Why not to rob an Italian family pizza parlor....

[Texas Dan Mosby]

They have guns too....

Short synopsis:

Moron criminal opts to rob a well established neighborhood Italian family owned pizza parlor. One of the boys pulls a gun on the robber who promptly runs away in terror like a 5 year old girl, 2 of the other family members promptly secure THEIR firearms, and ALL give chase to said moron criminal.

Cops arrest the moron, no one is hurt, and the case is up for review.

Link:


http://www.pjstar.com/news/x291610559/R ... lor-foiled" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[seamusTX]

This incident took place in Peoria, Illinois.

- Jim

[dicion]

Warning Shots into the air, arming and chasing down a bad guy, and then potentially shooting at the BG after he has fled are all things to be doing.

However, the end result was that no one got shot, and the bad guy got caught, so net positive, but it could have gone much worse.
Maybe if they actually had a program in Il that teaches people the law on self defense, and how to legally use a handgun for it, it would have turned out better... Maybe something like a CHL program!

[Hoi Polloi]

This part cracks me up!

"'I had a clear shot, but I didn't want to take it if I didn't have to.' [Restaurant co-owner] Dan Agatucci chased the suspect out the door and fired a shot into the air to warn pedestrians that there was a man with a gun."

[pbwalker]

"I don't know if he thought there was an officer in the back or what," Dan Agatucci said. "I had a clear shot, but I didn't want to take it if I didn't have to."

Sorry, but he would have been DRT if he had a gun pointed at a family member.

Dan Agatucci chased the suspect out the door and fired a shot into the air to warn pedestrians that there was a man with a gun.

Moron...

[Hoi Polloi]

It looks like we all had our attentions caught by the same parts of the story!

[cbr600]

I guess that answers the question if it will play in Peoria.

[Excaliber]

This part cracks me up!

"'I had a clear shot, but I didn't want to take it if I didn't have to.' [Restaurant co-owner] Dan Agatucci chased the suspect out the door and fired a shot into the air to warn pedestrians that there was a man with a gun."

Since this is not a widely accepted way of warning innocent people in the area, I suspect that it was the statement version that followed a little informal counsel on shots in the air.

[A-R]

Warning Shots into the air, arming and chasing down a bad guy, and then potentially shooting at the BG after he has fled are all things to be doing.

However, the end result was that no one got shot, and the bad guy got caught, so net positive, but it could have gone much worse.
Maybe if they actually had a program in Il that teaches people the law on self defense, and how to legally use a handgun for it, it would have turned out better... Maybe something like a CHL program!

Very good point.

[macavity]

-removed by user-

[seamusTX]

Every new year's eve and fourth of July someone, somewhere, is hurt or killed by a stray bullet.

Legally, firing into the air is not a specific offense in Texas. It would fall under a disorderly conduct, deadly conduct, or manslaughter statute if someone were killed.

- Jim

[The Annoyed Man]

This incident took place in Peoria, Illinois.

- Jim

Therefore, it didn't happen. Armed citizens are not allowed to roam the streets of Illinois. Their magnificent gun laws prevent that. If this had really happened, all of the family members would have been arrested and carted off to the hoosegow.

[The Annoyed Man]

It's my understanding that shooting into the air is potentially dangerous (what goes up, must come down, at the same velocity minus air resistance). Is there any law about this or documented instances where people have been injured/killed from falling bullets?

I can give you better than documentation. Back in my ER days, I helped to treat 3 different gunshot patients who were hit by bullets falling out of the sky, when neither witnesses nor the patient ever heard the shot fired. The least hurt person was badly hurt. One of them ultimately died from the effects of the injury. I'll start with him.

1. Patient and two of his buddies are shooting at a Forest Service owned shooting area in the mountains above Los Angeles, located just off the Angeles Forest Hwy, just above the ranger station above Hidden Springs. (I've shot there myself before the range was closed.) Victim walks out to target stand to put up a new target, and while he is stooped over, a .308 round arcs in and strikes him in the temple, destroying a large part of his brain and skull. The shot was fired from so far away that neither of his two friends nor any of the other witnesses at the range heard the shot fired. Sadly, he lived for another couple of years, curled up like a fetus in an awake but vegetative state before succumbing to pneumonia.
2. Patient is a man, driving a rag-top Jeep northbound up Lake Avenue in Pasadena. While sitting at a red light at Orange Grove Blvd, a .45 ACP FMJ round comes down through the top of his Jeep, striking him in the top of his thigh. The bullet broke his femur. There are no tall buildings anywhere near that intersection.
3. Patient is a woman, walking along the Rose Parade route on New Years Eve, on Colorado Blvd. There are literally thousands of witnesses within 75 yards of where she is standing, when a .223 bullet falls out of the sky, striking her in the top of her left shoulder. Nobody heard the shot. The bullet goes down through her left chest, tunneling through her lung, punctures her diaphragm, holes her stomach and intestines in several places, hits the inside of her left pelvis, ricochets at a 90º angle, destroys her bladder, ricochets upwards off the inside of her right pelvis, and finally comes to rest in her liver. 14 hours of surgery (all that night and into the next day) and 24 units of blood later, she survives. She is able to eventually walk out of the hospital, but she was in for a long, long time.

Now, I know that this stuff is purely anecdotal to anyone who wasn't there with me, and I can't tell you any longer the exact dates of these incidents. They all predate the public's use of the Internet, and I've been unable to find any archival links to stories on newspaper websites about them; but they occurred between the years of 1979 to 1985, during which time I worked the PM shift in the ER at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. I personally saw all three of these patients. The on-the-scene details were reported to me by the PPD officers, many of whom I knew personally, who initially responded to the incidents and who showed up along with the paramedics when the patients were brought in; and the medical details were my personal observations as I was involved in their care.

I don't really care what Mythbusters or anyone like that says if they deny the possibility, because I have personal and intimate knowledge of such incidents. So anyone who would deny that this can happen is either very much mistaken (not to mention foolish), or they are calling me a liar..... .....and I'm not a liar, nor am I crazy. These things can and do happen.

[seamusTX]

Armed citizens are not allowed to roam the streets of Illinois. Their magnificent gun laws prevent that. If this had really happened, all of the family members would have been arrested ...

When laws are draconian or senseless, the police start to ignore them or enforce them selectively. That has been happening in Illinois for decades.

Illinois actually has a reasonable castle doctrine and a specific law that says a person cannot be prosecuted for a technical weapon violation in a self-defense incident.

On the subject of bullets fired into the air, the elevation (angle) makes a world of difference. A shot fired at a 40-45° angle retains much of its kinetic energy. A shot fired straight up can cause injury, but likely not a serious or fatal injury.

- Jim

[gigag04]

Dan Agatucci chased the suspect out the door and fired a shot into the air to warn pedestrians that there was a man with a gun.

Moron...

I've seen the Sopranos...They were chasing him down so they could bring him back and cut off his hands as a warning to any other street criminals that would try to infiltrate their den.