Father recounts close call; shooting suspect sought

Ed Beaumont wonders if he owes his life to old gunpowder or an "obtuse angle." Or maybe it was just luck that prevented a bullet from piercing Beaumont's chest just above his heart Sunday night.

"I do feel lucky," the 56-year-old state worker said Monday as he recalled being shot allegedly by his daughter's ex-boyfriend after the teen stabbed her in the back. "I was really fortunate."

Beaumont said his 16-year-old daughter Desiree told him Sunday night that her ex-boyfriend John "Nubs" Linville, 17, was coming over to talk.

The two had broken up a month earlier and Linville allegedly became verbally abusive, said Beaumont, so the father told his daughter Linville wasn't allowed inside. The two could talk on the porch.

About 9:30 p.m., as the teens were on the porch and Beaumont watched television in the living room, he heard his daughter scream twice.

The second "blood curdling scream" roused Beaumont from his chair and he flung open the front door and pushed open the screen.

According to Beaumont, Linville turned to face him with a gun in his hand.

"I grabbed for it, and he shot me in the chest," said Beaumont. "I saw the flash and I felt it and I thought, I was too late, because the idea of grabbing the gun is to get it before they shoot you."

Despite being shot at, Beaumont was able to get the gun away from Linville, he said.

As the boy allegedly fled down the dark east Carson City street, the enraged father gave chase, beating the teen with the weapon which was breaking apart and leaving a trail of pieces down Walker Drive.

"By the time I had him down on the ground two houses away all I had left was the barrel and all I could hit him with was the barrel," said Beaumont. "I felt the bullet hit me and I thought I should be going down, but I didn't go down, so my focus was to get the gun away from him and catch him."

It was Desiree's continued screaming that prompted Beaumont to let the teen go and rush back to his daughter, he said.

The commotion alerted Beaumont's wife, Pam. By the time he got back inside his wife was on the phone with 911.

"He was saying he got shot, and the dispatchers are asking if he got shot and I said, 'I can't see if he's shot. I don't know,'" said Pam.

There was no blood, said Beaumont. There was not even a hole in his shirt. The only proof that something had struck him just above his heart was a black smudge of possible gunshot residue on his white shirt, a bullet found in the house on the living room floor, and a light red bruise marking the spot on his chest.

Desiree was also lucky, said Beaumont. The knife, which caught her between the shoulder blades as she ran past her assailant, left only a superficial gash. And when she fell in the street and was certain Linville was coming to shoot her, said Beaumont, her father opened the door.

According to Detective Dena Lacy, Linville fled the area. As of Monday night he had not been located.

Linville, who goes by the nickname "Nubs" likely because he was born without a forearm and hand on the left side, is wanted for questioning in the assault. He is described as 5 feet 11 inches tall with blue eyes and dark medium-length hair which he wears in a side part that sweeps across his eyes.

Beaumont said that in the five months the seemingly harmless boy had dated his daughter there had never been any indication of what was to come.

"We never suspected anything violent from him," he said. "He was always polite and called me sir ... although it felt hollow."

Lacy said Linville allegedly stole the gun earlier in the evening from a friend's father. The friend later drove Linville to the Beaumont house.

Anyone with information on Linville's whereabouts is asked to call 911.

Beaumont said he hopes Linville is captured soon.

"They need to catch him. I don't want any hassle. It would go badly if it came back here," he said.

And he finds himself pondering how it was that he walked away from this unscathed.

"Maybe the gun was at an obtuse angle, either that or poor ammo," he said. "Those are the only two options because I'm not Superman."