HOBART, Ind. -- A man whose friends initially said he was killed by gunfire outside a Gary liquor store actually died after he donned what he thought was a bulletproof vest and asked a cohort to shoot him. A friend then shot Daniel Wright with a .20-gauge shotgun, but it turned out the vest Wright had put on Thursday was a flak jacket not designed to stop a bullet. Wright, 20, was mortally wounded in the shooting and died later at a Gary hospital after two of his friends drove him there.
Three Hobart men who are now charged in the Crown Point man's shooting death said they concocted the story that he was murdered by a stranger outside a Gary liquor store in a panic after the Wright unexpectedly died. Hobart police Lt. Leo Finnerty said Friday that Wright was going to join the military and wanted some battlefield experience. So he went to a field in Hobart with his friends, donned what he thought was a bulletproof vest, and then told them: "Shoot me. I'm ready." No really, go ahead, I've stocked up on plenty of "Near Death Experience Pills(TM)" "He voluntarily put on the vest because he wanted to experience what a .20-gauge shotgun would do," Finnerty told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville. I would laugh, but unfortunately, it's not funny. However, I am surprised this didn't happen in Al Gore's state.
The Lake County coroner's office said the plastic cartridge fired from the shotgun's blast pierced Wright's chest and some shotgun pellets ripped into his heart. Robert Lee Stottlemire, 20, of Hobart was charged with reckless homicide for allegedly shooting Wright in the chest from a distance of between 3 to 6 feet. Two other Hobart men, Brock Bieker, 19, and Michael J. Searle, 18, are charged with assisting Stottlemire by concealing the homicide. Bieker and Searle also are charged with giving Gary police false information, a misdemeanor.
Hobart police said that after Wright was mortally shot, Searle reloaded the shotgun and fired a round into the windshield of the car they were driving to make their story of the shooting outside the liquor store more believable. But Gary Police Detective Thomas Decanter said the story started to fall apart as soon as he began questioning the pair at a Gary hospital. Sixteen hours after the shooting, a fourth man who witnessed the shooting but ran off after Wright fell to the ground walked into the Hobart police station with his parents and told the actual story of the shooting.
Posted by: Poison Reverse ||
02/13/2005 11:38:44 AM ||
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#1
Definite Darwin Award contender.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/13/2005 12:35 Comments ||
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#2
PR, we here in Tennessee don't have a monopoly on Morons. They're everywhere.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/13/2005 12:46 Comments ||
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#5
LOL, PR, no offense taken. The KKK leader who shot the new member in the head last fall was only about 25 miles from where I live. Talk about a bunch of Morons!
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/13/2005 14:38 Comments ||
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#6
The deceased young man Wright, was 20 years old, his friends are 20,19,& 18 and another witness !
Clearly, It's not the guns that were dangerous.
Posted by: he was an idea person ||
02/13/2005 18:28 Comments ||
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#7
What is with these test the vest types? I have a threat level 3 vest. I have no desire to see how it works, ever. I fully expect to end up in the hospsital if I ever need it. The laws of physics are not repealed by some modern man made materials.
#8
SPoD, right you are. A "bullet proof vest" may stop a round but you will have one HELL of a sore spot and possibly a broken rib, depending on where the round hit. The laws of physics don't disappear just because one has on a vest. A very good buddy had on one in Vietnam. A VC stepped out from behind a tree and was no more than 3 feet from him with an AK. Two rounds penetrated at that distance. The third didn't only because the first two knocked him into an angle where the third was only a glancing blow. "Stupid people should be killed", Lazarus Long.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/13/2005 19:21 Comments ||
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#9
A flak vest, such is this kid was wearing, is only designed to stop shrapnel and not a direct hit from a projectile.
Even a good vest will not stop all rounds, especially from 3-6 feet whent the rounds are at their best velocity. If this poor kid had shot his friend from, say 30 feet, he might have not killed him. Still would have put him into the hospital, though.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
02/13/2005 19:52 Comments ||
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HOBART, Ind. -- A man whose friends initially said he was killed by gunfire outside a Gary liquor store actually died after he donned what he thought was a bulletproof vest and asked a cohort to shoot him. A friend then shot Daniel Wright with a .20-gauge shotgun, but it turned out the vest Wright had put on Thursday was a flak jacket not designed to stop a bullet. Wright, 20, was mortally wounded in the shooting and died later at a Gary hospital after two of his friends drove him there.
