Quote:

C.F. teen escapes kidnapper; suspect later found dead By PAT KINNEY, Courier Business Editor CEDAR FALLS --- The daughter of a prominent Cedar Valley auto dealer bravely fought off a gun-wielding would-be kidnapper who shot her in the foot outside College Square Mall Tuesday night. The tableau ended when officers found the gunman, Michael Lee Hruska, 33, of Waterloo, dead in his vehicle in a Waterloo park early today. Daina Deery, 17, the daughter of auto dealer Dan Deery, escaped the ordeal with a shot through the foot and was home with her family this morning. "My ACL hurt worse," Daina Deery, a senior at Cedar Falls High who was on the Homecoming Court this year, told The Courier this morning, referring to a previous sports injury. She was headed to Allen Hospital for a checkup this morning. Deery said she was joining her family for dinner at Texas Roadhouse near the mall food court. She had been met by her brothers, Dustin and Dylan, when a man later identified as Hruska pulled up in his SUV in the mall crosswalk. "He had the window down and points a gun at me and says, 'I'm going to shoot you,' " Daina Deery said. "I think it's a joke, because it's something you don't hear every day." She and her brothers turned to go in the restaurant. Hruska then opened fire. "He starts shooting the gun like five times, and the second shot hits me in the foot," Deery said. "I'm laying on the ground and my brothers ran into the store" to get help, not realizing she had been hit in the confusion. Other bystanders reportedly ducked for cover. A lower window at the mall entrance was shattered. "There's people all over. No one knows what's going on, and I'm laying on the ground," she said. "And he comes up out of his car and grabs me by the elbow and says, 'Don't fight. Get in the car and don't fight me, otherwise, I'll kill you.' "I said, 'Why would you do this?' Then he said, 'Because I'm going insane,'" Deery said, "I said, 'Please don't kill me, I'll give you any amount of money you want.' He said, 'I don't want that.' "If I get into the car with him, either way, I'm going to die or he's going to shoot me there. I decided to try to save myself," Deery said. She was halfway in the vehicle. "Half my body was on the (car) seat, and he's trying to push me in. We were fighting over the gun. I grabbed the gun. I tried to point it away, and he picks it up and he shoots it, but it goes in the air," because Deery was struggling with him for the gun. "We struggle for a few minutes and a waiter came in from the mall and just ran up to the car and looked in and ran away," apparently to get help. "I thought someone was going to come in a second." Deery's assailant then "starts hitting me in the back of the head, trying to knock me out so I wouldn't fight any more," she said. "He hit me five or six times," but not hard enough to knock her out. Deery said the assailant was about her height, but not as strong as her. Deery is an athlete at Cedar Falls High on the golf team. At that point, about several minutes into the struggle, Deery said Jean Firman, the wife of Cedar Falls pharmacist Steve Firman, came up to the car. "She looks in the window and says, 'What's going on here?' I tell her that he said he's going to kill me." Her assailant, apparently not wanting witnesses then relented. "He lets go of me, then drives off, and that's the end of it," Deery said. Off-duty Cedar Falls firefighter Derek Brown, equipped with an emergency radio, called for help and comforted Deery until other authorities arrived. "I was pretty hysterical," she said. Deery publicly expressed her gratitude to Firman, Brown, her family and everyone else at the scene who helped her. "It was a team effort," she said. "I prayed to God" through the ordeal, Deery said. "I said, 'There's so much more I want to do with my life.' I was ready to fight him forever." Deery said Firman's son, Barry, read the license plate number on the assailant's car. That enabled authorities to track him down. Police had issued warrants seeking Hruska's arrest on charges of attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping and terrorism. At about 5 a.m. today, Waterloo police found a blue GMC Jimmy parked at Katoski Greenbelt Park on Ridgeway Avenue in Waterloo. Inside, they found Hruska dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Olson said. "It is clear that he was going to put her in his vehicle and take her away," Cedar Falls Police Capt. Jeff Olson said this morning. However, Olson added, the act appeared to be random. No motive could be established. Neighbors said Hruska could be violent if taunted. A mall employee who declined to give his name said he was taking a break by the pop machines outside the entrance about 7:30 p.m. when it started. He saw three people run toward the mall from the parking lot, and one of them darted out in front of a vehicle driving past. He said the vehicle almost hit the person. The driver circled around and parked while the trio continued toward the entrance, he said. The driver "just got out and started walking up, and that's when the shooting started," the witness said. He said there were about five or six shots. Another witness, Pete Kieffer of Cedar Falls, was in the middle of the scene in the parking lot when the shooting unfolded. He was apparently between the gunman and the victim and heard what he first thought were firecrackers. The girl was near the doors, screaming "don't shoot me, don't shoot me," Kieffer said. The attacker told him to get out of the way, and he ran for safety. "He was firing right over my shoulder," said Kieffer. Devin and Laura Range of Cedar Falls were driving by to get a birthday gift at the mall when they noticed a man trying to push a girl into the passenger side of an SUV in the parking lot. "She was resisting big time," said Laura, who at first thought the scuffle was a parent-child argument. Omri Ronen Lulu, a former Israeli Defense Forces soldier who now works at a kiosk in the mall, heard the gunfire and rushed see if he could help anyone with his medical training. In the parking lot, he approached the man, who had his arms wrapped around the girl near the vehicle. What looked like a 9 mm pistol was in one of his hands, Lulu said. "Step back," the man told him, and Lulu retreated to the mall. Hruska is a Waterloo native who lived with his parents in a mobile home at 546 Montero Drive. A relative, who briefly spoke with The Courier this morning, said Hruska suffered from bi-polar disorder and was on disability. He had been acting strangely for a while, the relative said. Connie Rust, who has lived next door to Hruska for about five years, said the family is kind of reclusive, but Hruska has been known to fight with neighbor children when they teased him. "They don't like being called names," Rust said. Hruska would often sit in his SUV or in a chair next to the vehicle at length, and once pulled a child off a bicycle when the child made fun of him. There was other weird behavior, Rust said. One day last winter, she caught Hruska peeking in her window and watched as he walked back to his parents' mobile home. The family quit talking to Rust when she mentioned the incident to Hruska's parents. http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2005/11/02/news/metro/doc4368f96b5ff70250490502.txt

It just blows my mind that so many people would stand idly by and watch this young girl be assaulted.  If she didn't resist, she most likely would've ended up dead.  Americans have become a bunch of tail-tucking, yellow-bellied, mouth-breathing cowards.  Any able-bodied man that stood by and watched this happen should be forcibly deported to France.  What a waste of oxygen.

What was up with her brothers, anyway?  Assuming they weren't younger children, they never should've abandoned their sister.  Gun or not, there isn't a chance in Hell I'd leave one of my sisters behind in that kind of situation.

Some people think I'm paranoid when I carry concealed to the grocery store, movie theatre, or other "non-dangerous" location.  I think this goes to show just how dangerous those places can be.  I doubt this girl was expecting to face any sort of danger on that trip to the mall.  

Remember, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

-b0b
(...grrs.)

With stories like these I'm surprised more people don't go vigilante like in Punisher or Boondock Saints.  I just don't understand how people can be so calus.  This situation would have never happened 100 years ago, and that's with more people carrying guns on them.  Nor 50 years ago, where people helped out other people.  Too many people don't want to help others and that leads them into bad "karma".  When we see them crying on TV saying I didn't think it could happen to me.

X
(Shakes head)

It was funny on Seinfeld, but it just doesn't work in the real world.
Seriously...what's happened to our society?

(can hear the cries of the Planet)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002641156_mallshooting23m.html


Quote:

The man who was critically wounded during Sunday's shooting rampage at Tacoma Mall drew a pistol and confronted the gunman before he was cut down by gunfire, his family said Tuesday. Brendan "Dan" McKown was delivering a bank deposit for a mall gift store when gunshots scattered shoppers at around noon. McKown was among six people hit. Police say Dominick Sergio Maldonado, 20, of Tacoma, marched through the mall shooting randomly at shoppers before taking four hostages in a Sam Goody music store. He surrendered about four hours later. Witnesses told McKown's family that he was shot after he pulled his own handgun during the shooting. "Our understanding is that Dan drew his weapon and confronted the gunman," his stepmother, Beverly McKown, said during a news conference Tuesday at Tacoma General Hospital. McKown, 38, was shot twice in the abdomen and may have suffered permanent paralysis due to spinal damage, said hospital spokesman Todd Kelley. McKown was being brought out of a medically induced coma Tuesday. The other shooting victims were treated at hospitals and released. Tacoma police confirmed that McKown had a gun, but spokesman Mark Fulghum said there was no evidence that gunshots were fired by anyone other than Maldonado, who faces numerous criminal charges. Police also could not confirm whether there was a confrontation between the two men before McKown was shot. Maldonado is being held in the Pierce County Jail on $2 million bail. McKown's father, Roger McKown, said his son has a permit to carry a handgun, which he did not out of fear but because "he always believed in protecting people." (Snip)

Apparently, the only serious injury that occurred at the Tacoma Mall shooting was caused by a tactical error.  Brendan drew his concealed pistol and verbally confronted the shooter.  For his trouble, he was shot twice and is now in Tacoma General Hospital.  He will probably not walk again.

If you carry a weapon for defense you are under no legal obligation to utter a single word before you pull the trigger.  In fact, it is an error of colossal proportions to tell the shooter that you exist.

If you challenge a man who has drawn a weapon with the intent to kill, do you truly believe that you can talk him out of firing?  Are you willing to risk your life at the marginal chance of preserving the life of a drug addict and felon?  Moreover, if you are the only thing between that man and hordes of crying soccer moms, is it not better to err on the side of caution and ensure that there is only one casualty?

Generally, a citizen is allowed to use deadly force to protect another individual (including a total stranger) from death or serious injury, including rape.  This is a perfect example of why such a legal doctrine exists.

When you have to pull the trigger, there are three ways to disable an attacker - hydraulically, mechanically, and electrically.  "Hydraulically" disabling someone requires one or more wounds that will cause the attacker to "bleed out."  Even with a fatal heart wound, the attacker has at least 60-90 seconds of mobility before they lose consciousness.  For obvious reasons, this is not a preferred method.  "Mechanically" disabling someone is more difficult, but it physically prevents an attacker from continuing their attack by "dropping" them.  In a close-quarters confrontation, this is most easily done with a pelvic shot, which is a fairly large target.  A bullet to the pelvis will drop an attacker instantly and keep him mostly immobile.  However, this doesn't disable his upper body, so this will do little to stop a determined attacker with a firearm or other "ranged" weapon.   The last and most preferred option is to "electrically" disable an attacker.  This requires a very accurate shot to one of two areas - the spine, which is nearly impossible to hit under stress on a moving target, and the "headband," a two inch band around the middle of the head.  This is the area to aim for.

The headband is the "lightswitch" that will instantly and permanently drop an attacker if hit hard enough.  If someone threatens your life, shut him down.  If his back is turned, all the better.  He can't see you, and will therefore be a much easier target.  This isn't medieval Europe, and chivalry doesn't mean a thing when a crazy serial killer is mowing down men, women, and children in the middle of a busy mall.

If you ever decide to carry, you'd better be prepared to do what you have to do.  A brave man is laying in a hospital bed right now because he did not act aggressively enough.  I know that hindsight is 20/20 and I can play armchair quarterback all day long, but this event should be a lesson to us.

-b0b
(...thinks nice guys finish last in a gunfight.)

Ya know I was thinking.  People who say only the police and military and the national guard should be the only ones allowed to carry weapons never talk about security personel.  What I mean is that security personel guard money (or things of value) and individual people.  Let's look at both these types.  

The first is someone who is willing to take a life(s) if another human being is attempting to steal what they are guarding.  Armored car drivers, bank security, building security, etc.  They almost always carry weapons.  Why should this be?  They're not working for the state so they should not be allowed to carry (under the rules of the first sentence of this post).  They are guarding things that are insured or things that are not people.  They have limited power unlike the 3 mentioned in the rule.  These people should be stopped of their war mongoring and surrender their weapons.

The second type is someone who guards someone else.  These people are not employed by the state but rather by individual people.  Aren't these people just hired guns?  This is a disgrace!  Let the police help them.  When they're about to be shot by a mugger or stalker let them call the police, wait for the police, and then not be taken hostage.  Or let them file a restraining order.  That'll keep anyone safe cause no one's going to mess with that holy doctrine!  Heck why should the President have bodyguards?  Why does he have special protection...let him call the police if someone's trying to assassinate him!

Now I like the show West Wing.  It has changed by views somewhat on certain types of "liberal" thinking but over all it's just good entertainment.  The funniest quote off of there was episode 201.  President Bartlet had just been shot by some gunmen who were in a building across from where he was.  I won't go into the detail why because that's not my point.  But CJ Craig, the president's press secretary, is trying to push the liberal viewpoint.  I'll be paraphrasing, I believe, but this is close to what she said.  "And for all of you who think guns should be used for personal protection...let me just remind you that the President of the United States was surrounded by 7 well-armed and well-trained Secret Service members."  So what this character is saying that not even the President should have the ability to protect himself.

My point to that last statement is that every President since Washington has had some type of personal protection.  Whether conservative OR liberal.  And any anti-gun person in the US, if elected President would NOT stop his/her protection from carrying weapons.  The hypocracy is endless.

There was a massive disarmament in NOLA after Hurricane Katrina.  It should be noted that armed guards were not disarmed.  The message?  Protecting the belongings of rich people is more important than protecting the lives of average Joes.

Here's a really powerful quote from the mall shooting.


Quote:

"I wanted to shoot back, and I didn't have anything to shoot back with," -Air Force veteran Frank Stiles, shooting victim

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47539

If that doesn't speak volumes, I don't know what does.

-b0b
(...grumble cakes.)