Turkey Shoot 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
Voltaire once said, "God is on the side of the big battalions." What is true at the level of armies is no less true for police shootouts, as a band of bank robbers near Des Moines discovered after they robbed a bank and challenged police with... pellet guns.
Quoting from the newspaper "Des Moines Register", editions of February 27-28, 2002, "Two bank robbery suspects threatened police with pellet guns that resembled real firearms before they were shot to death in Urbandale, authorities said Wednesday.
In a case where the police for once were somewhere they needed to be when they were needed, police started pursuit of a van immeditely after its occupants had apparently held up a local bank, using pellet pistols that looked very much like real firearms.
"Urbandale police sergeant Doug Hobart said the use of deadly force was justified in the incident Tuesday, but he could not explain why the men confronted armed officers with pellet guns.
"'There has to be a reason," Hobart said. 'There was some desperation of some type. There had to be.'
"The dead suspects and a third man who is jailed in the robbery were brothers from a large Des Moines family.
"Henry Charles Simmons, 45, of Pasadena, Calif., and Paul Philip Simmons, 47, of Des Moines were shot and killed by police after the robbery of a West Bank branch in Urbandale.
"The Des Moines Register learned Wednesday that Henry Charles Simmons was to be sentenced in May in federal court in California on four counts of bank fraud. He pled guilty last month.
"Urbandale police Sgt. Doug Hobart said Wednesday that the robbers used pellet guns in Tuesday's robbery, and no real weapons were fund in the van they drove from the bank.
"Police followed the van, driven by Henry Charles Simmons, known as Charles, for about a mile and a half before it stopped on Interstate Highway 35/80 north of Hickman Road. Police said that one of the pelet guns was thrown out of the van and was found along Hickman.
"Hobart said that Charles Simmons got out of the van carrying what appeared to be a gun[,] as law enforcement officers surrounded the vehicle. Hobart said that Chartles Simmons pointed what was later found to be a pellet gun at Urbandale police officer Dennis Vinson.
"Paul Simmons, still in the van, brandished what appeared to be a gun at officers, Hobart said.
"Vinson, Urbandale officer Chad Krull[,] and Iowa State Patrol Trooper Dennis McMahon fired a number of shots, Hobart said. Authorities said they did not know Wednesday how many shots were fired or which officers' shots struck the suspects.
"Charles Simmons died on the scene. Paul Simmons was also shot. He died at Iowa Methodist Medical Center. Autopsies were being conducted Wednesday, but Polk County Medical Examiner Francis Garrity said he could not comment on his findings.
"Two people in the van were unhurt. A third brother, Terry L. Simmons, 56, address unknown, was charged with first-degree robbery and was being held in the Polk County Jail on $100,000 bond. Also charged in the robbery was Jeanette Freeman, 24, of Pasadena, Calif. She remained in jail Wednesday on $100,000 bond."
Well. Bank robbery already has had the reputation of being one of the stupidest crimes to commit, considering the usually low takes and the high probability of police apprehension. And this incident was so stupid and so fitting the criteria for a Darwin Award that if it hadn't been for the very real bank robbery that the robbers had just pulled, one would have to ask the question of whether the Simmons brothers had tried to commit "suicide by cop".
AUTHOR Update:
I indicated that this was a case where the police just
happened to be where they were needed when they were needed.
This is not so; that is, they didn't HAPPEN to be there.
It later turned out that the police were there because they were called by
a woman using her cell phone on her way out of the bank. While on her way
out, she spotted the robbers entering the bank -- WITH THEIR WEAPONS IN
PLAIN SIGHT -- and not even hidden in paper bags. She had seen them exit
their blue van and go into the bank. She called the police, saying, "I
think there's a bank robbery going on right now at the West Bank in
Urbandale." When she called the police, she mentioned the van. The police
asked her to get the license plate number, and so she did. The robbers
were in the bank for seven minutes, and the police were there four minutes
after the call -- that is, three minutes before the robbers exited the -->
-- premises.
That all makes this even more of a "turkey shoot".
Submitted on 02/28/02
Submitted by:
Michael Nollet
Reference:
Des Moines Register, 2-28-02
Copyright © 2002 DarwinAwards.com
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