Darwin Award (maybe, can't confirm)

[Risasi]

One of my coworkers Emailed this to me. I couldn't confirm it's true though. I tried to Google. I also searched the board here. Either it's brand new, or fresh off the press. Can anyone verify?

-----------------------------------------
Donald D Hawkins, Early Candidate for
2005 Darwin Award

The following mind-boggling attempt at a robbery in
Washington appeared to be the robber's first (and last),
due to his lack of a previous record of violence, and his terminally stupid choices:

1. His target was H&J Leather & Firearms. A gun
shop specializing in handguns.

2. The shop was full of customers - firearms customers.

3. To enter the shop, the robber had to step around
a marked police patrol car parked directly in front
of the store.

4. A uniformed officer was standing at the counter,
having coffee before work. Upon seeing the officer,
the would-be robber announced a hold-up, and fired
a few wild shots from a .22 target pistol. The officer
and the clerk behind the counter promptly returned
fire, the police officer with a 9mm Glock 17, the clerk
with a 50 Desert Eagle, assisted by several customers
who also drew their guns, several of whom also fired.

The robber was pronounced dead at the scene by
Paramedics. Crime scene investigators located 47
expended cartridge cases in the shop. The
subsequent autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds.
Ballistics identified rounds from 7 different weapons.
No one else was hurt in the exchange of fire.

Here we are in the middle of March and we already
may have the 2005 winner of the Darwin Award.
This guy is going to be hard to beat!

Hopefully he never had a chance to procreate.

 

[Double Maduro]

True,

http://www.snopes.com/crime/dumdum/gunshop.asp

DM

 

[Ol' Badger]

Clear case of suicide!

 

[The_Doc]

A bit late on the Darwin Award though - it happened in 1990!

 

[keyhole]

yup, saw it some years ago. Funny how some things make the circut many times.

 

[TimRB]

Ironically, I find part of the Snopes account suspect:

"It's unclear how many shots were fired, in part because some of the suspect's shots struck ammunition on a counter, causing the ammunition to explode."

From what I have read, it's very difficult to get ammo to explode by shooting at it. You pretty much have to hit the primer directly to make it go off. Anyway, even with the exaggerated parts removed it's a pretty good story.

Tim

 

[fredcwdoc]

I pulled this off the web.

Comments: This is a highly embellished account of a real-life incident that occurred in Renton, Washington on February 3, 1990. According to a series of reports published in the Seattle Times, what actually happened is this:

Thirty-three-year-old David Zaback entered H&J Leather & Firearms Ltd. at approximately 4:40 in the afternoon brandishing a .38-caliber semiautomatic handgun and announced his intention to rob the store. He threatened to shoot anyone who got in his way.

Having apparently failed to notice the police car parked in front of the gun shop when he walked in (true!), Zaback found himself confronted by a uniformed officer and an armed clerk, who ordered him to drop his gun. Zaback opened fire instead, drawing a fatal volley of shots from the clerk and the policeman, both of whom survived the shootout unharmed.

According to the county medical examiner, Zaback was shot a total of four times (not 23) and died a few hours later in the emergency room. "Several" armed patrons also drew weapons, the Times confirms, but none actually fired on Zaback, contrary to the version of events given in the email. It was later determined that the clerk, whose weapon was a 10mm semiautomatic pistol (not a .50 Desert Eagle), fired the fatal shot.

 

[Zundfolge]

ronically, I find part of the Snopes account suspect:

"It's unclear how many shots were fired, in part because some of the suspect's shots struck ammunition on a counter, causing the ammunition to explode."

From what I have read, it's very difficult to get ammo to explode by shooting at it. You pretty much have to hit the primer directly to make it go off. Anyway, even with the exaggerated parts removed it's a pretty good story.

Tim

If you shoot a box of any tightly packed smal metal items the package will erupt sending bits everywhere ... but yeah, they wouldn't "explode" and you could tell them from the spent casings because they wouldn't be spent.

 

[Risasi]

Thanks guys. I'll let my coworker know. His comment to me when he sent it was "I'll bet you wish you were there".

I missed the snope article when I searched. I guess it must have been that names were changed to protect the guilty.