"[BAR STORY] Another broken finger + a shooting" Topic

So someone got shot at the bar tonight. Four shots fired, hit twice, once in the face and once in the neck. I was about ten feet away, chased the shooter as he ran out of the building, and got the license plate of his car.

I got another broken finger out of the incident… they gave me percocet at the hospital, looks like I might need surgery to get the finger to heal correctly.

And I'm fading fast, but I promise a full write-up when I wake up tomorrow.

I hate the Christmas season.

-Alex, riding an excellent Percocet buzz.

YOW! Thank the powers that be that you're still ALIVE YOURSELF.

Chasing an armed perp who still has ammo…. does the phrase 'more balls than brains' mean anything to you?

You worry me Alex. I'm just glad that you're still here!!

Dude! I'm sorry to hear that, but glad your finger is the worst injury, if I understand you correctly.

Looking forward to hear the whole story, once you have de-buzzed.

Sounds like you may be in a downward spiral. Chasing a guy with a gun to protect the rowdy drunks at a bar that you work at is something that call for some soul searching on your part and it maybe time for a career change. Hope you feel better.

After my initial reaction to Alex's post, I have to add that what Alex did had to be done.

If we don't do what we can as individuals and as a society to take violent armed dirtbags off the streets, then where will we be?

Bravo Alex, but buy yersef some freakin' Kevlar skivvies!

Well done Alex – old saying, all it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing. May be inadvisable to chase armed men, but it makes things safer for the rest of us.

You are a good man, but you may be nuts, Alex. I'll wait for the full story before deciding…

If we don't do what we can as individuals and as a society to take violent armed dirtbags off the streets, then where will we be?

:)

In theory I think you are right but…

We need to stop "evil" for sure.

We need to do what we can within reason while trying to avoid personal injury.

Not saying he shouldn't have taken a peek out the window or door to look at the plate but to blatantly chase a man with a gun is a bit much and akin to not giving over your wallet and watch in a mugging when a .38 is pointing directly at your head.

He could have exacerbated the shooter's reaction and the man could have fired a few more rounds into the crowd.
Not a good outcome. He was lucky he left. It is a small community, I am sure that they will find the shooter.
Something over a woman I am sure.

Definitely fine to hear what he has to say but I would prefer keeping him alive to hear more stories. I don't know, just my crazy preference. :)

well, it wasn't that blatant- i was a good 20 feet behind them when i ran outside. i wouldnt have folowed them if
I didn't feel i was safe.

Alex, have you considered going into the Ministry, or becoming an accountant?

I've been looking for more professional-type security jobs, dept of corrections stuff, and ive signed uyp for police academy in february.

Not sure that i want to be a a cop, but I defnately want to stop working in bars (unless its a bar that i own). still love the bar work, but until I own my own bar I think i'm done with it for awhile.

'Not sure that i want to be a a cop, but I defnately want to stop working in bars (unless its a bar that i own). still love the bar work, but until I own my own bar I think i'm done with it for awhile.'

Sounds like the last chapter of 'the book' right there

I applaud Alex's actions – he did the right thing.

As to the danger, it's mitigated by two things: (1) generally, people shoot at specific people for some (often obscure) reason (2) most of these bleeps can't shoot.

So, risky, but not as bad as one might think.

Not sure that i want to be a a cop,

From what I've seen, the biggest downside is that most everybody acts weird around you. The hours suck, too.
-Kle.

DUDE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be safe man !!!!!!!!!!!

Alex, for heaven's sake, be careful!

What about the poor victim? Alive?

Alex, I highly recommend the purchase of a pair of good, stout binoculars with which to view departing vehicle's license plates from a safe distance.
Yowza.

And maybe institute a bar policy requiring that patrons exchange all weapons for Nerf blasters while on bar property (including the parking lot).

Take Care indeed. I hope that your risk resulted in an arrest

As to the danger, it's mitigated by two things: (1) generally, people shoot at specific people for some (often obscure) reason (2) most of these bleeps can't shoot.

Great scene in Appaloosa in which gunfight last only seconds and one cowboy mentions it and the other responds that they all could shoot. Lol…

So there is some truth to the above remark.

Allrighty… I'm awake, wired, and reasonably sober (the Percocets have worn off), and although the splint is making typing a bit dificult, I think I can manage to be coherent and tell the story.

We were pretty busy last night, near to our capacity I think. It was a good night – people seemed happy, in a good mood, most of the folks that I talked with were still all stuffed from Christmas dinner. The crowd was almost entirely regulars – people that I all knew by sight, and many that I knew by name.

About 1:30 AM, I heard a "POP POP!!"

I thought it was fireworks – nobody screamed or yelled, reacted or ran. I took a step towards the sounds, right in front of our jukebox.

POP POP!!

This time people reacted – again, no screaming or yelling, but people cleared a big space. I stepped forward again, in time to see a tall guy pulling a tall girl, stepping over a body lying on the floor, then running, RUNNING towards the backdoor of the bar. Everyone in the aisle leading to the door shrinks back from them… so I follow, maybe ten steps, 20 feet behind them. They run outside, and I hang back in the doorway. I can see their car, and a third person (a short blonde guy) throw something under the back seat, then hop in. I run outside to get a better look, and write the license plate # of the car on my hand.

I recognize all three of them, and none of them are people that I've ever had problems with. Calm, not heavy drinkers. Sorta preppie, and the blonde guy especially was real cocky, a condescending "my mommy and daddy have more money than yours" kinda guy… but in the 14+ months I've worked there I've never had any indication that these people were violent types.

So, I run back inside, and everything is chaos. People are hiding behind the bar, others are running out the front door, and there's a big scrambling scuffle at the end of the bar, where I'd seen the body laying. I can hear several different people all on the phone with 911, so I run down to the end of the bar where the arguing and shoving is taking place…

(cut to commercial, I need to get a few hours sleep before I go back to work tonight at 10PM)

Ok but we want more Dude !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dirty pool, Alex!

I think you have been quite lucky Alex.Best bet is to change job's I think.Sounds too dangerous to me.
Hope the finger heals okay.Anyway you now have the perfect excuse for not getting any painting done :).

Guns + Bars = Woof!

Good luck alx. Take care of that finger.

Did the victim make it?

Geez Alex! Don't leave us hangin'…

I guess that's the sign of a good storyteller – knowing when to break for a commercial, to keep them wanting more.

And, I've gotta be at work in 15 minutes, no time to finish the write-up now, I'll finish it when I get home later.

Glad to hear you're ok (apart from the finger obviously).
Have a safe one!

I feel a little better now, home from work, stuffed full of delicious Christmas dinner leftovers, showered (gotta wash the bar stink off of me), and ready to write.

I run down the aisle towards the shouting, shoving scuffle at the end of the bar. There's a young man lying on the floor. His face and shoulder are covered in blood, and the floor around him is littered with bloody napkins. There's a crowd of people around the guy, yelling various things ("Who did it??", "Call 911!!", "Somebody help him!"). A handful of other people are running back and forth for no apparent reason.

A hysterical girl is kneeling over the guy on the floor, FREAKING OUT, Old-Testament style. If sackcloth and ashes were available, she'd be wearing them. Since none are handy, she's contenting herself with with shaking the shooting victim and wordlessly shrieking, rocking back and forth. The other doorman (Pat) was a medic in the Navy, and he's trying to put pressure on the wound, but the girl (apparently the victim's sister) is in the way, trying to push Pat off the poor guy. Pat yells, "Get this girl outta here!" and a couple of the girl's (female) friends try to pull her off of the victim, so she throws a tantrum, flailing and kicking – even kicking her brother in the head – KICKING HIM IN HIS WOUNDS – several times as she's pulled away.

*In case I haven't made it crystal clear, I'm deeply unimpressed with how utterly useless this girl (the sister)was. I hope that if I'm every injured like that, my friends and family will be a little more constructively helpful, and not, y'know, KICK ME IN MY GUNSHOT WOUNDS!!!

I'm just standing over Pat, trying to keep the crowd back, when I hear angry voices behind me.

"I know you know who did it, tell me his name!!!"

I turn around and see a stocky jock-type guy in an orange shirt, crying, and yelling at every random passerby who is jusy trying to leave. Orange Jock looks like he's about to attack … anyone, so I step over to him and say "It's OK, man, the cops are on their way"

"NO! F That! We'll handle this without cops!"

There's a chorus of agreement from three or four more guys standing around Orange Jock.

I'll restate that – the friends of the guy who had just been shot were not calling police, ambulance, or family members, they were not trying to help get the hysterical chick away from their friend, they were standing around, belligerent, working themselves up into higher and higher stages of anger, and threatening anyone who came within an arms length. Again, someday, if I'm ever injured that badly, I hope that my friends are a little more constructively helpful than this guy's friends.

Bro…

Amen to that. All I can say is the sort of friends I have would not have been posturing there. They'd have pulled the sisters off in a hurry… done what they could…. and after I was taken care of, THEN gone hunting the stoo-pid mofo down…

(cure sopranos music)

So what happened afterward? The cops came? Did he live or die?

Dude…the suspense is killing us…

I don't get stuff like this…just goth chicks and vampires….

Glad your ok!

but how is the victim, and how did you break your finger?

Thankfully the police and paramedics arrived as I was talking to Orange Jock and his friends. They calm down when the officers appear, and I immediately gave the license plate # of the shooter's car to them. One of the officers kneels down to help the paramedics with the victim, and another starts to command the crowd to back off… Orange Jock takes exception to this and starts to argue with the officer, saying that he needs to stay close because the victim is his friend, and the cop doesn't have the right to tell him what to do.

Orange Jock's friends are growling agreement (but backing away!), when I hear hysterical female screaming for the second time that night.

The motive for the shooting has to do with the shooter's ex-girlfriend – he shot her new boyfriend. Instead of calling family or emergency services, the only phone call that the victim's friends made was to the girl at the center of this dispute… and she is as out of control as the sister when she shows up.

Of course, at the time I didn't know who or why, all I knew was that some new girl (who hadn't been in the bar earlier) was screaming, pushing past Orange Jock and his friends, stepping past me (I was paying more attention to Orange Jock and crew), and then trying to PULL THE PARAMEDICS OFF OF THE SHOOTING VICTIM. Because it was her boyfriend and she needed to see him! ("Let me see him!! Let me see him!!")

*A side note to any of my future potential Significant Others who may be reading this: Please, please, please, if I've been shot, please do NOT interrupt the paramedics who are treating my wounds.

The paramedics react predictably – "Get this crazy off of me!!", so I grab her by the shoulders, stand her up, and walk her back towards the door she had come in through.

"Calm down! Let the medics do their job!"

She's screaming at me the whole time, not even making words anymore, just choking and making her mascara run.

I back her up to where the cop is talking with Orange Jock and crew… and unfortunatelu that gives them the excuse for a confrontation that they've been looking for.

"GET THE OFF OF HER!!", "YOU CAN'T GRAB A GIRL LIKE THAT!!", "YOU *BLEEP*HOLE!!"

At this time, it's the cop behind me, the girl in front of me (facing me), then Orange Jock, with his posse behind him.

They surge forwards toward me, and the cop steps up, yelling at them to back away "Or you will ALL BE MACED!", and someone grabs at my left hand, only grabbing my ring and pinky fingers, lifting and twisting them back and off of the girl's shoulder. I feel the bone snap in my ring finger. The girl slaps me hard in the ear, and I plant my broken hand firmly in the middle of her face and shove, hard.

Thank you, adrenaline.

The threat of mace has gotten the calmer of Orange Jock's buddies to pull him away, and the girl fell halfway over when I shoved her, falling into her friends' arms, and they pull her back, too.

And thats about the end of the exciting stuff. I grab my hand ("Ow, ow, ow, ow") and feel the bone moving… then I grab it a little too hard and feel it pop back into place ("OW! OW! OW! OW!"). The girlfriend is hustled out of the bar by the calmer friends, Orange Jock sits down in a booth close to the door and starts crying, the sister is in a fetal position behind the pool table, rocking back and forth and being hugged by her two female friends.

The paramedics do their thing and carry the victim out on a stretcher, he seems at least somewhat aware and awake as he's being carried out, mumbling somthing as he's caried out. The officers take statements from a few people… the shooter was well enough known at the bar that the cops got his first and last name almost immediately. With the vehicle description and plate #'s that I gave them, they were able to catch him within a couple of hours.

Here's a link to the (only partially accurate) story in the local newspaper:

link

The public comments are… interesting.

There were wild rumors for a few hours afterwards – apparently, another bar in town (Kodiaks), known for being a rough place, had a huge bar-clearing brawl minutes after we had our shooting, and there was speculation that our shooter was involved. He wasn't, it turns out, but it was a juicy rumor for a little while.

The police let me take my statement form to the emergency room… driving my '89 stick shift in the -10F weather with a broken finger was… fun. I filled out my statement form in the waiting room and overheard some hospital staff talking about the injured guy.

He was shot with a .22, had two entrance wounds, no exit wounds, hit once in the face and once in the neck. I had thought that he was shot in the shoulder, because his shirt was so covered in blood, but I guess that was just from the flow. Looks like he may be paralyzed, depending on how much damage the swelling does to his spine (I'm Less Anger in the comments on the News Minus webpage). He was flown out of Fairbanks as I was checking in, we don't have the facilities here to handle a gunshot wound to the neck.

Back at the bar one of the cops had remembered me from the Hide Out, and my broken finger there. We're on friendly terms. "Hey, man, is that the same hand?"

"Nah, it's the other one"

"Geeez. Did you at least get to hit anyone?"

"Nope, just pushing that crazy girl out of here."

"Damn. You need to get into a new line of work!"

I'm inclined to agree with him.

I've got one more state job that I'm applying for, and if I don't get that one, then I'm going to police academy in February, paying for it myself. I'm not sure that I want to be a cop, but I'd like to start doing security more professionally, like up on the North Slope or for the oil refinery or somthing, and a Police Academy certificate will open up some options for me.

I've only got so many fingers left!!

-Alex

Looks like your comments on that news thread were some of the few on there that were actually relevent and well thought out.

What a bunch of prats! There seemed very little sympathy for the victim, and alot of hand wringing and 'he must have had a bad childhood' about the shooter.

Take care Alex

Are police going to press charges for your broken finger? Around here, any broken bone turns a simple assault into a pretty serious offense.

They might a learn a bit more self control from spending some time in front of a judge.

Dude much as I love your story's from the Bar you got to get a new job !!!!!

Good luck with the Academy. I think you probably have a knack for that line of work, and might give all of us with an edge on the "bad guys" with you out there.

We need more "crazy naked chick" stories, and less "How Alex got hurt" ones…

Take care of yourself dude!

Dude glad you are OK. Do us all a favor and keep your head down until you get a new job. We will miss the crazy bar stories, but still have you.

Take care

Nope, no charges pressed about the fnger – I don't know who broke it, things were too chaotic. It could have been any one of three or four guys.

love these stories. Between you and Alex, really brighten up my day. Not that this is a desire to hear about more broken bones, you understand…..well, unless they belong to the other guy. Nor do I really want the pair of you to suffer in other ways. It's just that your stories are both interesting and well told.

Wow, what a bunch of moronic drama queens.
-Kle.

Glad you're OK otherwise,dude.

I wonder if the stupid who kicked him in the head will understand that she may have contributed to the trauma resulting in his potential paralysis…

Hmmm? It seams "Less Anger" received a minor DawgHousing on the comment boards.

Would there be anything of particular interest to us that wouldn't get snipped by our Editor?

I hassled the guy who called the girl a "", and implied that name calling was an elementary school type thing to do.

Hope the victim pulls through – and take care of yourself Alex.

I ran through the comments on the news story – interesting that at least one person thinks a firefight in a crowded room is the way to make things safer…. :)

I will say however than in my experience of drinking in bars with a lot of USAF personnel in them, I've never encountered any trouble.

This was a few years ago when I was living near Mildenhall & Lakenheath and don't know if things ahve changed, but I haven't heard the flyboys getting a reputatio nfor bad behaviour.

Squaddies of all nationalities are a different matter….

Still, hope the finger heals quickly and that you next story is less dramatic!

Ya know what would really liven up these stories? A Goth Chick.

Hey Alex any updates on the dude that got shot????

Most likely he'll be paralyzed from the neck down.

The people I've talked to either describe the guy as a saint, or, as much of a as the guy who shot him. I dunno what to think.

Bummer for the dude… How you finger ??????