Charles Darwin's Darwin Awards 
HOME
Darwin Awards
At-Risk Survivors
Slush Pile
2008 November Rejects
Black Friday
Suspects are casualties in botched
Man dies in Oneida County after tre
Freak pants fire kills pensioner
You dirty rat you ruined my game!
Plaxico Burress
Man steps out of speeding car after
Toy Buyers Double Shooting TwoFer
Stuck head first in a sewer
Hitchhiking Robber Killed by Car
2 men dead after shots fired in SoC
Moped-orolla
Not such a Quick Getaway
Drunken Idiot drowned in drain
22 year old drowns in street drain
Healer dies from untreated wound
keys to heaven
Yes, pandas are furry...
Hitchhiking Robber Killed by Car
A Really Cold(play) Concert
Rod Hull
Last Concert
Photographing in a storm drain
Titty Twisters
When Bite Beats Bark... Literally.
P for Park
Panda bites student seeking a hug
Self Serve
Brown Eggs
Brown Eggs
Moomin madness
A moomin
Woman falls 15 storeys to her death
Man’s idea to break ATM less than s
Boy, 12, Dies From Excessive Deodor
Suspects are casualties in botched
Boy dies from Deoderant use.
Mother 'flushed baby by accident'
Red Deer Woman Dies in Rollover
Texting+Scooter=Telephone Pole
Texting Without a Helmet
Whip - It
deordorant overdose
Texting can kill
DEO obsession
Fifth Time’s a Charm…
Died while fixing his own airplane
Hey, Watch This!
Teaching Yourself to Fly
Cops: Cape Girardeau woman kills ma
deoderant helps clean up gene pool
Woman dies in balcony fall
Welder -vs- Artillery Shell
Dying for Grilled Meat in Winter
She Can Climb Up!
The Yin Side of Yang (Hug a Panda)
Panda in China zoo bites student wh
Crying over spilled milk
Boy12 died after too much deodorant
Panda Hugs
Welder Succumbs To Blast Injuries
Welder Succumbs To Blast Injuries
Welder Succumbs To Blast Injuries
Student who can't read?
exploding belch
Dogs are only pets.
A South Florida college student kil
Teen Dies After Hood Surfing
Teen dies after hood surfing stunt
Woman falls trying to get into cond
Former Albertan who fell to her dea
Aiken Student Killed While Grilling
19-Year-Old Commits Suicide Live on
Twisted Firestarter
Man killed after crash
students die from grill fumes
students die from grill fumes
Lethal Lynx Effect
Pastry-eating contest claims techie
Listening to Homer... Simpson
Woman was moving into condo before
Woman dies in 15-storey fall from b
Pastry-eating contest claims techie
SpeedFit
The Missing Key
commercial suicide by British Telec
Darwin Awards Throughout History
That Run Down Feeling
Boy, 12, dies from heart failure af
Charcoal Grill, Drinking in Car
"its ok, I'm a Rock Climber"
loo explosion hurls boy out of wind
Woman falls off balcony
Crashing on purpose
Heads up...
Balcony Climbing? Bad Idea...
Woman falls 15 storeys to her death
Woman falls to death
Acrobatic woman misses balcony
woman falls 15 stories.
Couple killed in tunnel by train
Fall from balconey
Wrong Decision
Woman dies in 15 storey fall
Because it's there, or maybe not
I've climbed moutains, this is Easy
Venomous snake on the loose after b
Carjacker Drown
Would you like honey with your toes
Woman climbs balcony, dies in 15-s
Healer dies after failing to ...
Victoria woman falls from balcony
"Healer" dies after failing to trea
Gangrene: 1, Honey Nil
Faith Healer Fails to Heal
Sex education in Singapore
A final free taxi fare
Student arrested twice in same nigh
So _that's_ why he was in the drain
Why _in_ the drain?
Driver hit 55kmh bend at 155kmh
Take a sinking boat
Man drowns in stormwater drain
Tiger Show
scrap metal salvagers
shotglass
Tractor Tree Removal
Pop goes the Artillery Shell
Cat foord
Man Dies During Alleged Wire Theft
Student dies after prop gun dischar
Stolen Paddleboats
Video Game Ultimatum
Wire Thief
US soldier slaps Iraqi
Man fleeing police falls to motorwa
Lions vs. Man
Five die trying to dismantle shell
look before you leap
Toasted Thief
Toasted Thief
Man trying to steal copper dies fro
Shocking Demise
Suspect jumps 6 floors
McDonald's lawsuit
Copper thief crushed by telephone p
Stealing Copper
Man jump into tiger cage in Sin
Man stealing phone wire killed
Copper thief crushed by telephone p
baggy britches
Bird on a Wire
Husband's coffin kills wife on way
Electrocution by microwave
writeup - Man kills self
Woman dies by fence
Royal Navy in firefight with Somal
Husband's Coffin Kills Wife
Taxes were owed on destroyed home
Tree kills Man
Brandon Crisp
Stealing Wire
Woman Joins, Then Quits KKK
Death by Coffin
Give a boy a gun
Liquor Run (Booze and a Pickup}
Liquor Run (Booze and a Pickup}
convenience store robbery
Culling the hurd early
Football dispute leaves 2 dead
garage fire
Alabama Wins Again...Roll Tide
Duck Hunter Defies Death
Man dies after being hit by train
Crimson is....Death!
Into the blithering stupidity
Unable to swim, hunter survives oce
Try harder
Wanted to Swim River
Drunk driver drives to PS
Dying for an X-Box
Flammables and a torch don't mix
Brandon Crisp
Blow Torch Crazy
Man burned himself stealing gas
Man Set on Fire during gas theft
Cobwebs and Blowtorch
Georgia man evicts spiders with blo
Cleaning cobwebs with blow torch
Fire Broom
Brandon Crisp
Home made nailgun
"Terry Fox run"
Quick getaway wasn't quick enough..
Zookeeper killed by bear in Japan
fire victim smoked while on oxygen
DUMB CRIMINAL
Most folks just leave flowers..
satellite tv iinstall kills wife
Riocochet pouts farmer in hospital.
man get eated by piranhas
Bugs Bunny confuses South Pole for
Electrocuted Trying to Rescue Cat
Valet crushes himself with minivan
Teen Crushed to Death While Parking
Teen killed trying to park van
Teen Crushed While Parking Minivan
Not Quite Superman
Runaway minivan crushes teen valet
hunter charged after shooting self
hard head meets concret
hard head meets concret
Burns himself after burning a car
Don't kick a train
Open throat insert pretzel
Biologist Discovers Plague
Older Rejects 
 
~ Random Story ~
Email Alert!
NEW! Gift Shop
Rules  Search
Contact Darwin
Submit a Story
Philosophy Forum
Home

  

Darwin Awards
2008 Slush Pile

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

Toy Buyers Double Shooting TwoFer

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

2 gunmen kill each other in shootout at Toys R Us in Palm Desert

Police say the shooting was apparently sparked by a dispute between two couples who had 'previous hostility.' Other shoppers hide or flee in panic. By Seema Mehta, Michelle Maltais and Kimi Yoshino November 29, 2008 Reporting from Palm Desert and Los Angeles --

Most shoppers headed to the Toys R Us in Palm Desert on Friday morning clutching their "door buster" ads and their shopping lists. At least two men walked into the busy store armed with their guns.

Instead of the usual frantic chaos on Black Friday, the year's busiest shopping day, mayhem erupted in the electronics department about 11:30 a.m., leaving two men dead in a gunfight and crowds of shoppers ducking for cover.Joan Barrick, 40, of Desert Hot Springs said she was buying a Barbie Jeep for her daughter when two women started brawling. As the women swung at each other, the men they were with also started arguing.

The younger of the two lifted up his shirt and flashed his handgun, pulling the grip from his baggy pants pocket. The other man yanked out his own handgun and started chasing him down the aisle and firing, witnesses said.

Barrick hid behind a stack of DVDs and recited the Lord's Prayer. "If I'm going to die, I need to make peace," she said. "A lot of people were crying. I was crying. We were all very, very scared."

As the two men ran shooting through the aisles, shoppers dumped their purchases. LaToya Jenkins, 20, had already bought a remote-control bike. She dropped it and ran. Others left behind shopping carts full of the bargain-priced toys they had come in search of.

Several witnesses saw the gunmen clearly. Some cried out warnings: "He has a gun!" and "¡Pistola! ¡Pistola!" Barrick was so close she could see the smoking gun.

"This is horrible," said a shaken Sara Frahm, 25. "I'm never shopping on Black Friday again."

Clarisa Valerio, 45, of Thermal said that when the man first brandished his gun, she heard him threaten to kill the other. She didn't believe it was real. "Since we were in a toy store, I thought it was a toy gun," Valerio said in Spanish. "My husband pushed me and said: 'Let's go. Didn't you hear what he said?' "

As her husband started heading to safety, Valerio turned back when she remembered that her daughter, 18, was still checking on the price of a toy car set. The shooting started almost immediately.

"I was hysterical," Valerio said. "This man pushed me to the ground. He put his arms around me and his disabled wife and held me."

Riverside County sheriff's officials declined to release the names of the dead men, whose bodies were found near the front of the store. Police retrieved handguns on the floor near both of them.

"These guys ran into each other, they squared off against each other, they killed each other," said Sheriff's Capt. Daniel Wilham. "It's a miracle that these were the only two people killed, given it was a crowded toy store."

Wilham said it appeared there was some "previous hostility" between the two couples.

Even after the shooting, one woman was still screaming angrily. In raw video footage posted on the website for KESQ-TV Channel 3, the woman is being handcuffed and led to a police car. "I'm going to . . . kill you right now!" she shouted, slamming her fists on the car. "I'm going to kill you! Yeah, you!"

Toys R Us officials released a statement saying they were "outraged by the act of violence . . . and by the fact that anyone would compromise the safety and security of our customers and employees.

"Our understanding is that this act seems to have been the result of a personal dispute between the individuals involved. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to associate the events of today with Black Friday," the statement said.

In the first moments after the shooting subsided, the store became eerily quiet. Some people remained frozen in their tracks. Others tried to find the friends and family they had become separated from. Dozens of shoppers poured out a back emergency exit and fled to the nearest havens: a Jiffy Lube and a World Gym.

Saul Diaz, an assistant manager at Jiffy Lube, said a stampede of about 45 people ran into the store, a few distraught and crying. "They were running fast, straight into the car bays," he said. "There was a couple of ladies with little kids, about 3 years [old]. They were all pale. The kids were shouting, 'Mom, I'm scared.' "

One crying woman walked into the gym with an infant cradled in her arms.

Outside Pizza Hut, where witnesses were being interviewed, 3-year-old Landon Stitt sat on the grass munching on his pizza. He spoke matter-of-factly, almost as if he was describing a video game.

"I saw it," he said. "They were fighting. They were shooting." He shaped his fingers into a gun, then fired into the air.

As night fell, the coroner's office had still not removed the bodies from the store. But authorities said they expected Toys R Us to be open for business this morning.

Mehta, Maltais and Yoshino are Times staff writers.

Submitted on 11/29/2008

Submitted by: Tony Schmidt
Reference: Los Angeles Times 11/29/2008

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

>> Moderator Scores <<

Shadow said:
Definitely Toss: Other
shoot outs such as this are crimes and not Darwin stupidity in my book. Though they picked a poor place to have their shootout I dont see stupidity here. Thanks for the submission tho Tony!


Candi said:
Definitely Toss: Other
What Shadow said. Plus, little children could have gotten hurt. Not funny.


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

HomeRulesFAQsAwardsSlushSite Map
DarwinAward | HonorableMention | PersonalAccount | UrbanLegend