Shoot Out at the Burger Corral
March 25th, 2009 by Syd
An afternoon shootout at a busy Burger King restaurant in Miami left a potential robber dead and the customer who shot him seriously wounded.
The bloody event unfolded about 4 p.m. Tuesday at the restaurant at Northeast 54th Street and Biscayne Boulevard. It was a time, employees said, when it is usually crowded with schoolchildren and people getting out of work early.
The robber entered wearing a ski mask. He approached a clerk, showed his gun and demanded money, said Miami police spokesman Jeff Giordano.
A customer eyed him and the two started arguing. The customer had a concealed-weapons permit and his gun — and the two exchanged gunfire.
The robber crumpled to the floor and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The customer, with several gunshot wounds, was in serious but stable condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. Source: Miami Herald
At the risk of a charge of armchair quarter backing, I want to make some observations on this one. I have serious objections to receiving gunshot wounds. They hurt a lot. They heal very slowly and often incompletely. And, they may be fatal.
Since I was not on the scene at the time of this incident, I can’t form any opinions about the appropriateness of the defender’s actions. They only thing I can say for sure is that this is not the way we want things to turn out. “Job One is to go home with no bullet holes,” as Jim is fond of saying.
“Would’a, Could’a and Should’a” are really popular games to play, and perhaps if we had the police report we could do that with some accuracy. As it is, what we can glean from this incident is that this is the reason we practice tactics like lateral movement, “moving off the X” and explosive presentation.
Syd! Welcome back!
I saw this report this morning as well. My first thought was, “if I had to get involved to save the employee’s life, why start a conversation with the robber first?” I’d draw as quietly as I could and have him covered before saying anything. Depending on the situation, I may not say anything if the situation was about to go south.
A lot of unanswered questions in that writeup.
Welcome back, Syd. You’ve been missed.
Thanks, guys.
As to the shootout at the burger corral, yeah, don’t waste time talking.
It seems like there are a lot of restaurant shootings here in Florida. Here is one from South Florida that was ugly:
http://www.wpbf.com/news/15474521/detail.html
Thank god you’re back!!
Yeah you were missed. Yeah, I was gettin worried.
To the post, I agree, I’m getting frustrated too, but ya know what? That frustration plays right into the hands of these bastards.
We gotta keep fighting or they’ll take it all. Let them have one inch and we wind up in chains.
Tuco “If you’re gonna shoot, shoot, don’t talk!”
Glad you’re back, Syd!
Welcome back Syd!
Seems like a little bravado arguing with a armed robber. If the gun is out and pointed at someone then you are justified to shoot him without a word.
Nice to see you back.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the concerned citizen with the CCW may have had a bit too much confidence in the power of logic. Specifically, I would guess that he probably thought he’d try to reason with the robber first (and likely, too, his brain wanted to confirm the insane scene his eyes were relaying to it) . It was a civilized gesture that was refuted by a person to whom logic was a foreign concept. In the end, as too often needs to happen, unfortunately, brute force was needed to show the fool the folly of his actions.
Of course, I could be completely wrong in my above hypothesis.
The reports I read say he verbally challenged the robber. The CCW carrier who got shot during the Tacoma Mall shootings did the same thing … verbally challenged the perp.
If you look at David Kleck’s statistics, your odds of getting hurt multiply if you open your mouth.
My suggestion: If deadly force is justifiable, then simply use it immediately.
Shut up and just shoot. It’s safer.