O/T - Possible Darwin Winner

[customsteve01]

I just thought this was way to funny not to post.

What was he thinking??????????????????????????

The following mind-boggling attempt at a crime spree in Washington USA

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 at the front door.

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 a clerk 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 at the beginning of March and we already may have the 2005 winner of the

Darwin Award. This guy is going to be hard to beat.

Steve

[3dzapper]

At least this year's winner won't breed.

Rick

[colterphoto1]

Ah, that's where the email came from Steve, I was racking my brain going through your mail list trying to figure out how I knew you. Had to be one of those Klipsch guys! Keep em coming, this one was a good morning chuckle.

Thanks

Michael

[customsteve01]

Michael

Yeh I don't send many e-mails out like that but that was just too funny

The part that made me laugh the most was

Crime scene investigators located 47 expended cartridge cases in the shop.

The subsequent autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds.

It had to be point blank range and there were that many misses.

I mean thats not even a 50 percent hit rate. I shouldn't say anything, I would probably not be any better in that situation.

Steve

[dodger]

Now just figure if any of the shots had accidentally hit someone.

The would beo robber had to be basically brain dead or so high he thought nothing could hurt him.

More brazen everyday.

dodger

[colterphoto1]

almost sounds like one of those 'suicide by cop' stories you read about, some poor depressed soul loses his wife, job, gets drugged out, decides to end it all but can't do it to himself, so just waves a pistol around a cop. That'll do it.

Michael

[dodger]

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On 4/14/2005 8:41:56 AM colterphoto1 wrote:

almost sounds like one of those 'suicide by cop' stories you read about, some poor depressed soul loses his wife, job, gets drugged out, decides to end it all but can't do it to himself, so just waves a pistol around a cop. That'll do it.

Michael

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You know you're right Michael. Makes you wonder doesn't it. We had one where a person started driving towrd an Officer out his Cruiser.

[ZAKO]

50 percent hit rate? The first shot killed him. The next 22 shots to make shure.

[toddvj]

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On 4/14/2005 6:02:14 AM customsteve01 wrote:

Here we are at the beginning of March and we already may have the 2005 winner of the

Darwin Award. This guy is going to be hard to beat.

Steve

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I'm not so sure this happened in 2005. I remember reading about this a while ago.

[customsteve01]

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On 4/14/2005 9:27:51 AM Maron Horonzak wrote:

50 percent hit rate? The first shot killed him. The next 22 shots to make shure.

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But there was 47 shots fired. I know some had to come from the robber, but still at point blank range you would think the hit rate would be higher.

Steve

[Marvel]

On 3 February 1990, David Zaback attempted to hold up H&J Leather & Firearms Ltd., a gun shop located in Renton Highlands near Seattle, Washington. About 4:40 p.m. that day, he entered the crowded shop and announced his intention to rob it by Gun telling everyone to put their hands on the counter and saying if anybody moved, he'd kill them. He then spotted a uniformed policeman having coffee with Wendall Woodall, the shop's owner. What happened next is less than clear in terms of who shot first, but there was an exchange of gunfire between David Zaback, the would-be robber; Timothy Lally, an 18-year veteran of the King County police force; and Danny Morris, one of the shop's clerks.

Zaback, who had fired three times, was shot three times in the chest and once in the arm. He died in the hospital about four hours after the shooting. No one else was injured during the incident, and no charges were subsequently laid against Lally or Morris.

The e-mailed narrative holds up as a news item for the most part, but some of its elements have been altered to make for better storytelling.

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 a clerk 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.

Although the Darwinized account presents the encounter in the humorous light of a hapless robber waving a pop gun being felled in a hail of bullets by a mass of heavily-armed gun shop patrons, that wasn't precisely the way of it. Zaback's weapon was a .38-caliber semiautomatic pistol, not the .22 target pistol of the e-mailed account. The clerk, Morris, fired a 10mm semiautomatic pistol, not a .50 Desert Eagle, and the policeman, Lally, fired a 9mm semiautomatic pistol. As for the participation of others, according to Renton police Capt. Don Persson, although several other customers had guns and pulled them, they did not shoot the only ones involved in the exchange of lead were Zaback, Lally, and Morris.

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.

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. "There were slugs all over that place," Persson said. As for Zaback, he died with four wounds in him, one in the arm and three in the chest, not the 23 wounds claimed in the colorized account.

Yet one item of the Darwinized version one would otherwise suspect to have been the product of overwriting does indeed hold up: Renton police Capt. Don Persson said, "The surprising thing is that the man had to walk right past a marked police car to get in the front door."

[m00n]

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On 4/14/2005 7:22:29 AM 3dzapper wrote:

At least this year's winner won't breed.

Rick

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This year, last year or whenever... The point is... He won't be breeding. My gawd, what an idiot.