Stranger Than Fiction

My favorite REAL Darwin Award for 2008:

Third Place
After stepping around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door, a man walked into H&J Leather & Firearms intent on robbing the store. The shop was full of customers and a uniformed officer was standing at the counter. Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a hold-up! and fired a few wild shots from a target pistol. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, and several customers also drew their guns and 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.

I just don't know what to say. The man tried to rob a gun store, with a cop at the counter, with a target pistol.

The mind boggles.

You couldn't write it as fiction. No one can suspend disbelief that far. The poor boy was truly too stupid to live. His mother is probably relieved; what a trial he must have been.

I dislike the duty, but somebody has to point out that 24 bullets shot by gun store patrons missed the guy. Several somebodies in that store should be ashamed of themselves!

Of course, 15 them were probably the cop's.

The Gunslinger