Shootout in Tampa

[pax]

From http://www.sptimes.com/News/031101/TampaBay/Hurt_deputy_kills_sus.shtml

Hurt deputy kills suspect in shootout

Three teens arrested as robbery accomplices face murder charges in their friend's death, police say.
By MELANIE AVE and AMY HERDY

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 11, 2001
TAMPA -- As their friend lay dying inside a McDonald's restaurant, the 16-year-old robbery suspects decided they had better tell his mother what had happened.

They drove their getaway car to the Central Park Village housing complex near downtown and searched frantically for 18-year-old Jason Underwood's mother, Brenda Milord. They told her Jason had been shot in a gun battle during a robbery Friday night.

She drove to the McDonald's at N Dale Mabry Highway near Spruce Street, but deputies told her they didn't know who was inside.

"I told them, "He's got on shiny Nikes,' " she said. Rest of Article

Some tidbits from further down in the article:

• Underwood, who attended King High School, has a criminal past that includes an arrest in January on charges of possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia and petty theft. Relatives said he served two years at a juvenile facility in Manatee County for car theft. He was released in 1998. "He wasn't (a) bad child," said Milord, his mother. "It wasn't nothing but peer pressure." What a predictable quote!
  
• Underwood's friends said they don't know how or why the four ended up at McDonald's. But they wonder why he ended up dead. "I think there was a better way to handle it," said 22-year-old Donna Davis, who said she is pregnant with Underwood's daughter. The guy blows into a McD's wearing a ski mask and starts capping people, and she thinks there was a "better way to handle it" than telling him to stop and then stopping him in the most effective way possible?
  
• Davis said Underwood came my her house Friday morning to make sure she was all right. "He was talking about going shopping for the baby shower and what I needed," she said. "He was always taking care of me, giving me money." Where does she suppose the money came from?

Here's hoping the deputy recovers completely.

pax

 

[hagar]

Good riddance to bad rubbish is all I can say.

 

[mussi]

Robbing a McDonald's is possibly the least-paying thing that you can
do if you're a thug. The money is usually quickly withdrawn from the
cash drawers and deposited into a safe that can only be emptied by a
security firm that transports the money off to the next bank.

And quite possibly, you end with a tag on your toe if you hit the
wrong restaurant.

 

[Long Path]

"I think there was a better way to handle it," said 22-year-old Donna Davis, who said she is pregnant with Underwood's daughter.

BETTER WAY TO HANDLE IT??!?!?!??

Deputies said Underwood attempted to fire his 9mm handgun into the ceiling, but it misfired. He struck an employee on the head with the gun, then he pulled the slide on the gun to load a round from the clip. Freeman, who had been concealed behind a partition, ordered him to stop.

"We're not exactly sure who fired first," said Sheriff's Col. David Gee. "All we know is there was almost a simultaneous exchange of gunfire." Underwood fired at least three shots at Freeman, who fired five shots from his .45-caliber handgun, striking Underwood in the torso. Freeman was hit in his leg.

Hmmmm, wonder if Underwood had a Lorcin? (No... wait, he managed to get off 5 rounds consecutively...) Actually, it sounds like he simply didn't have one chambered.

The deputy had transferred from school resource officer.

The only thing that could've been done better was to use fewer than 5 shots to put the man down and move on to his .22-wielding partner. But things get a little hectic in a gunfight, so I understand.

Glad to hear the deputy made it out all right.

 

[Jim V]

Chlorine at work again.

...peer pressuer..." and "...better way to handle it...", BS. The family and the DBG's whatever need a dose of chlorine too.