Category: Darwin Award O’ The Day

Sounds like a permanent solution to eliminating that genetic distinctiveness, a subset- voluntary – of a Darwin Award.

‘Suspect’ and ‘victims’ staged robbery when armed bystander stepped in

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The northwest Houston robbery that preceded a fatal gas station shooting in January was staged, according to police.

The Houston Police Department initially said a bystander witnessed Rasshauud Scott appearing to rob a couple at gunpoint at the gas station on Ella Boulevard near the Beltway on Jan. 27. He shot Scott as he attempted to flee.

However, HPD has now said the couple and Scott were working together to stage a robbery so that the man and woman could file a report with the police and use their crime victim status to apply for a U nonimmigrant status, or “U visa.”

“The person qualifies for a work permit while they’re waiting for a resolution of the case,” immigration attorney Silvia Mintz said.

Police said they obtained text messages from Scott’s phone between him and a man named William Winfrey the night of the shooting.

In one message, Winfrey writes to Scott, “It’s the usual gas station (expletive).”

In another he writes, “When you done run make all the (expletive) to look real.”

Investigators said they also found a selfie from one of the purported victims on Scott’s phone.

Police said Winfrey and Scott staged numerous other similar robberies dating back to 2023 in a bid to help the alleged victims obtain visas.

One took place at a northeast Houston gas station on Jan. 26 in which Scott pretended to rob a cashier at the store.

Mintz said U visas come up a lot during discussions with potential clients.

“They say, ‘OK, what would happen if somebody beat me up? Or if I was a victim of domestic violence?’ And of course, the answer is, ‘I cannot help you,'” Mintz said.

Mintz added the schemes could backfire. If immigration officials learn someone has lied to obtain a U visa, they could be banned from the country permanently.

“People don’t realize the big mess they’re getting into by lying and making things up,” Mintz said.

ABC13 was unable to locate any criminal charges against the people who claimed to be victims in the Jan. 26 and Jan. 27 robberies.

About those 116 gun deaths per day…

Headlines over “gun deaths” will always draw eyes. Some people will immediately click the link, then share it all over social media, just so they can say, “See! I told you guns are bad!”

There are usually problems with this, though.

For example, these reports rarely provide any context and they also tend to involve a fair bit of sensationalism in presenting all firearm-related fatalities as the same.

Like this one does.

As of Aug. 1, at least 25,198 people have died from gun violence in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive – which is an average of roughly 118 deaths each day.

Of those who died, 879 were teens and 170 were children.

Deaths by suicide have made up the vast majority of gun violence deaths this year. There’s been more than 14,000 deaths by gun suicide this year, an average of about 66 deaths by suicide per day in 2023.

The majority of these deaths have occurred in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Illinois and Louisiana.

The grim tally of gun violence deaths includes 488 people killed in police officer-involved shootings. Thirty-four police officers have been fatally shot in the line of duty this year.

So about 56 percent of those deaths were suicides and nearly 500 were killed in officer-involved shootings, meaning they were justified homicides.

Now, this is going to be used to push gun control. It’s going to be used to justify more and more restrictions on our basic civil liberties, and they dishonest hacks won’t even pretend there’s a difference in these categories of shootings.

Suicides are awful and tragic, as are homicides, but the two things are very different.

The solutions to suicides aren’t the same as those for homicides. The motivations are completely different, so addressing the underlying causes is going to be completely different.

Gun control doesn’t stop suicides. At best, it shifts people to use another method, but it doesn’t stop suicides. Granted, it doesn’t stop homicides, either.

Yet anti-gun voices in the media love to lump all gun deaths into one big bucket. They want as big of a number as possible to scare people with. You can’t do that with just the homicide numbers. So, suicides it is.

Yes, these are all “gun deaths” if you just want the total of people who were killed due to a gunshot. For many people, though, that’s all that matters.

And it’s telling, because most of these people claim they don’t want to ban gun ownership, but then can’t differentiate between criminals’ acts and someone who took their own life due to their own mental illness.

They want them lumped because the evil, at least in their minds, is the guns themselves. If it was really about saving people’s lives, they’d focus on the underlying conditions at play here. Everything from mental health treatment to job programs would be on the agenda.

The fact that they’re not is telling. It’s just not telling us anything we didn’t already know after decades of watching and listening to the anti-gun agenda.

TikTok boat jumping challenge that sees people jump off vessels moving at high speed is blamed for FOUR deaths in Alabama – as cop says victims broke their necks instantly

A TikTok boat jumping challenge that sees people jump from the rear of the vessels while moving at high speed has been blamed for four deaths in Alabama. The challenge, which has been popularized on TikTok, involves individuals engaging in dangerous water activities.

Those participating in the challenge launch themselves from the rear of a boat and into the wake behind it, as the boat continues to move.

Now, officials in Alabama have said the new fad has claimed the lives of four people, after they broke their necks instantly. Officials said in the last six months, they had to deal with four drownings that were ‘easily avoidable’.

Those participating in the challenge launch themselves from the rear of a boat and into the wake behind it, as the boat continues to move

Captain Jim Dennis with the Childersburg Rescue Squad told WPDE said: ‘Last six months we have had four drownings that were easily avoidable.  ‘They were doing a TikTok challenge. It’s where you get in a boat going at a high rate of speed, you jump off the side of the boat, don’t dive, you’re jumping off feet first and you just kinda lean into the water. The four that we responded to when they jumped out of the boat, they literally broke their neck and, you know, basically an instant death.’

Capt. Dennis continued: ‘I think people, if they’re being filmed on camera, I think they’re more likely to do something stupid because they want to show off in front of their friends for social media.

He said one incident was in February when the victim was a father with his three children, wife, and other loved ones in the boat – with his death being recorded.

WPDE said the most recent incident in Alabama occurred in May and involved a middle-aged man.

One video is believed to have been captured on Lake Norman, North Carolina, and shows five people jumping and black flipping into the water.

Social media users expressed their concern over the videos, citing the rest deaths related to the craze After the news from Alabama over recent days, the footage, which was originally shared in 2021, has been inundated with comments warning of the deaths.

One person commented: ‘That’s so dangerous, not cool.’ Another posted: ‘So dangerous! Four people have broken their necks and died from this.’

It is not the first trend to claim lives that has gone round the social media app, with two teens dying after participating in the Benadryl Challenge. It sees people, usually kids, swallow multiple antihistamine tablets to induce hallucinations before posting videos of their experience.

Jacob Stevens, 13, died in April of this year after Chloe Marie Phillips, 15, died in August 2020 after partaking in the trend.

2 Georgia men killed — one electrocuted, the other in explosion — during theft at power station

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Two Georgia men are dead after attempting to steal copper wire from a power substation, Gainesville police told CBS News.

The men have been identified as Shane Joseph Long, 45, and Christopher Blair Wood, 44.

Police responded to the power station after getting a call from someone at a nearby business saying there was an explosion, CBS News reported. Both firefighters and police made their way to the explosion where they found the two men dead.

An investigation revealed the two men were thieves attempting to steal copper wire and other electrical components, police said.

Lieutenant Kevin Holbrook told CBS News that one of the men was killed by electrocution and the other man could have been killed by the transformer explosion.

Autopsies are still being conducted to determine the cause of death.

CBS News reports that nationwide, power stations have been reporting a rise in copper wire or metal theft. Holbrook the robbers sell the wire to scrap yards or third-party individuals.

Profits from these sales are generally low, Holbrook told CBS News.

Georgia Man Crushed to Death While Trying to Steal Catalytic Converter: Police

A Georgia man was crushed to death by a car while he was allegedly attempting to steal a catalytic converter from a local auto-shop, police confirmed with Fox News Digital.

According to the Chatham County Police Department, Matthew Eric Smith, 32, was found dead on Tuesday at approximately 9:15 a.m., after a catalytic converter fell and crushed him at South Bound Auto Sales.

Thefts of catalytic converters are surging across the nation as thieves seek out precious metals like platinum, palladium and rhodium that fill the inside of the antipollution car part.

Autoshop owner Mike Abouharb shared that he found the man’s body when he arrived at work in the morning.

“I didn’t even get close to him,” Abouharb told WTOC-TV. “I called the police right away.”

Police ruled the death accidental, sharing that Smith’s death was “the result of an attempted catalytic converter theft.”

It’s nice when the crims do part of the job for you, and even provide the gun.

Home invasion suspect shot accomplice before he was killed by homeowner’s son

KATY, Texas (KTRK) — A home invasion suspect was shot and killed inside a Katy home overnight, and deputies believe he accidently shot his own accomplice before his death.

Just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday, deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home invasion in the 3200 block of Windmoor Drive. There were three people inside the home at the time — a mother and her two adult sons. Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said two men dressed in body armor kicked the front door down.

The victims told investigators that the suspects were pounding on the door, identifying themselves as Houston police officers. ABC13’s Charly Edsitty spoke to the adult sons, who said they were trying to fall asleep when they heard someone yelling that they were with HPD. That’s when the sons got up to see what was happening.

Gonzalez said for unknown reasons, when the suspects got inside, they began shooting immediately. When the adult sons confronted them, one of the suspects began firing toward them. That’s when Gonzalez said the suspect may have inadvertently shot his own accomplice.

The wounded man dropped his pistol as he tried to flee, Gonzalez said.

One of the sons said he grabbed the pistol off the floor and started firing, fatally shooting the suspect that initially began shooting at them.

The suspect who was inadvertently shot ran out of the house and took off with a getaway driver in a dark-colored car, Gonzalez said.

Deputies were carefully surveying the home for evidence.

“There are some firearms. There’s ballistic evidence inside the house,” Sidney Miller with HCSO said.

Investigators said they do not think the home invasion was random and believe the home was targeted. They’re working to determine what the motive was.

The search for the two suspects who fled the scene is ongoing.

1 DEAD, 1 CRITICALLY INJURED IN SOUTH SHORE SHOOTING INVOLVING CCL HOLDER DURING ATTEMPTED ROBBERY

CHICAGO (WLS) — One person was killed and another was very critically injured in a shooting during an attempted robbery at a South Shore grocery store, which involved a concealed carry license holder.

Chicago police said the incident happened around 6:20 p.m. in the 2600-block of East 73rd Street.

According to CPD, a man walked into the store and pulled out a gun to start a robbery. A Good Samaritan who CPD said has valid FOID and CCL cards also pulled out a gun and shot the would-be robber.

The would-be robber fired back and struck a third person, the employee who he targeted to rob, police said.

The would-be robber was pronounced dead at the scene. The 64-year-old man who was shot by the offender was taken to University of Chicago Hospital in critical condition. The CCL holder was not injured.

“My grandchildren were upstairs and are terrified…so was I,” said neighbor and witness Stephen Galin.

Police said three guns have been recovered from the scene. An investigation is ongoing.

Observation O’ The Day

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime: the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.
― Robert Heinlein

Belleview teens were shooting each other while wearing armored vest when boy killed

BELLEVIEW, Fla. —Two teenagers have been arrested after a 16-year-old was shot and killed in Belleview Sunday.

According to police, the shooting happened inside a mobile home in the Gateway Homes of Belleview mobile home park along SE 52ND Court around 7 p.m. They found the victim, 16-year-old Christopher Leroy Broad Jr. suffering from a gunshot wound. He was taken to the hospital where he died.

Over the past few days, investigators have determined that another teen, 17, and Broad, were taking turns shooting at each other while wearing a body armor style vest.

Continue reading “”

Your Darwin Award O’ The Day

Honorable Mention

If he had only been a few inches over to the left………..

BLUF:
Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Brett Zimmerman said Payton had a violent history with police, including charges of attempted murder, attempted robbery of a firearm and assault on a protected person. All involved police and arriving officers had knowledge of Payton’s violent past before the shooting.

“Justice System” failure, or is that ‘feature’?. hrmmmm.
27 years old with a rap sheet of several violent felonies and still on the street means the Justice System Revolving Door™ seems to work just fine. It’s apparent Marvon felt-with a certain justification -that he could get away with whatever he wanted, with minimal consequences, until he finally ran into people who wouldn’t put up with his crap and they took care of business. Permanently. As In Dead Right There.

Vegas Man Shot 14 Times Outside a Vegas Gun Range
Las Vegas — Officers were called at 11:59 a.m. last Weds to The Range 702, at 5999 Dean Martin Drive, after an employee reported that a man had been caught rifling through a customer’s bag during a break from a concealed carry permit course . Range employees escorted the man, Marvin Payton Jr, 27 outside to await the police.

Seconds after police pulled up, the man attacked a female officer, striking her twice with a screwdriver. Most everyone on the scene then shot Payton 14 times.

Metropolitan Police Department Assistant Sheriff Brett Zimmerman said Payton had a violent history with police, including charges of attempted murder, attempted robbery of a firearm and assault on a protected person. All involved police and arriving officers had knowledge of Payton’s violent past before the shooting.

The injured officer, who has not been named, was treated and released from University Medical Center the afternoon of the shooting. She suffered a fracture near her eye, Zimmerman said.

No charges have been filed against the crowd that shot Payton.

“YouTube video prank”
1 Sorry, that pegs my BS meter.
2 If true, the deadhead wins a Darwin Award, 1st Class.

One killed in Hermitage shooting; suspect claiming self defense

HERMITAGE, Tenn. (WTVF) — One person was killed in a shooting in Hermitage Friday night. Metro police are investigating a claim of self defense in the shooting.

Metro Nashville Police officials say it happened at 4331 Old Hickory Boulevard around 9:20 p.m. in the parking lot of Urban Air.

When officers arrived at the scene, David Starnes Jr., 23, was there. He admitted to shooting the victim, 20-year-old Timothy Wilks.

Detectives were told Wilks and a friend were taking part in a prank robbery as part of a YouTube video and approached a group of people – including Starnes – with butcher knives.

Starnes told detectives he was unaware of the prank and shot Wilks in defense of himself and the others in the group.

No charges have been placed at this time. The investigation is ongoing.

‘Accident’ my eye. The only way that happened is the homeowner was hanging on the top of that window watching him turn blue. Much cleaner than a 00 buck or 5.56 .

Florida burglar climbing into home killed by falling window

A freak accident involving a falling window killed a Florida burglar, according to a report.

It happened Saturday during the attempted burglary of a home in Lehigh Acres, NBC 2 Fort Myers reported.

Jonathan Hernandez, 32.

Jonathan Hernandez, 32. (Lee County Sheriff’s Office )

Lee County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that the window killed Jonathan Hernandez when it slammed down on him as he was climbing through it.

The incident report says the window came down on the 32-year-old man’s neck, the station reported.

Deputies found him dead when they arrived on the scene.

Tyrone Lane told the station he and Hernandez were friends. He questioned the account of what happened.

“He is not a burglar,” he said “He’s not a thief. He’s not a bad guy. That’s not what he is.”

←New Category
They’re called “LESS Lethal”, not Less THAN Lethal.
Also:
“EtOH is a force multiplier. It takes small piss poor decisions and magnifies them into tragedies of epic proportions.” –the late Kevin RC O’Brien SFC(R) USA.

Man, 23, accidentally killed with shotgun after friends shoot each other with rubber bullets

A 23-year-old man was shot and killed in central California after a bizarre shooting that began with three friends drinking and shooting each other with rubber bullets for fun, authorities said.

Fresno County Sheriff deputies were called Sunday night about a person being shot and seriously injured at a home in Tollhouse, Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Botti said.

Deputies and emergency personnel performed CPR, but Bradly Smith, of Clovis, died a short time later, the Fresno Bee reported.

A friend identified as Elvis Hernandez, 30, of Reedley, fired a shotgun blast at him. Hernandez has been arrested on charges of involuntary manslaughter in the incident, Botti said. Continue reading “”