FARGO - Eric Lee Webb was barely two years out of prison and had just gotten his fiancee pregnant. The two adults and her two small children had moved into an apartment in central Minnesota, and to Webb, it was the American dream.
Until -- driven by what he said is safety and love for his fiancee and children -- he got into a shootout with Fargo police after trying to rob a downtown motel earlier this month.
In a letter sent to The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead this week from the Cass County Jail, Webb, 30, wrote what appears to be a lengthy confession to robbery at the Howard Johnson Inn on June 4 and to opening fire on police as he ran from the scene.
"I had my car parked around the block but the police seemed to be right behind me within a minute," Webb wrote in his letter. "Rather than go to jail I decided I'd rather die than not succeed. No one was taking me today ... at least not alive."
The letter, postmarked June 16, confirms Webb shot first as he ran between downtown buildings. Police eventually closed in on him and cut off his escape.
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The alleged shootout with police was the latest in a long trail of run-ins with the law. He has a string of convictions out of Iowa for robbery, assault, domestic assault and burglary.
In his handwritten letter, the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, man paints himself as a desperado who would "die for my family."
Webb claims in the letter that one of his fiancee's children was being molested and he wanted to move, but when he brought his suspicions to his partner, the two argued.
Leaving the house in a huff, Webb writes that he resolved to get money so he could move them away from the person he suspected of being a child predator by robbing the downtown Fargo motel.
That plan didn't last long. The hotel Webb picked to rob is a few steps from the downtown police station.
"I opened fire then I heard the click of my empty firing pin like the sound of the grim reaper himself laughing that my hourglass had run empty," he writes. "I looked at the sky of the old run down gas station and I knew I was going to die. Just not like this ... in this dirty looking place."
Fargo police have said that Officer Matt Niemeyer fired two shots in return; one hit Webb.
"As I got shot in my back and lay there choking on my own blood filling my lungs, I thought about them ... But at least I tried," Webb wrote. "At least as a man I tried to help even at the cost of my own life. I'd die for my family. I'd kill or do anything for them."
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It's unclear who the person is that Webb is accusing of child molestation. It's also unclear if Webb ever brought his suspicions to authorities.
His fiancee, Samantha Flick, has not responded to recent requests for interviews, but the letter says she has moved to the Fargo-Moorhead area to be near Webb.
Fargo police Lt. Mike Mitchell said investigators believe the letter is genuine, and that they took copies of the letter into evidence after jail staff informed them of its existence.
The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which is handling the shooting investigation, also has a copy of the letter.
The jail routinely monitors outgoing and incoming inmate mail, Mitchell said.
Defense attorney Lindsey Haugen said that in general, as long as the letter was verifiably written by the defendant, then a third-party admission of guilt such as a letter to the media should be admissible in court.
Webb's attorney, Patrick Rosenquist, could not be reached for comment.
