Gun Battle At Toys R Us

[MA-Caver]

2 dead after shots fired in Southern California Toys ’R’ Us
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081128/NEWS/81128047 November 28, 2008
PALM DESERT, Calif. (AP) – Two people were shot to death in a crowded toy store on Black Friday in a confrontation apparently involving rival groups, city officials said.
Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson said police told him two men with handguns shot and killed each other. Ferguson said he asked police whether the incident was a dispute over a toy or whether it was gang-related. He said police told him they were not going to release further details until the victims’ relatives were notified.
“I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys “R” Us?” he said. “I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper.”
City spokeswoman Sheila Gilligan said police told her the shooting broke out between “two groups of individuals that have a dispute with each other.”
The Palm Desert Police Department received calls of shots fired around 11:35 a.m., Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez said. He said officers were still investigating what prompted the gunshots.
Immediately after the shooting, about 20 people rushed into the World Gym across the street from Toys “R” Us, the gym’s assistant manager Glenn Splain told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
“They were crying, tearing and shaking,” Splain said, adding that one woman came in cradling a baby.
“Some people got into a fight,” said Splain, who spoke with some of the customers. “One of the guys here thought it was over a toy, but it got louder and louder and then there were gunshots.”

Is it going to be safe to go shopping anymore? two idiots apparently killed each other over SOMETHING... two women fighting over SOMETHING...
Getting pretty stupid ... I'd be woefully disappointed if it was over an item in the store... they're saying Gang related but then that's an easy way to explain it... it might be just that... if so then obviously something has to be done about gangs over all.

Sad that a happy time for a lot of people turned out to be a real nightmare.

 

[rhn_kenpo]

The reporter that wrote that article is either clueless, or being excessively conservative about forming any conclusions.

The term 'groups' is a joke. Of course this was a confrontation between two gang members. Who else would go shopping with a handgun and then fire shots at someone after an 'argument'? That is gang member standard operating procedure and Palm Desert is prime gang banger territory. Pathetic and sad no doubt. But also typical. From the article it appears that no innocent bystanders were injured. Hope that is the case.

R

 

[Cryozombie]

The term 'groups' is a joke. Of course this was a confrontation between two gang members. Who else would go shopping with a handgun

Me.

and then fire shots at someone after an 'argument'?

Again, Me, if they pulled a weapon on me first. Does that make me a gang member? Well, foshizzle, then I need go go sell some CRACK.

 

[Carol]

Is it going to be safe to go shopping anymore? two idiots apparently killed each other over SOMETHING... two women fighting over SOMETHING...
Getting pretty stupid ... I'd be woefully disappointed if it was over an item in the store... they're saying Gang related but then that's an easy way to explain it... it might be just that... if so then obviously something has to be done about gangs over all.

Sad that a happy time for a lot of people turned out to be a real nightmare.

Incorrect. The article says it was two men, the LA Times mentions their names (Alejandro Moreno, 39, of Desert Hot Springs and Juan Meza, 28, of Cathedral City).

The Toys R Us in question is in Palm Desert, CA and shares a parking lot with a Pizza Hut...where one of my friends is in corporate management. She says that the shootings were a result of known gangs in the area, and that local police try to avoid the term "gang activity" in hopes of quelling those that seek publicity for the wrong reasons.

 

[grydth]

Yeah, well the local police can refer to it as "trick or treating" or "collecting for charity" and that won't stop the (much deserved) worldwide attention it will continue to draw.

Thing is - why is this in "Horror Stories" when we have a very uncommon ending?

How often do we see these stories end with the average folks getting hit in the cross fire? We can't even feel sorry for the poor kids getting involved in gang violence as these two losers were 39 and 28 - - -who knew there was a senior circuit for gangs?

Anybody who'd open fire at a toy store - which one might expect to be full of KIDS and FAMILIES - is a useless oxygen thief. The only thing these losers did properly was impose capital punishment on the spot on each other.

To me this is a HAPPY STORY! :flame::shock:

Good riddance!

 

[exile]

The horror aspect is the horrible danger that people in the store were in, I'd say. It was the sheerest dumb luck that no one who didn't merit it stopped a bullet in this affair. The more typical outcome is that completely innocent people are killed or grotesquely damaged, while the perps often suffer nothing other than 'cuffing.

We all got lucky this time. The satisfying aspect of the story is that once again, it shows that there can be poetic justice in real life. Do the crime, run out of time. But it's really creepy to think how easily this could have been yet another story of children or their parents out for a harmlessly enjoyable shopping trip to a toy store, and never going home again...

 

[Carol]

Oxygen thieves...what a perfect description.

Its a shame the two of them put a lot of innocent families at risk (and spooked many, many more) with their own stupidity.

My friend said her Pizza Hut had opened with a full staff as they were expecting to feed a lot of hungry Black Friday shoppers as the day went on. What she wasn't expecting was for people to come in wondering if they would be safe from the shooting...only to find a restaurant full of terrified staff wondering the same thing.

Good riddance to the oxygen thieves but I'm also very relieved that it was only them that suffered any damages.

 

[MA-Caver]

That it happened in a popular toy store is the horror... as mentioned ... small children aren't always fully supervised in this store and sometimes run amok... this COULD'VE turned out much more terrible than it did...
The loss of ANY life is regrettable though sometimes necessary ... that these two imposed the harshest penalty for their macho-istic stupidity is fine with me and even more so that no-one else was hurt.
Good riddance to bad rubbish as these two proved themselves to be.