Community Chat

[2blonde]

@Puppy Lips   Recently, here in Ohio (Cleveland), a UPS driver was robbed and shot twice, even though he had already given the man (an admitted drug addict) all the money he had in his pocket and his credit card.  The driver was an older gentleman, and thankfully did survive.  The thief was immediately caught.  I hate to see that people just doing their jobs and trying to make an honest living are being subjected to this.

[stevieb]

This strikes me as the height of idiocy. Why would law enforcement engage in gunfire under these circumstances, with so many potential victims present. Just stupid. Chase the truck, run it to ground, use tear gas, but lethal force was just stupid and now, of course, there are completely innocent victims that didn't need to be victims. As for the rap sheets on the robbers, why am I not surprised.

[Foxxee]

So, two innocent bystanders were killed because police couldn't control themselves over stolen jewelry? 

NINETEEN officers exchanging fire with the robbers in the UPS truck.  Shooting at them with the UPS driver inside the truck!!  My word!  Think about how many more in the vicinity could have been killed.  

What are police thinking these days?  Jewelry (money) is more important than life.  Then, I guess it always has been.  

[Puppy Lips]

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@2blonde wrote:

@Puppy Lips   Recently, here in Ohio (Cleveland), a UPS driver was robbed and shot twice, even though he had already given the man (an admitted drug addict) all the money he had in his pocket and his credit card.  The driver was an older gentleman, and thankfully did survive.  The thief was immediately caught.  I hate to see that people just doing their jobs and trying to make an honest living are being subjected to this.

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@2blonde We moved from Cleveland, OH, to FL in 2007.  Hard to believe we have been here that long.  But once here, it seemed like every wackado national news story was from someone in Florida.  Bunch of crazies down here.  Or maybe my ears always perked up when FL was mentioned.  And while it is awful that these things happen, they do happen everywhere.  There is just no safe place anymore.

[Mindy D]

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@Foxxee wrote:

So, two innocent bystanders were killed because police couldn't control themselves over stolen jewelry? 

NINETEEN officers exchanging fire with the robbers in the UPS truck.  Shooting at them with the UPS driver inside the truck!!  My word!  Think about how many more in the vicinity could have been killed.  

What are police thinking these days?  Jewelry (money) is more important than life.  Then, I guess it always has been.  

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@Foxxee @ I think it isn’t the jewelry or the money that was the reason for all the shooting from law enforcement. The shooting stems from the robbers exchanging fire with the jewelry store owner and injuring a store employee during the hold up. It also stems from the armed robbers hijacking the UPS truck and taking the driver hostage. It also stems from the robbers firing at police first( at least according to a police spokesperson, we’ll see what the FBI uncovers), and the fact that the robbers could use the truck to kill other drivers and bystanders, either deliberately or on purpose. The truck was held up and not moving when officers bravely got out of their cars to try to overtake the truck, all the while being shot at by the two robbers. The YouTube video shows the cops trying to get to the truck while it was stopped in traffic. I’m giving the officers the benefit of the doubt. These officers were in the road, on foot, hiding behind cars and drivers in the road, as they tried to advance to get to the robbers. They definitely were risking their lives.

The local news just released the rap sheets of the two robbers. They were career criminals. The name of the bystander was just released as well. He was a 70 year old man on his way home from work. 

[Porcelain]

I thought we had SWAT teams and snipers for these sorts of situations.

[Lipstickdiva]

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@MorningLover wrote:

Authorities on Friday identified the men as Lamar Alexander, 41, and Ronnie Hill, 41, both of whom were released from state prison in 2017.

Records show that Alexander was convicted of an armed robbery in Lee County in 2008, and was released in 2017, according to corrections records.

Alexander’s brother, Corey Smith, is the football coach at Miami Senior High School. Smith said Alexander had three children. Smith said he was headed home from football practice Thursday night when he got a “hysterical” call from his mom. When he got home, they watched the conclusion of the shootout on the news.

“I didn’t know he was living like that,” Smith said. “In life, you gotta make better decisions. We weren’t raised like that. I love my brother, but he’s been making bad decisions his whole life.”

Hill most recently finished a year prison sentence for a series of burglaries, state records show.

~Miami Herald

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More proof that prison doesn't rehab and isn't a deterrent.  The entire system needs to be overhauled.

[Foxxee]

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@Mindy D wrote:

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@Foxxee wrote:

So, two innocent bystanders were killed because police couldn't control themselves over stolen jewelry? 

NINETEEN officers exchanging fire with the robbers in the UPS truck.  Shooting at them with the UPS driver inside the truck!!  My word!  Think about how many more in the vicinity could have been killed.  

What are police thinking these days?  Jewelry (money) is more important than life.  Then, I guess it always has been.  

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@Foxxee @ I think it isn’t the jewelry or the money that was the reason for all the shooting from law enforcement. The shooting stems from the robbers exchanging fire with the jewelry store owner and injuring a store employee during the hold up. It also stems from the armed robbers hijacking the UPS truck and taking the driver hostage. It also stems from the robbers firing at police first( at least according to a police spokesperson, we’ll see what the FBI uncovers), and the fact that the robbers could use the truck to kill other drivers and bystanders, either deliberately or on purpose. The truck was held up and not moving when officers bravely got out of their cars to try to overtake the truck, all the while being shot at by the two robbers. The YouTube video shows the cops trying to get to the truck while it was stopped in traffic. I’m giving the officers the benefit of the doubt. These officers were in the road, on foot, hiding behind cars and drivers in the road, as they tried to advance to get to the robbers. They definitely were risking their lives.

The local news just released the rap sheets of the two robbers. They were career criminals. The name of the bystander was just released as well. He was a 70 year old man on his way home from work. 

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@Mindy D 

It helps to have all the details.  Thanks.  

[Annabellethecat66]

In something like this it's like a ripple effect.  So many people are affected.

It's just terrible because of a bad decision a few people make.

These holidays will never be the same for a lot of people, never......

[bathina]

Having a shootout on a highway with cops hiding behind stopped cars (im assuming the drivers of those cars were inside while the cops were hiding and shooting) for any reason is ridiculous and puts innocent bystanders at risk, and indeed, bystanders were killed. Starting from the jewelry shop guy firing and injuring an innocemt there, to the cops who couldnt have just followed the dang van until it ran out of gas, this was handled horribly. Just shows how messed up the entire gun culture is in this country.