This victim was shot while warming up his car in the morning. About 5:45am, police learned of the shooting, presumably as a family member was taking the victim to the hospital. The victim was hospitalized in critical condition, but has later died.
Story of the passing of the victim is here.
Investigators have since arrested two men in connection with the killing, as well as the alleged firearm and phone used in the “murder for hire” scheme. The investigation found a “suspicious car” in the neighborhood the previous day, leading to using local license plate readers to identify the owner. Police used a traffic stop on the vehicle, searched the car, and found evidence that this the suspect was hired by someone to shoot the victim.
Many of the stories I review, fall into two categories. The first category is when a person is inside their home, and someone is breaking in or otherwise threatening them. The second category is often when people are out in places they shouldn’t be doing things they shouldn’t be doing with people they shouldn’t hang around with — such as going to late night parties, driving through bad areas of town, etc. This sad example stands out as something different. It’s a mundane item that we do often, outside our home, where we could easily let our guard down. In this case, if the would-be-victim has a strong defensive handheld light, he could potentially use it to keep the attacker at bay. I’ve seen people shoot with short revolvers such as this, and they have a hard time hitting the target in ideal situations. Perhaps a combination of situational awareness and use of a strong flashlight could help prevent similar tragic incidents?
