As reported, an armed robber entered a Port Royal, VA bank and demanded money while threatening the life of a teller. After receiving several thousand dollars, the robber fled back to his vehicle, dropping $100 bill along the way. When he got to his vehicle, he realized that he had locked the keys inside, and tried to break open a window using a piece of wood. The robber succeeded only at drawing the attention of two auto shop workers, whose maintenance bay he was blocking with his illegally parked car. The two men chased the robber, who managed to shoot himself in the leg when drawing his own gun. The robber continued to fight, at which point one of the citizens shot the robber. Police arrived and arrested a suspect, charging him with 8 felonies, including 2 counts of attempted murder. The suspect had also served nearly 20 years in prison after a 1963 bank robbery conviction, and was due to appear in court again this week to plead guilty to a gun possession charge.
I’m almost at a loss for words when it comes to this crime, and the suspect who allegedly committed it. This type of epic failure is worthy of a Saturday Night Live sketch, and it is amazing that a person could pull this off while actually trying to succeed.
This case also shows once more the futility of gun control laws. The (alleged) robber here was a convicted felon, making it a federal felon for him to possess a gun. A similar state law also made it a felony for him to allegedly possess a gun. This suspect was also (allegedly) carrying a gun without a concealed carry permit, which is also a crime at the state level. Furthermore, the suspect in this case was also about to plead guilty for another felon in possession of a firearm charge when he allegedly committed this robbery. Finally, of course, there were a great many state and federal laws broken when the suspect allegedly robbed the bank, threatened the teller’s life, tried to kill two innocent citizens, etc. Until criminals start obeying the law, gun control just won’t work.