Teen shoots cops with WWII "sniper" rifle...

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LeafsFan

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Just came across this one... teenager shot two cops with an M-1 Garand.

The writer calls it a sniper rifle for some reason even though the article doesn't say it had a scope. I guess calling it a sniper rifle is more sexy or something.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070620/ap_on_re_us/officers_shot

Officials: Teen used WWII-era rifle By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer



A 15-year-old boy used a World War II-era sniper rifle to fatally shoot a deputy and critically wound another outside his southern Indiana home, authorities said Tuesday.

The teen, Tyler Dumstorf, had shot the deputies Monday evening and was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot early Tuesday inside the home about 13 miles outside Louisville, Ky., authorities said.

Prosecutor Keith Henderson said the boy's father bought the M1 Garand some time ago and that he and his son shot it during target practice. The gun is a showpiece, and possessing one is not illegal, the prosecutor said.

"The cause of yesterday's tragedy isn't the weapon. It's the person who fired it," he said.

The deputies had gone to the home to investigate a call from his mother about a confrontation with the teen. The teen had been due in court Tuesday on a misdemeanor marijuana charge, Henderson said, and that hearing was apparently part of the discussion with his mother.

"There was nothing to indicate to the officers that it was anything more than a routine domestic call," Henderson said.

As the officers were talking to his mother and an aunt in the driveway, the boy fired from an upstairs window, striking each deputy in the back, he said. White was able to return fire, but none of his shots hit Dumstorf, Henderson said.

Minutes later, Henderson said, the boy posted a message on his Web page that said: "I just killed two cops. Goodbye."

The teen was found early Tuesday after police unable to make contact with him sent a camera-equipped robot into the home.

The prosecutor said the deputies were "sitting ducks" and had no chance to protect themselves.

Deputy Frank Denzinger, a four-year veteran of the sheriff's department, died hours after the shooting, Floyd County Sheriff Darrell Mills said. Deputy Joel White, who has been with the department 17 months, was hospitalized Tuesday in serious condition, Mills said.

Sheriff's Lt. Frank Loop said the boy's mother was not injured.

Dumstorf had just completed his freshman year at Floyd Central High School in nearby Floyds Knobs, said school spokesman Dave Rarick. He gave no other information about the boy, citing federal privacy laws.

Entries on Dumstorf's MySpace page indicated he was an honors student and that he liked classic rock.
 
Yeah, i just saw that. It's sad, but at least for once the prosecutor got it right.

""The cause of yesterday's tragedy isn't the weapon. It's the person who fired it," he said."
 
That kid was one sick puppy, gets caught with weed and decides to kill two cops. What a Nut.
 
That kid was one sick puppy, gets caught with weed and decides to kill two cops. What a Nut.

Thats not the worst. Soon some people on this site will post how he was in is right to shoot the cops, and we all need to take actions against the JBTs.
 
cbsbyte, there's not enough information about the situation to say one way or another. But it's highly doubtful he had anything close to justification for shooting the two officers.
 
Soon some people on this site will post how he was in is right to shoot the cops, and we all need to take actions against the JBTs.

I honestly hope that there is not any of "some people" on this board. I thought everyone on here was pretty levelheaded.
 
I honestly hope that there is not any of "some people" on this board. I thought everyone on here was pretty levelheaded.
I would agree, but there are those here who interpret any criticism (regardless of how justified said criticism may be) of police thuggery as "cop bashing."

In this instance, there doesn't appear to be any police thuggery to criticize, and I pray that Deputy White recovers.
 
I have read post that called for the killing of cops as justified. Maybe the posters where just fringe nut, or DU trolls trying to draw attention to this site but people have posted such comments in the past.
 
The kid was definitely off his rocker when he shot the cops, but the question is "why?"

He was an honors student at his school. He liked classic rock. His father took him target shooting. All together, sounds like a typical kid, if not above average.

He got busted on a misdemeanor pot charge. Why did his mom call the cops? What was the nature of their confrontation? Certainly there are a lot of questions.

I wonder if the thing just escalated when the cops showed up. It isn't their fault, but maybe he felt that basically his life was pretty much hosed. Maybe the fight or flight portion of his brain kicked in. Teenagers aren't known for being particularly rational when they get spooked.

While the boy deserves blame, maybe this is another result of the War on Drugs and Zero Tolerance mindset.
 
Its always very sad to see officers who try to uphold laws being killed in the line of duty for just doing their jobs. My heart goes out to them and their families. Im glad that they are saying it was the kid who did the killing not the gun. The same thing could of happened if he had a knife.
 
This seems so pointless, I can remember being that age (barely) everything seemed like it was so important. Looking back I am amazed out how little any of it mattered.

Those poor police officers and their families, the whole thing just sucks.

I wish his Father had kept the ammunition or the firearm under lock and key, seems like he made a poor decision. Maybe he trusted his son, but how about his sons friends or the possibility of the weapon being stolen during a break in?

I have a two year old son, he is just about perfect, it is hard to imagine that 13 years from now it could all go so tragically wrong.:(
 
Maybe this will sway things in the direction of decriminalizing "soft" drugs.

I highly doubt that.

This will be used as a "Reefer Madness" type incident. Another reason to spend billions in the "War on Drugs".
 
Maybe this will sway things in the direction of decriminalizing "soft" drugs.

It wasn't the soft drugs that made him do it though, it was the pentalty he got for getting caught with them.

I would say make pot legal, but then hippies would have NOTHING to talk about.:D
 
I know this sounds blasphemous, but the dad should have kept the gun locked up. In CA the dad would be in big trouble for leaving a gun where a minor could get to it. I'm not a fan of allowing young people to have unsupervised access to firearms. Regardless of how trained they are, younger people GENERALLY do not have the maturity of adults. I know many people here know kids that are much more mature than some adults, but IN GENERAL, adults are more mature.
 
Agreed, what I meant was


choice bad one on the sons part.

chance of cops coming home alive bad.

Unreasonable I guess if you don't believe in fate. either way I get yah, son is still the villian here.:cool:
 
in all likelyhood, a pot head would probably be less likely to shoot someone than a normal person....

That said, it was a lapse of judgment, plain and simple. Kid or not, he's still human. We all make mistakes. He just made a really, really bad one.
 
The boys decision was faulty. I am not saying that he wasn't wrong to go off the deep end. I am wondering if the situation was too much for him and tripped his fight or flight instincts. Was he too keyed up during the situation that became desparate and acted irrationally?

Kids do stupid things because they don't have the wisdom or self-control to think things through.
 
A Garand sniper? I doubt it. It's the usual media nonsense.

On the tactical level it appears to have been a one-sided fire fight, as one would expect. Worlds of training with a short gun will mean bo and diddly in a fight against a long gun, esp. if the shooter has C&C and you don't. Not that the officers in this case had any time or warning to decide. But for future reference--if you ever DO have a chance to get away from some nut with a rifle, it would be a good idea to take that chance.
 
Was he too keyed up during the situation that became desparate and acted irrationally?

Bingo. Think about it; Fifteen year old kid, doing good in school, on good terms with his parents, generally happy life. Get caught by the cops with some pot, your life goes to hell. Police don't like you, your parents lose a lot of respect for you, your life goes from good to "worse than death."

I'd definitely chalk this up to sad, unstable teenager under a lot of stress.
 
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