Death at the Firing Line - UPDATED

Printable View

08-15-2006, 15:04
GearHead

Death at the Firing Line - UPDATED

Today I decided to go to the firing line. I hadn't been in 3 months. I was directed to shoot in the public range because the members side was being cleaned.
Long story short, the lady next to me shot herself in the head and died.
I will write my perpectives on what happen later. I can't go into detail now, but I thought the members here should know what happen today.

Anthony

UPDATE: here are the details I promissed

These are the fact from my perspective.

I decided to go to the Fining Lining Shooting Range during my lunch break. I’m a member but I haven’t been shooting for about 3 months. I checked in at the counter about 12:45 and a guy is complaining about someone shooting rapid fire. The guy at the counter states he is a pilot and has permission. I ask which lane I am going to be assigned to, and the guy at the counter states that I will be at lane 8 in the public range because the members range is closed due to being cleaned.

I walk in the public range and notice the pilot at lane 4, a guy in BDU packing up, and a couple in lane 6. As I walk by lane 6, I hear the couple, and the guy is giving a “shooting lesson” to his girlfriend. I make a mental note that I have a new shooter next to me. I have two guns and one clip loaded for each. I fire off my first clip from the P22 and reload. Fire off the next clip, then grab my 9mm and fired off a clip.

Now that I got that out of my system, time to reload all my magazines. The guy in the BDUs is gone, and I over hear a partial conversation of the couple next to me. The guy ask, “let me have your car keys, I need to grab something”.

She replies simply, “Why?”

“I’ll explain when I get back. Keep on shooting”, was the last I heard.

Before I could finish loading my clip, I hear screaming. I look over and the pilot and the guy is leaving the range. I look down at my feet and the lady is lying there with a pool of blood around her head. I’m trained in CPR but I guess I just couldn’t think. I didn’t check her or anything. I just knew she was dead. I stepped over her and walked out of the range with just my muffs on my head and the clip in my hand. The employees were on the phone with 911 and going into the range to check her status. They came out shortly and I hear them tell the 911 operator that she wasn’t breathing.

The police were there within five minutes. I kneeled in the showroom and prayed for her while I waited for the detectives. I heard the first part of the boyfriend’s testimony.
“Oh my God, my girlfriend killed her self”
“She has gone shooting with me in the past, but I know that she is mentally unstable.”

This in when I got a little pissed. New shooter, left her alone with a loaded gun and he knew that she was “mentally unstable”.

I went through three verbal testimonies and one written. 2.5 hours later they said that I could go home but they kept my guns, ammos and targets. I understand why. The detective told me to call him next Monday to see if I could get my gear.
08-15-2006, 20:29
7idl

holy cr@p!

I thought they didn't let anyone shoot alone for that one reason?

looking forward to an AAR.
08-15-2006, 21:08
pickenup

Sad news.

That place has had more than it's share.
08-15-2006, 23:23
Scott

I am at a loss of words.
08-15-2006, 23:26
AR Will

WOW....

Thank god she wasn't homicidal. I'm glad to hear you're OK.
08-15-2006, 23:36
GearHead

Yeah, I thought about that... but Im still not completly sure it was suicide. It could have been an accidental shooting.. I did not witness that actual shooting.. Just the aftermath..
08-16-2006, 01:53
Scott

The thought of her accidentally shooting herself crossed my mind, but that's kind of a hard mistake to make. Oops, I was scratching my head with the barrel of the gun and accidentally pulled the trigger.

Did you see where the entry point of the bullet was?
08-16-2006, 07:06
7idl

MAGAZINE not 'clip'
08-16-2006, 08:55
GearHead

The detective just called me. He said that he will release my guns and MAGAZINES.. He also confirm the suicide. She had made other attempts. My question is why did her loser boyfriend take her shooting, and leave her alone!?
08-16-2006, 09:22
newracer

Maybe it was a way for him to get out. Sick but I have heard of worse.
08-16-2006, 13:47
GearHead

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott

Did you see where the entry point of the bullet was?

Nope, she was lying on that side..

I just picked up my gear from the Aurora PD and the Detective told me that the .38 was loaded with "wad cutters" and the bullet fragments didn't go thru the head. Had she had jacketed ammo, the pilot on lane 4 could have been in danger..
08-16-2006, 16:58
dorifto_poca

Quote:

Originally Posted by 7idl

MAGAZINE not 'clip'

but then it'll sound funny as a banana magazine(?)
08-16-2006, 17:47
7idl

Quote:

Originally Posted by dorifto_poca

Quote:

Originally Posted by 7idl

MAGAZINE not 'clip'

but then it'll sound funny as a banana magazine(?)

do you want to sound like an uniformed anti-gun liberal or an educated firearms owner? [pirate]
08-16-2006, 22:11
dorifto_poca

i don't mean to thread jack, but i grew up with the term clip and now more educated its magazine. so what can you do?
08-16-2006, 22:20
7idl

It wasn't an attack on anyone here.

we just need to not use the incorrect terms used by the media.
08-16-2006, 22:39
AR Will

I made a mistake as a fresh recruit, and asked my Drill instucter "why don't we practice Drill and Cerimonies with a clip in the weapon?" That was the first and last time I called it a clip. Some of us learn the hard way, I blame hollywood for the whole "Clip". I geuss its easier for the misinformed California movie makers to have there action heros say clip....less sylables, or maybe its because they don't alow rifles with magazines in that state. 2cents
08-17-2006, 08:32
PsychoI3oy

That's funny. When I was in AFJRROTC the color guard drilled with demilled M1 Garands.

Calling it a clip then would have been accurate :mrgreen:

ETA: In the non threadjacking department.

I've shot at TFL I don't know how many times. Sucks this had to happen there, specially while one of our own was there.

Sucks even worse that it happened at any gun range with a firearm. I've been keeping an eye out but haven't seen anything in the media. They usually have a field day with these things.

The only results on google news and news4colorado.com for 'suicide' and 'aurora suicide' are for a recent 'may have been suicide by cop' and results for "the firing line" on news4colorado don't show anything.
08-17-2006, 12:39
BadShot

Always a crappy thing to have to witness a death, especially a suicide. I'm glad you and the others were OK, but at this point I have to say I'm not comfortable with TFL. I've never really been impressed by them or the range, but this kinda puts it over the top for me. I don't think I'll be setting foot in there again.

Still, glad you're doing OK and didn't get hurt.
09-24-2006, 15:20
rtr

Heard on the radio today (Sunday Sep. 24) that there was a suicide at an indoor range in Denver, don't remember hearing which one, anybody got more details?
09-24-2006, 20:29
KarlPMann

I think that was at The Firing Line in Aurora and happened a few weeks ago, but I'm not 100% sure. There was a thread about it IIRC. Karl.
08-19-2007, 18:14
B2crawler

Wasn't there an accident there several years ago involving a drunk guy shooting his young son?

I don't shoot at the firing line after I was hit with with a bullet frag. Actually stuck in my leg (wearing shorts) and bleed like a stuck pig when I plucked it off. Packed up my crap and left. Guy at the counter made it sound like it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Said something about being on lanes closer to the walls are the worst....whatever that could have to do with anything I don't know.
08-20-2007, 11:45
rondog

Ay carumba!! I was just there yesterday! I really don't care for the place, but I've gotta shoot SOMEWHERE. I've never been to the Cherry Creek Park range, I just can't get into having to pay to enter the park first, then pay to enter the range. That's $20, just to go and look it over.

I went to the "South Shoot" location Saturday to check it out and bust some cans, but it started raining like hell as soon as I pulled in, and I didn't have the time to hang out and wait for it to quit.
08-20-2007, 17:40
rondog

When my wife was married to her first husband, they lived next door to another young couple who were good friends of theirs. One morning, the husband next door came into the kitchen while his young kids were eating breakfast and his wife was putting on makeup, said to his wife "bury me in Wyoming", and blew his brains all over the wall with a .357. I can't even imagine somebody doing that, and what it did to his wife and kids....

Needless to say, my wife has a "thing" about guns now, and I catch all kinds of flack from her about my .45 and CCW permit. She doesn't know about my .44 cap & ball revolver, the Bersa .380 auto, or the 9x18 PA-63 I'm picking up tomorrow.

Oh, and I fully agree about that stupid "clip vs. magazine" argument. Who cares? Let's argue about "magazine vs. magazine", which came first? The ammo storage device or the publication? Which is "correct"? Jeez......
08-29-2007, 21:59
WETWRKS

Quote:

Originally Posted by rondog

I've never been to the Cherry Creek Park range, I just can't get into having to pay to enter the park first, then pay to enter the range. That's $20, just to go and look it over.

Not just the prices either. I showed up with my mak90 and some 100rnd drums and they freaked. The guy at the counter said "What's that!?!" I didn't have any idea what he was asking about as I had several rifles and pistols with me. After several questions of "This?" "No." "This?" "NO." "This?" I got "NO, THAT!" Pointing to the drum.

He then stated that they didn't want anything with more than 5 rounds and that the drums had to be taken back out. His reaction was equivilant to what I have seen when idiots start waving obviously loaded weapons around while in a gun store.

As I was there to shoot with friends I stayed but I havn't been back and won't return again.
09-01-2007, 22:57
androck14

Thirty years ago Cherry Creek was a fun place to shoot. I went there in '01 when I got my M1A and didn't recognise the place. Haven't been back. Now I shoot at GGC in Watkins. Good place.