feel this killing was in self defense.

Could you have pulled the trigger? Or what would you have done? It’s hard for any of us to answer this honestly until we are in the exact same situation and have had the same experiences. Meanwhile, a woman is dead, and others are left wondering why.

Thanks for reading.

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