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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."

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