Just saw this headline in today's Commercial Appeal, Memphis TN's newspaper...

Man shoots, kills would-be robber in TV-style invasion

By Yolanda Jones
April 2, 2002

Asize Lee Coady and her boyfriend, Odie Harper, were watching Law and Order Sunday night when a sudden knock on the door was like a scene from the cop drama.

Shortly after 9 p.m., two men posing as police officers burst in Coady's southwest Memphis home in the 1200 block of Michigan yelling "police, police, get down," said Harper, 63.

"Asize was the first one to the door, and when they burst in, she fell down," Harper said. "I didn't know what was going on."

What happened next is a blur to Harper, but he remembers Asize handing him a pistol and that he fired a shot.

"I didn't want to shoot anyone, but when I saw her down, I fired," he said.

The two men ran from the house, and when the smoke cleared, a man, identified by police as Corey Cezaer, 22, was dead in the driveway of the three-bedroom home, west of Florida and Trigg.

The second robber got away. Monday, police were still searching for him.

The shooting leaves Coady, 73, and Harper shaken. They watched the two men who invaded their home grow up in the neighborhood.

"We've known these boys since they were babies," Harper said. "It is a sad thing because we saw them all the time and know their folks."

Harper has no idea what the home invaders were after when they broke into the house.

"I am telling you it was like something from Law and Order," Harper said. "Two men yelling they were the police, and we are watching a show about police and the law."


- Yolanda Jones:

Good shooting, Odie. [8D]