by The Last Gun- How Changes in the Gun Industry Are Killing Americans
Suicide: Prospect Heights, Illinois. An unnamed sixteen-year-old boy shot himself to death with his father’s 45 caliber pistol.28
Saturday, August 6
Nonfatal shooting: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Lataya Anthony, thirty-one, suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach. Ms. Anthony would not cooperate with police, who had no suspect for the shooting.29
Homicide, nonfatal shooting: Oakland, California. Lashawna Candies, twenty-five, was killed and her thirty-four-year-old aunt was wounded when they accidentally drove into the middle of a shootout between rival groups.30
Murder-suicide: Lincoln, Nebraska. Jerry Crook, fifty-seven, shot and killed Sueann Bedlion, forty-seven, then killed himself with the same gun. Bedlion’s twenty-year-old daughter was present and fled the apartment.31
Homicide: Bradenton, Florida. Roman Hall, forty-three, was found shot to death outside the backdoor of his residence.32
Homicide: Fort Worth, Texas. Larry Lampkin, eighteen, was found dead in a breezeway of the apartment complex in which he lived. He had been shot multiple times. Police later arrested one juvenile and were seeking another for the shooting, which apparently was the result of an argument.33
Homicide and nonfatal shooting: Petersburg, Virginia. Corey M. Lewis Jr., sixteen, was shot to death. An unnamed twenty-eight-year-old man was also found shot near by. Police later arrested five suspects, including two juveniles, in connection with the shootings.34
Suicide: New Port Richey, Florida. Christos Marangos, thirty, shot himself in the head after exchanging gunfire at his residence with Pasco County sheriff’s deputies. Authorities had come to the home to question Marangos, who had a criminal record, about several burglaries. He opened fire when the deputies entered the mobile home.35
Homicide: Jersey City, New Jersey. Rakim Priester, twenty-one, was cut down in a hail of more than two dozen bullets. The single bullet that struck Priester out of the many fired at him inflicted a fatal wound. Police later arrested Aziz R. Wright, nineteen, and Donelle L. Golden, twenty-one, in connection with the murder.36
Homicide: New Brunswick, New Jersey. Jesse Simons, sixty-one, a hospital worker, was found on a street, mortally wounded by gunshot. He later died in the hospital. No suspects were arrested.37
Homicide: Chester, Pennsylvania. After responding to a report of shots fired, police found a thirty-seven-year-old man lying on the ground mortally wounded by gunfire. The man died shortly later. He was not identified.38
Nonfatal shooting, homicide of police officer, homicide (police legal intervention): El Cajon and San Diego, California. Dejon White, twenty-three, approached Martin Hana, twenty-three, who was in his car at an El Cajon In-N-Out Burger. White fired one round with a shotgun, hitting Hana in the face. Hana survived his wounds but required intensive surgery and care. White sped away and shortly afterward pulled up beside a San Diego police car and fired another round through his passenger-side window, killing officer Jeremy Henwood, thirty-six. Investigators tracked White’s car to his home address. When they arrived, a shootout ensued, and White was killed by police gunfire. White may have intended so-called suicide by cop.39
Sunday, August 7
Homicide, nonfatal shooting: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Yavonne Burch, twenty-two, was shot to death, and another woman in her early twenties was injured by gunfire in front of a residence. Authorities later arrested Vincent “Huddy” Leach, twenty-six, in connection with the shootings.40
Homicide, nonfatal shooting: Chicago, Illinois. Six-year-old Arianna Gibson was shot dead and two teenagers were wounded when a gunman opened fire through the living room window. Arianna was sleeping on a couch. Authorities believe one of the teenagers was the intended target of the shooter.41
Homicide (mass shooting), nonfatal injury, homicide (police intervention): Copley Township, Ohio. Armed with two handguns, Michael Hance, fifty-one, went on a ten-minute rampage through the neighborhood in which he and his girlfriend lived. Hance shot seven people to death and critically wounded his girlfriend. The gunman apparently stalked specific targets, including an eleven-year-old and two teenagers, while allowing others to escape. Hance was shot to death by responding police.42
Nonfatal shooting (self-defense): St. Petersburg, Florida. Would-be robber Anthony Lawrence Hauser, seventeen, was shot four times by Raven Smith, thirty-four, when he attempted to hold up Smith’s girlfriend in the parking lot of an Applebee’s restaurant. Smith had a concealed-carry permit and police ruled the shooting self-defense.43
Homicide: Houston, Texas. Salem Saif Al Mazroui and his father, Saif Bin Musallam Al Mazroui, were confronted by two men as they were unloading their vehicle in front of the father’s apartment. One of the men opened fire with a pistol when the father and son attempted to flee. The son was fatally injured. He had been visiting his father from the United Arab Emirates. Two suspects were later arrested and charged with capital murder.44
Nonfatal shooting: Fort Lauderdale, Florida. James McIvery, seventy-nine, fired two bullets at the ground, one of which struck twelve-year-old Traves Neal in the stomach. McIvery asserted that he did not mean to shoot anyone and merely intended to scare off a group of youths who had been repeatedly pestering him and his disabled daughter.45
Attempted murder-suicide: Lake Villa Township, Illinois. After a domestic argument, Gordon D. Olsen, fifty-two, shot his forty-nine-year-old wife in the head and chest, then shot himself. Olsen died. His wife, who was not named in news reports, survived and was expected to make a full recovery from her injuries.46
Unintentional nonfatal shooting: Warren, Rhode Island. An unnamed twenty-six-year-old man was shot in the abdomen and buttocks when a firearm accidentally discharged. He recovered. A twenty-four-year-old man was taken into custody on the misdemeanor charge of firing in a compact area.47
Homicide, nonfatal shooting: Boston, Massachusetts. Elvis Sanchez, seventeen, and his mother, Elvira Pimentel, forty-three, were shot dead in their home, and another unnamed male was wounded.48
Murder-suicide: Buena Park, California. William Schilling, fifty-three, fatally shot his wife, Susan, forty-eight, in the head in the couple’s bedroom. He then fatally shot himself in the head. Schilling had recently inherited from his father the 30-06 rifle he used.49
Murder-suicide, New Port Richey, Florida. Stephen Michael Searce, fifty-eight, fatally shot to death his wife, Penny Lynn Searce, forty-eight. He then shot himself and died.50
Homicide, nonfatal shooting: New Orleans, Louisiana. Jamaal Stewart, twenty-eight, was found shot to death in his vehicle. About an hour later, an unnamed seventeen-year-old boy was shot in the back, thigh, and buttocks while riding his bicycle.51
Murder-suicide (family annihilation): Brooklyn Park, Maryland. Kelly Brian Thompson, thirty-three, shot and killed his wife, Nina Thompson, thirty-four, and her fifteen-year-old twin children, Taishawn Pugh and Treshawn Pugh. He fatally shot himself when police arrived.52
APPENDIX B:
GLOCK HANDGUNS IN THE NEWS:
MAY 2011-APRIL 2012
The following are representative incidents involving Glock handguns that were reported in U.S. news media between May 1, 2011, and April 30, 2012, based on searches of the Nexis.com database. Because the news media typically underreport such incidents, the following are anecdotal only and should not be regarded as the complete universe nor as a random sample. Given restrictions on the release of more detailed government data, however, news reports often represent the best available source of examples of the use of guns in America. (This appendix includes some incidents that were reported in the news media during the period of the search but which occurred earlier.)
May 9, 2011—DeBary, Florida. Louis Vasquez, twenty-seven, suspicious of his wife, Linda, twenty-two, tracked her down to his mother’s home and shot her to death with a 40 caliber Glock 22 pistol. Vasquez, whose mother described him as a real “Mommy’s boy” in a 911 call, then committed suicide with the same gun.1
May 16, 2011—Gilbert, Arizona. The Maricopa Coun
ty Attorney’s office reported that it would not press charges against Matthew Jon Bohls, twenty-three. On April 9, Bohls shot to death Mitchell Shane Fickes, fifty-six, after an apparent incident of road rage. Bohls told Gilbert police that Fickes got out of his vehicle and threatened him with a 45 caliber Glock handgun. Bohls leaned out of his pickup with his own 9mm Glock pistol, fired, and inflicted fatal wounds on Fickes.2
June 13, 2011—Marysville, California. Devin Brendan Parker and Anthony Andrew Oliver were sentenced after pleading guilty to shooting at a car in a gang-related incident on March 9. The judge ordered that the Glock 10mm pistol used in the shooting be destroyed.3
June 16, 2011—New Bern, North Carolina. Stan Dale Williams was sentenced to a maximum of twenty-eight years in prison after pleading guilty to the murder of nineteen-year-old Cameron Jamar Gatling in February 2009. Williams shot Gatling with a Glock handgun in a nightclub parking lot after an incident inside the club.4
June 28, 2011—Volusia County, Florida. Marcus White, twenty, was arrested and charged with manslaughter after authorities determined that he had lied to them about the circumstances of his unintentional fatal shooting with a 40 caliber Glock pistol of his sleeping father, Douglas White, fifty, on June 7.5
July 1, 2011—Miami, Florida. Manuel A. Guarch, twenty-six, a Florida assistant state attorney, discharged his Glock handgun three times inside the parking garage of his condominium building after a night of drinking. Guarch later resigned his post, and his girlfriend, also an assistant state attorney, was demoted for her involvement.6
July 5, 2011—Plantation, Florida. Joseph Santy, a Plantation police officer, was off duty, cleaning his police-issued Glock 9mm pistol at his home while listening to his iPod. According to an internal investigation, he “apparently became distracted and failed to remove a round of ammunition from the chamber of the firearm.” He pulled the trigger, and shot himself in the abdomen. He survived the shooting and was ordered to undergo further gun training.7
July 13, 2011—Dixon, Missouri. Gary Ball, thirty, shot Theron Parlin, thirty-two, seventeen times in the face—emptying a high-capacity magazine—before reloading his 9mm Glock pistol and turning the gun on himself. The incident apparently involved a domestic dispute.8
August 1, 2011—Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Jeffrey Rogers, fifty-eight, a former Bethlehem police officer, filed a lawsuit contending that he was discriminated against when he was suspended and forced to retire on disability after improperly discharging his handgun. According to court papers filed by Rogers, he became woozy while in the police headquarters bathroom on December 31, 2010. His 40 caliber Glock pistol was discharged into the ceiling. In explaining why he failed to report the incident until later in the day, Rogers said that he was disoriented and deafened.9
August 5, 2011—Cape Canaveral, Florida. Francis Howard Morrell, a seventy-one-year-old retired dentist, burst into a pet-grooming business and fired a round into the ceiling with his Glock 9mm pistol. He was said to be eccentric and was apparently in a dispute with the business owner. Morrell pointed his pistol at responding police and was shot dead.10
September 2, 2011—Jacksonville, North Carolina. Robert Lewis, twenty-nine, a former military policeman, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and failure to secure a firearm from a minor. Lewis’s three-year-old son, Tyler, shot himself with a Glock 22 pistol left in the home in November 2009. Lewis claimed that he had left the gun on top of a seven-foot-tall home entertainment center, a claim prosecutors disputed. The toddler shot himself in the head with the gun.11
October 11, 2011—Helena-West Helena, Arkansas. More than seven hundred law enforcement officers arrested fifty-one people in several small Arkansas Delta towns, the culmination of a major drug-trafficking investigation. A federal indictment in the case said a network of people helped transport drugs, paraphernalia, and weapons, including Glock 40 caliber pistols, AK-47 assault rifles, and AR-15 assault rifles.12
October 15, 2011—Gonzales, Louisiana. Celestine Skia, a twenty-two-year-old housekeeper, bought a 40 caliber Glock pistol at Cabela’s Sporting Goods for her boyfriend, a federal indictment alleges. The boyfriend is charged in state court with shooting a man to death the same day. Skia, who pleaded not guilty, was also accused of buying a Kel-Tec .223 pistol at a gun show on September 18, 2010, and an assault rifle a year earlier at the same show.13
October 27, 2011—Webster, Texas. Blake Powell, twenty-six, was sentenced to eight years in prison after having pled guilty to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Powell showed up at a co-worker’s home after he was fired for drinking on the job. He then pursued the co-worker in a high-speed chase through a residential neighborhood, firing at least ten rounds from his Glock pistol. “You are kind of like everybody’s nightmare about one of those workplace guys that go berserk,” Judge Shawna L. Reagin said at Powell’s sentencing.14
November 4, 2011—Gulfport, Mississippi. A federal judge sentenced Daniel Vashon Cantino, twenty-eight, to more than fifteen years in prison on meth and firearm convictions. Cantino threw a Glock 9mm pistol and 3.5 grams of meth out of his car on the day he was arrested.15
November 12, 2011—Lauderhill, Florida. Kristopher Bieger, thirty, a Lauderhill police officer, allegedly emptied his Glock pistol shooting at his ex-girlfriend, Officer Brittny Skinner, thirty-one, while she was sitting in her patrol car. Bieger pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the incident, which followed Skinner’s ending their relationship the week before. The patrol car’s trunk, rear driver’s side door, and window took most of the shots, although at least one bullet went through the patrol car seat, through Skinner’s police uniform, and into her protective vest, police said.16
November 13, 2011—Spotsylvania, Virginia. A forty-five-year-old man with a CCW permit died after he accidentally shot himself with his 40 caliber Glock pistol. The man—whom authorities did not identify—was sitting in the front seat of his family’s minivan in a shopping center parking lot. He apparently attempted to adjust the pistol he was carrying and inadvertently pulled the trigger. The single bullet struck him in the hip, and he bled to death in a matter of minutes.17
November 16, 2011—Mahopac, New York. Michael Boccardi, forty-seven, lay in wait and shot Michael Purdy, fifty-six, to death with a 40 caliber Glock pistol. Both men were separated from their wives. When Boccardi’s wife dropped Purdy off at his house after their dinner together, Boccardi came out of his hiding place and fired several shots at Purdy, who was killed by a bullet to the head. Boccardi, a CCW permit holder, then committed suicide with his Glock pistol.18
November 24, 2011—Naples, Florida. Police arrested Royce Lee Davis, fifty, after he made “inflammatory” remarks at a family Thanksgiving gathering, dragged a family member outside by the shirt collar, and fired a 40 caliber Glock pistol into the air three times.19
December 6, 2011—Jourdanton, Texas. Joe Gonzalez, thirty-one, an instructor at a gym, was shot at work when John Luebano, forty, an employee at the gun shop next door, accidentally fired a 9mm Glock pistol he was unloading. The Bullet Hole gun store and Revolution Athletics are adjacent to each other in the strip mall. The bullet went through a common wall.20
December 9, 2011—Weleetka, Oklahoma. Oklahoma law enforcement authorities charged Kevin Sweat, twenty-five, in the June 2008 shooting murder of Taylor Dawn Paschal-Placker, thirteen, and Skyla Jade Whitaker, eleven. The girls were shot multiple times along the side of a rural road near Weleetka. Sweat, who was being held for another murder when the charges were filed, admitted to an investigator that he shot and killed the girls. He called the girls “monsters” and said he “panicked” when they came toward his car, so he grabbed his Glock 40 caliber handgun out of his glove box, shot them both multiple times, then grabbed a 22 caliber gun and shot them again. Sweat was implicated by means of ballistic evidence from the Glock pistol.21
December 10, 2011—Phoenix, Arizona. The Arizona Republic reported that Daniel Lee Good, forty-two, had been charged with second-degree murder
after authorities re-investigated his wife’s death in 2008, which had originally been ruled a suicide. Leslie Good, forty-eight, had been shot in the chest with a 45 caliber Glock pistol.22
December 14, 2011—Sevierville, Tennessee. Corporal Chris Huskey, a veteran deputy with the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department, was reported to be back at work after completing a firearms refresher course. Huskey was demonstrating a Glock pistol to Deputy Adam Bohanan at a convenience store on November 23 when the weapon discharged, firing a bullet through a computer monitor and the wall of a walk-in freezer, where it lodged in a pack of frozen bologna.23
December 16, 2011—Washington, D.C. William N. McCorkle and Andre Clinkscale Jr., both twenty-six, were each sentenced to more than a hundred years in prison on three counts of first-degree murder. The pair shot three men to death at a gas station in May 2008 after an argument. McCorkle was armed with a 9mm Glock pistol equipped with an extended magazine holding at least twenty-nine rounds of ammunition. Clinkscale also had a pistol. The two fired at least thirty-eight shots at the three men, who were hit seventeen times, eleven times, and nine times, respectively, for a total of thirty-seven wounds.24
December 25, 2011—Grapevine, Texas. Azizolah “Bob” Yazdanpanah, fifty-six, who was dressed as Santa Claus, shot six family members to death before killing himself. The victims included Yazdanpanah’s estranged wife and two children, who lived in the apartment, and three in-laws. The family had been together to celebrate Christmas. Yazdanpanah used both a 40 caliber Glock pistol and a 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol to shoot his victims in the head.25
January 2, 2012—Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Raymond Earl Baker, thirty-five, allegedly shot Desiree Marie Harrell, forty-three, to death with a Glock 40 caliber pistol. Harrell was found slumped over the center console of a Buick Regal. She had been shot eight times. Police said Baker confessed to the killing.26