at a strip mall Thursday night, then shot himself to death, police said.
Posted on 11/19/2004 11:06:54 AM PST by crushelits
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- A gunman fatally shot two people and wounded a third inside a Radio Shack store
at a strip mall Thursday night, then shot himself to death, police said.
Another customer and an employee managed to escape uninjured from the store at the Gateway Shopping Center, police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.
Police did not identify the gunman, but police spokesman George Kajtsa said the man "had some mental issues, according to his family."
"He was involved in some kind of a road rage incident today that the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department is investigating," Kajtsa said. He had no other details, other than that the incident occurred well before the evening shootings.
Proffitt said investigators did not know the gunman's motive or whether he knew his victims. The Tampa Tribune previously reported that the gunman was a former Radio Shack employee, but Proffitt could not confirm that.continues...
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Come on now, no need to be ignorant! RadioShack employees are people too, and I'm sure, like all companies, they aren't allowed to sock customers in the face when they are rude to them! Controlling this urge can often be confused with facial expressions appearing to be looks of confusion. I've worked retail before - I know this feeling! Usually the thoughts going through my mind included "this guy probably thinks he's funny" and "wow, I think I'll take as long as possible to do this, pretending I'm stupid, and maybe I'll make him late to whatever he's doing next." We didn't really want to retain these customers anyway, as they usually didn't spend much money in our store! Watch out, and remember - it may be good fun for you picking on someone, but you never know when they may have "mental problems" and snap!
When I go to Radio Shack (rarely anymore) I always get around to telling the youngsters what Radio Shack
used to be like. An electronics hardware store. But most of the old hardware stores are gone too, so they have
no point of reference. They just nod, and try to humor the old fogey and
..."by the way what's your telephone number?"
ping
Maybe back in the day that was true, but I haven't been in a Radio Shack in the last 15 years where there was any clerk who knew a woofer from a diode.
Actually, that was kinda my point - if you look around in the "newer" Radioshack, they are starting to look _more_ like Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. I think they're trying to change, in order to generate more profit (I imagine resistors, caps, pots, etc probably don't generate much profit in the average store). I believe the _average_ consumer nowadays seems to care more that something works out of the box, rather than how it works - it's almost to the point where they want drive-thru service! I'm frustrated myself that the convenient parts hardware store seems to be dwindling, but no need to bash a company for changing its business model to generate profit (good for shareholders!). If anything, I like the way they organized the parts they do have into the drawers - it makes it a little easier to find without having to ask!
"You've got questions. We've got CRAZED LUNATICS WITH GUNS!!!!11"
Oh and they certainly dont have any answers. Usually just a dumb stare.
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