Posted on 05/21/2004 10:15:03 AM PDT by TERMINATTOR
(INDIANAPOLIS, May 18th, 2004, 3:30 p.m.) -- A pizza delivery driver who fatally shot a man he said brandished a gun and tried to rob him was fired from his job and could face criminal charges.
Ronald B. Honeycutt shot Jerome Brown, 20, who was pronounced dead a short time after the late Monday shooting.
"I'm just satisfied it was him and not me," said Honeycutt, 38, of Carmel.
Honeycutt said he was returning to his van after making a delivery at an apartment on the city's far east side when he heard someone say "Hey, my guy" and turned to see a man approaching with a gun.
He said he pulled out his 9 mm pistol and fired all 15 rounds at close range.
Marion County Sheriff's Capt. Phil Burton said no witnesses had been found to the fatal shooting of Brown, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
Burton said investigators would present their findings to county prosecutors, who will decide whether any charges will be filed in the case.
After shooting Brown, Honeycutt said he picked up Brown's gun because he feared he had an accomplice, and returned to a Pizza Hut store, where detectives later met him.
He said Pizza Hut fired him for violating a company policy against carrying a gun, which he was licensed to carry.
A Pizza Hut spokeswoman, Patty Sullivan, confirmed that company policy includes a ban on carrying weapons.
Honeycutt said he had been delivering pizza for 20 years and always carried a gun.
"It's a fair job, but I don't plan on dying for it," he said.
What is not mentioned in the article is the coroners report that Brown was so high on meth or crack that he would not have reacted to the initial half dozen gunshot wounds.
After all these robberies just exactly how many delivery drivers are you expecting to end up dead? Just curious.
Deaths that any competent lawyer could blame directly on the no-carry policy. Any excess deaths over some industrywide average would indicate a policy failure, just as though the company had told its crane operators to walk under suspended loads. This would then lead to policy changes that would improve driver safety. Let's see the corporate PC weenies have to decide between "Allow drivers with CCW permits to carry guns" and "Do not deliver to Zip codes XXXX, YYYYY,..."
So have I.
Uh, I'd say the moral is he who shoots first and hits the target wins....
Even with the use of a low power catridge like the 9, that will do the job. Wow! (15 rounds of .22 LR at close range probably would as well).
If the range will allow it, you should on occasion. Many times the police empty their pistols during gunfights as well. The rule is you shoot until the threat is neutralized. Some people are slow to realize when that has been accomplished. :)
News to me. Next time I will empty all 15 shots and then assess the threat.
The 9mm is NOT a low power cartridge.
No it won't. What the suits are worried about it getting sued when a driver only manages to wound the would be robber, or by the survivors. Money is not expendable to them, deliverymen are. It's not like this is the first time they've fired a deliveryman over carrying and they have lost several to robbers and even to sickos who deliberately lure the drivers to an isolated area just so they can kill them.
Well, relative to some others it is. But I was actually just pulling the chain of the 9mm aficianodos. I prefer big and slow bullets, like .45 ACP. Good enough to stop drugged up Muslim Moros, not mention all the Old West bad guys stopped by the ballitically similar .45 (long) Colt, should be good enough for most any encounter where a pistol is the appropriate tool.
But then he would not have had 15 shots! :-)
While not a bad tactic, it leaves you with an empty pistol should the threat not be completely neutralized.
If you read the story, the guy said he kept shooting because the assailant didn't seem to even react to being shot, so he did evaluate the threat and determined to continue firing.
If nothing else, the guy seems fairly well briefed about what to say to the police, and the press, in such a situtation. Maybe he's a Freeper?
And he wouldn't have needed them either. :)
Not that I suspect he actually did in this case either, but then I wasn't there.
T'is better to be judged by 12, than carried by 6.
5.56mm
Pro Choice on firearms eh?
;^>
In that the 9 mm +P exceeds the power of a 'big and slow" 45 acp, I guess you would have to say the 45 ACP is a 'low power' cartridge.
Actually, I don't like trying to press the last two or three cartidges into the magazine! Since I am also a revolver fan, I usually practice with six in my auto also. I grew up "counting the shots" in my revolvers and didn't really get into autos till later. Only my 9mm has large capacity. The 357, 40 and 380 (all sigs) have smaller capacity mags.
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