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Topics: Crime, US News, True crime, News
Tom Wood
Topics: Crime, US News, True crime, News
A man who was being questioned over an alleged murder for six hours needed urgent medical attention after being shot in the head twice.
It's a case that many will probably find hard to believe, but one that was very real for Ryan Waller.
In 2006, Waller was the victim of a violent break-in at his house that left his girlfriend dead and him seriously injured.
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Waller used to live with his girlfriend Heather Quan in an apartment they shared in Phoenix with a roommate, who wasn’t present at the time.
The couple had only been in the house for a few months when Ritchie Carver – a former roommate and friend - and his father Larry Carver decided to break in.
They rang the doorbell, and Ryan got up to see who it was.
Upon realising that trouble was brewing, he tried to shut the door, but Ritchie just reached through and shot him in the head twice.
Following that, he went into another room and shot Heather dead on the couch.
Why they came over is still not clear.
Some said it was to do with a dispute, some said he’d made an advance at Heather, while another theory suggests he simply wanted to steal his stuff.
Either way, the police suspected that Ryan was guilty of the murder.
Being it was nearly Christmas, Ryan’s parents became worried when he didn’t show up for Christmas dinner, so went over and knocked, but no-one answered.
Eventually, the police were called and found Heather dead whilst Ryan was remarkably still moving around the flat and still alive.
He said – understandably – that he didn’t remember what had happened, so the police took him in and interrogated him when really he needed the hospital badly.
Ryan even managed to identify Ritchie Carver and his dad as the gunmen.
He had a number of horrible wounds on his head and a swollen eye, but still no-one knew he’d been shot.
The police didn’t believe him and wouldn’t give him medical assistance, questioning him whilst he was in obvious pain.
It wasn’t until hours later that he was taken to the hospital, where police told his dad later that he was critical.
Doctors told his dad Don that he had an infection that could have been avoided had he received proper and timely care.
He was in hospital for 35 days.
In the end, he lost some of his brain, his left eye, and experienced seizures for years.
Those seizures eventually claimed his life in 2007.
Eventually, the actual culprits were brought to justice.
Ritchie received life without parole, then in 2013 after a lengthy process, Larry was also sentenced to life.
Ryan’s father sued the Phoenix Police Department, and the interrogator who dealt with Ryan was charged with evidence tampering and fabricating stories about events to do with the case.