2002 Honorable Mentions

The stupidity displayed by the participants in the following tales stops short of the ultimate Darwin Awards sacrifice. Nevertheless, we salute the spirit and innovation of their misadventures.

I Shot the Sheriff 2002 Honorable Mention Confirmed True by Darwin (19 March 2002, Ohio) "Shots fired, shots fired -- I'm hit," a police chief radioed to headquarters. The 52-year-old officer reported that he'd been shot in the leg during an incident that began as a routine traffic stop. He had pulled over a rusted Chevrolet missing its license plates, but before he could emerge from his police cruiser, the driver had opened fire and put a bullet through the cruiser's windshield. The suspect then charged the chief, who was shot in the leg during the ensuing struggle. A statewide manhunt was launched to locate the gunman, described as a white, bearded male, 6' 4" tall and weighing 195 pounds. One week later, the law enforcement team nabbed their man: the police chief himself, who confessed to fabricating the entire event to hide a blunder. He had accidentally fired his rifle through the windshield of his police car. To cover up that mistake, he drove out to a county road, radioed in for help, and fired his weapon to make it sound like there was trouble at the scene of a traffic stop. Then he accidentally fired his weapon again, striking his own leg. To inadvertently discharge a weapon once might be considered a simple accident, but twice earns this police chief an Honorable Mention. Had that shot ricocheted... he might have won a Darwin Award instead! DarwinAwards.com © 1994 - 2009 Submitted by: Dave Temple, Greg Reference: Cleveland / Akron Channel 5 News Awful? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Great? Hate it! Love it!

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