Monday, March 14, 2005
So I picked up the Calgary Sun papers from the weekend to read today over my lunch break. The Sunday paper had its regular "Death Pages" which consisted of the following stories:

PAIR DODGED BULLETS - Couple watching TV are interrupted by bullets shattering through front window. The reason? Completely unknown.

SEVEN DIE IN CHURCH SERVICE MASSACRE - Seven people killed. At a Church. At a MEMORIAL SERVICE. Wtf!

COPS EYE SUSPECTED GANGLAND SHOOTING - Calgary gangs blah blah shootings blah blah drive-by blah blah blah.

JUDGE-KILLING SUSPECT ARRESTED - Oh this one is grand. Let's see if I can summarize correctly.

A man being escorted into court for rape somehow stole a deputy's gun, shot her in the face, then killed the judge and a court reporter, and then killed another deputy outside. He then stole a reporter's car and escaped. He eventually gave himself up, after holding a woman hostage in her apartment. FBI also suspect that this guy shot and killed a US Immigration and Customs agent about 25 km away from the woman's apartment, and stole the agent's truck, pistol and badge.

...what is this, a Batman story? Shoots the judge and escapes unharmed? Were the guards asleep? Or just blind?

And it gets even worse. Apparently, the day before the courtroom shootings, investigators found a shank (homemade knife) fashioned from a DOORKNOB in each of this guy's shoes. Now, call me crazy, but after trying to sneak KNIVES into the courtroom, you'd think they'd buff up security. Apparently not!

Also, the main reason he was able to get the deputy's gun was because he wasn't handcuffed when entering the courtroom. Why? Because law requires defendants not be handcuffed when entering so that the sight of cuffs "do not unfairly influence the jury."

Boy, it's a good thing those jury members didn't see any handcuffs. Because seeing a judge and civilian gunned down in front of their eyes, and then being held hostage for like 15 minutes by a gun-wielding maniac (one that had tried to sneak homemade knives into the courtroom the day before) - that's all fine. I'm sure that didn't influence their feelings at all.


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