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ANOTHER INCIDENT

I'm not going to spend a lot of time telling you what lessons should
be learned from this incident.  I will only mention the following:

1.  This guy carried a gun for 20 years and never needed it.  Then
    suddenly one day he needed the gun to stay alive.  If he had not
    had it with him that day, he might be dead now.

2.  Most companies don't care about your safety.  He was fired.

3.  Guns are not the one shot weapons of mass destruction you are
    led to believe.  Note the guy says (in article 2) that he 
    kept shooting because, from only 3-5 feet away, he could not
    tell whether he was hitting the attacker.  He also insists 
    the attacker did not fall until after the 15th shot was fired.



PIZZA HUT DELIVERY MAN ROBBED

ARTICLE ONE
A pizza deliveryman won't face charges for fatally shooting a would-
be robber several times when he was approached in a high-crime area, 
but his employer, Pizza Hut, has fired him for violating a company 
policy against carrying firearms.

Ronald B. Honeycutt, 38, who has a permit to carry a concealed 
weapon, says he's been delivering pizzas for 20 years and has always 
packed heat on the job.

According to a report in the Indianapolis Star, prosecutors announced 
Friday the Carmel, Ind., man will not face criminal charges.

"It's a clear case of self-defense," Deputy Prosecutor Barb Crawford 
said. "He did what the law allows him to do to protect himself." 
Jerome Brown-Dancler approached Honeycutt at around 11 p.m. on May 17 
just after he had made a pizza delivery in Indianapolis. According to 
the report, Brown-Dancler pointed a 9 mm handgun at the Pizza Hut 
employee as he was entering his van.

Brown-Dancler's gun carried a loaded 14-round clip but had no bullet 
in the chamber, Crawford told the Star. When confronted, Honeycutt 
pulled his own 9 mm from the back of his pants and fired until it was 
empty. He says he fired 15 times in about eight seconds. An autopsy 
revealed Brown-Dancler was hit at least 10 times. 

According to the report, Honeycutt insists Brown-Dancler didn't fall 
until after the last shot was fired. 

"The guy kept standing. He knew he was injured when he fell," 
Honeycutt told the paper. "His concern was he made an error, and the 
only thing he could say when I was grabbing his gun off the ground 
was, 'I just wanted pizza.'"

After the encounter, Honeycutt took Brown-Dancler's gun, fearing it 
might be stolen if it was left with the body. He got in his van, 
drove to the Pizza Hut restaurant where he worked and told his 
manager to call police, Crawford said.

"This was late at night. This was a high-crime area," Crawford is 
quoted as saying. "He left because he wasn't sure whether or not 
Brown-Dancler had any friends with him. As it turns out, he did 
indeed have friends with him. They left when they heard shots fired." 
Honeycutt says he plans to find another job delivering pizzas. 
"Other criminals better think twice, because I'm going back out 
there," he said, "and I know I'm not alone in the way I think about 
this."

Some Pizza Hut customers have complained to the company after it 
fired Honeycutt.

"I hope those of you in the media will realize the incredible 
unfairness of a huge company telling its employees in essence
they must agree to die for the company rather than use legal 
reasonable means to defend themselves," Rick Whitham, an Indianapolis 
attorney, told WND. He says he saw Pizza Hut's action as "clear 
discrimination against those who choose to lawfully exercise a legal, 
heavily regulated right."

Whitham wrote to the company: "I don't spend my money with businesses 
that openly discriminate against people such as myself who understand 
that the police have no affirmative duty to protect any particular 
citizen and that no company is worth dying for – particularly yours." 



ARTICLE TWO
A pizza deliveryman who says he killed an armed man who was trying to 
rob him Monday night could face criminal charges.

Marion County prosecutors are considering the case but have made no
charging decisions.

"I'm just satisfied it was him and not me," Ronald B. Honeycutt, 38,
Carmel, said Tuesday morning.

Honeycutt, who is licensed to carry a gun, pulled his pistol and fired
all 15 rounds at a man coming toward him after he made a delivery.

"He said, "Hey, my guy," and as he said, "Hey, my guy," he's lifting
his arm up with his gun in his hand."

The man, Jerome Brown, 20, 9500 block of East 39th Place, was taken to
Methodist Hospital, where he died a short time later.

Honeycutt said he was fired from his job at Pizza Hut because he had
violated the firm's policy against carrying a gun.

"It's my life," he said. "I choose which policy to follow."

A Pizza Hut spokeswoman, Patty Sullivan, confirmed the ban on carrying
weapons is a company policy.

Marion County Sheriff's Capt. Phil Burton said there were no witnesses
to the shooting, which occurred about 11 p.m. in the 3600 block of Long
Wharf Drive. Burton said he did not know how many times Brown was shot.

Investigators will present their findings to the Marion County prosecutor's
office, Burton said. Honeycutt said detectives had told him "something
could come out of it" because of the number of times he shot Brown.

Honeycutt emptied his 9 mm gun in less than 10 seconds, he said, and kept
firing because he couldn't tell whether the bullets were striking Brown,
who was 3 to 5 feet away. "He never ran. He never cried. He never moved.
It was like I was missing him altogether."

After Brown fell, with his gun arm outstretched, he said, "I just wanted
a pizza," Honeycutt recounted.

But Honeycutt said he didn't believe him.

The deliveryman said he later learned that Brown's gun never fired because
there wasn't a round in the chamber. However, he said he heard Brown's gun
click two times.

Honeycutt was delivering for the Pizza Hut store in the 8900 block of East
38th Street on Monday night and said he already had made a $50 delivery
where bystanders had badgered him. "I expected to get robbed," he said.

Then he drove to the Long Wharf Drive apartment, where he noticed two men
coming toward him as he approached the building. He said he doesn't know
whether either of them was Brown or was associated with him.

After making his delivery, he turned around -- "to check my back one more
time" -- and saw a man walking briskly toward him. He had reached his van
and opened the door when he saw Brown raise his arm, he said. "Once he
leveled that gun at me, it was my gun or his."

Fearing Brown had an accomplice, Honeycutt said, he picked up Brown's gun
after the shooting and drove back to the store, just a couple of minutes
away, where detectives later met him.

Honeycutt, who was laid off about a year ago from his transportation job,
said he has been delivering pizza for 20 years.

"I've always had a gun," he said. "It's a fair job, but I don't plan on
dying for it. I know so many people that really got mangled up."

Honeycutt said he had never had to fire his gun in self-defense before,
although he had pointed it at some would-be robbers once.

"I'm a down-to-earth kind of person. With everything that's transpired
since 9/11, killing seems a necessity if it means your life or theirs."