Slush Pile: Robber shoots self in the head

2007 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

Robber shoots self in the head

2007 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

This happened in Ireland, verdict last week.

Article can be found at http://www.independent.ie/national-news/inquest-told-how-man-shot-himself-on-way-to-robbery-681946.html

Inquest told how man shot himself on way to robbery

A MAN on his way to commit a robbery accidentally shot himself in the head after the stolen car he was in jolted as it went over a speed bump, writes Breda Heffernan.

Victor Murphy (30) from Deanstown Green, Finglas, Dublin, is thought to have had a sawn-off shotgun resting between his legs in the car and with his thumb on the trigger when the weapon suddenly discharged on the night of July 8/9, 2003.

Gardai believe there was one other man, who is now also deceased, in the car with Mr Murphy at the time.

Mr Murphy's body was found the next morning dumped at the side of the road on Dunsink Lane in Finglas, an inquest into his death heard yesterday.

The car they were travelling in, a stolen Mitsubishi Lancer, was later found abandoned on nearby Berryfield Road with Mr Murphy's blood on the front passenger seat, brain tissue on the rear window and a shotgun cartridge lying between the front seats.

'No shotgun that is cut down can be what you would call a safe shotgun'

Det Insp Brian Sherry told Dublin City Coroner's Court that because the shotgun had been sawn-off, it was more unstable.

"When people saw them off too short it can interfere with the mechanism of the gun and make it unstable and accidentally discharge. . . No shotgun that is cut down can be what you would call a safe shotgun.

"We never recovered that firearm but we are satisfied from our own experience that if a firearm is cut down it can interfere with the mechanism," he added.

State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy told how she visited the scene in Dunsink Lane where Mr Murphy's body had been dumped. She said that the position of the body indicated he had been placed there.

Prof Cassidy gave the cause of death as haemorrhage and brain damage due to a shotgun injury to the head.

The jury returned a verdict of death by misadventure.

Submitted on 05/27/2007

Submitted by: Tim O'Herlihy
Reference: Irish Independent 25th May 2007

>> Moderator Scores <<

Bruce said:
Definitely Toss: Repeat
Thanks for sending this in Tim, we've already received it a number of times.

James said:
Definitely Toss: Repeat
As Bruce said!

The Darwin Awards Gift Shop

The Darwin Awards Condom

Keep yourself out of the gene pool!
A condom in a matchbook, useful for emergency contraception, bachelor parties, frat parties, and important rites of passage. LOADED inside and out with funny quotes and stories. Everyone loves this item!
Friends don't let friends reproduce!
$13 for Pack of 4

Slush Pile
Slush Pile Rejects

Home Rules FAQs Awards Slush Site Map
DarwinAward | HonorableMention | PersonalAccount | UrbanLegend

2007 Slush Pile

Robber shoots self in the head

2007 Reader Submission Pending Acceptance

2007 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance