May 30, 2006
Messed With the Wrong Marine…
Something tells me this is how Col Jessup from A Few Good Men would have handled the situation…
Former Marine kills would-be robber
3 men, one woman attack waiter walking in Midtown
A pack of would-be robbers including, a pregnant 17-year-old, figured a Midtown waiter walking to his girlfriend’s house Monday night would be an easy mark, according to police.
But, in Thomas Autry, 36, the bandits picked the wrong victim, said Atlanta police homicide Detective Danny Stephens. The former Marine, cornered by his pursuers on Penn Avenue at 4th Street, fought back with a pocket knife in a deadly melee that left the young woman dead and a man in his late teens seriously injured at a hospital.
…
Stephens said Autry had left his job at the Jocks & Jills restaurant in Midtown and was walking along Penn Avenue when a blue Cadillac pulled alongside and three men, one armed with a shotgun, and the woman jumped from the car.
…
Grabbing the knife from his backpack, Autry managed to kick the shotgun from the man’s hands and stabbed the woman in the chest, fatally wounding her. Stephens said. In the melee, Autry also stabbed one of the male suspects. Another suspect attempted to shoot Autry with a .380 pistol, which misfired, Stephens said.
He brought a knife to a gunfight… And won!
While I don’t envy the emotional trauma Autry’s going to have to go through as a result of this ordeal, he can rest with the knowledge that these “kids” got what they deserved.
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I don’t know Brad. If the 17-year old pregnant girl was unarmed…
Well I definitely can’t blame the guy for defending himself: ESPECIALLY considering there were 4 of them and at least 2 of them were armed.
But I can also see a teenage girl getting coerced by her boyfriend into getting involved.
Was it her fault for mugging someone?: definitely.
But having a “yeah, kick-ass!” attitude about a 17-year old pregnant girl getting stabbed to death over a wallet seems brutish.
Daniel,
Here is what puts it over the edge for me:
The identities of the surviving suspects, who Stephens said are believed to be linked to “a lot” of pedestrian robberies in Midtown and Virginia-Highland, were not released.
…
“This group had robbed two men on Piedmont earlier Monday night, taking a video camera and a cellphone,” Stephens said.
This doesn’t sound like an isolated incident. If the previous robbery had also involved a shotgun and handgun, she obviously knew what she was getting into. And considering it was a stab wound, she was obviously close to the action. Also from the story, it appears there was a chase, which she took part in to the extent that she was close enough to the action to still get stabbed. If she wasn’t that into the idea of armed robbery, I can see at least several points at which she could have reduced her involvement enough to be out of the center of action.
I’m of the opinion that if you commit an armed robbery, there is an implicit threat that you’ll commit murder to complete your robbery. At that point, you deserve what you get.
“I’m of the opinion that if you commit an armed robbery, there is an implicit threat that you’ll commit murder to complete your robbery.”
I agree with that.
The serial mugging twist does change things. It’s disgusting to think of the viciousness and inhumanity it must require to be a serial mugger. That makes it seem less of a “troubled girl swept up in the wrong crowd” thing and more of a “live by the sword, die by the sword” thing.
I guess my gut response was a reflex from my “sexist” sense of chivalry. I don’t even like it when female super-villains die in comic books.