Change in Las Vegas Shooting Story Prompts Alternate Theory

Gun Watch ^ | 13 June, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Joseph Wilcox, armed citizen who died attempting to stop a mass shooting

Mass shooting situations trigger a tsunami of public emotion, so there are enormous incentives for politically correct reporters to "interpret" them in certain ways for political purposes.  They are often complex events that take time and careful investigation to unravel.   In the recent shooting in Las Vegas, two police officers and a concealed carry permit holder were killed by the two attackers, who also died.

The last three deaths occurred in a Wal-Mart, which, I am told, has some of the most complete surveillance camera systems of U.S. retail establishments.

Initial stories did not include mention of the fact that the victim killed in the Wal-Mart was a legally armed citizen.  Later stories mentioned that he was attempting to stop the attackers when he was killed; it was implied that his action was futile.   Initial police reports claimed that the attackers had committed suicide.

From CNN:

Authorities had earlier said the woman shot and killed her husband before taking her own life. But Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters Wednesday that a review of forensic evidence at the scene and autopsy results showed that police fatally wounded the gunman.

"We made a determination that she did not shoot him. He did suffer a gunshot wound, and we believe the entrance wound was here," McMahill said, pointing to his own collarbone.

Note that CNN makes no mention of the armed citizen, Joseph Wilcox, being armed, or of his attempt to stop the attackers, until the end of the story:

 After gunning down the officers, Jerad and Amanda Miller ran to a nearby Walmart, police said, where they killed a bystander before barricading themselves inside the store during a firefight with responding officers.

At the end of the article the writer includes this statement from the police spokesperson, Assistant Chief McMahill:

 "He was carrying a concealed weapon, and he immediately and heroically moved toward the position of Jerad Miller. Upon completing that action, he did not realize that Amanda Miller was with Jerad Miller," McMahill said.

The change in the story from the male attacker being shot by his wife, and then committing suicide, to him being fatally shot by police, has prompted at least one person to wonder if Joseph Wilcox might have wounded the male attacker.  From sfgate.com, commenter porkupine writes:

First they said the wife shot the husband at walmart. Now they are saying cops shot him and the wife shot her self, and only now are they saying a concealed permit carrier "confronted them". You know what I think? I think that the concealed permit citizen shot the husband, then the wife shot the concealed carrier. The concealed guy stopped a potentially huge shooting spree but the anti gun mainstream media doesn't people to know that

 One of the early reports from the Las Vegas Review Journal stated:

One unconfirmed report is that the two exchanged gunfire with a citizen who was carrying a concealed weapon, and that one of the shooters was injured.

There is a clear bias in the old media to downplay successful citizen defensive uses of guns.   John Lott wrote an entire book about it, so it is easy to understand the skepticism embodied in porukpine's comment.   The Las Vegas police have also earned considerable skepticism about their ability to investigate shootings, especially after all the Costco footage of the shooting of another concealed carry permit holder, Eric Scott, was never recovered.     The Las Vegas Review-Journal wrote an entire book devoted to criticism of Las Vegas police shooting investigations.

The police acknowledge that they have voluminous videotape of the incident from store cameras.   

McMahill said investigators were reviewing a "tremendous" amount of graphic video of the suspects during the rampage.

"The video shows you exactly how vicious and coldblooded these murderers were," he said.

In the interest of transparency, and to nip any questions about a "coverup", the police should release all of the video to the public.   We have often seen how, when only select snippets of video are released, as in the Rodney King affair, those snippets can be completely misleading.

In these days of online video, there is no reason not to release the entire footage.

 ©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

Best to release the video now. It can be easily be done on the Internet at this point.

[Stentor]

RIP Mr. Wilcox.

[smokingfrog]

The autopsy should be able to tell us who shot who, right?

[bandleader]

The”story”I”Divined”was that the “CC”shot Miller(not realizing that the woman behind him was with him).She then shot him and(subsequently)took her own life.This doesn’t “Fit”The “Gun-Grabber”Template so it was”Altered”!!They simply cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that a “law-Abing/Armed Citizen”is one of the BEST defenses against this type of wanton violence!!!!!

[LadyBuck]

Interesting how the narrative keeps changing....

[LadyBuck]

The Wilcox family needs help with burial expenses.

I don’t have the link handy, but surely it can be googled.

[Billthedrill]

The autopsy should be able to tell us who shot who, right?

It'll tell somebody. Whether that somebody tells us is quite another question.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

A week before the Newtown, CT shooting, there was an attempted mass shooting at a shopping mall in Portland, Oregon.

A shooter with a semi-automatic rifle announced, “I am the shooter” and then shot someone.

A 22-year-old conceal carry gun saw what was happening and pointed HIS firearm at the shooter, but did not fire any rounds because there were innocent people walking or standing near the shooter.

The shooter saw the conceal / carry guy pointing a weapon at him, got scared, stopped shooting, ran off into an alcove on the mall, and shot himself.

The conceal / carry guy therefore prevented a much bigger tragedy. Was he hailed a hero? Of course not. His story and actions didn’t fit the media “guns are bad” template so this man and his actions were ignored.

Wayne LaPierre was right....the best way to handle a bad guy with a gun is for a good guy to have a gun.

[cripplecreek]

The murder rate in Detroit is down between 25% and 30% this year from the same period last year. At the same time the justifiable homicide and defensive shooting rates are up.

[Chewbarkah]

It is a shame that the public spends a fortune on police and FBI investigative departments, but due to political chicanery the results can’t be trusted without independent verification.

The truth seems unlikely to escape unless the next of kin of Joseph Wilcox has a reason to sue Wal-Mart and/or the LVPD, so they can subpoena the video and whatever materials the police possess — raw witness reports, officer debriefings, forensic tests on recovered bullets and firearms, etc. Is it possible that LVPD officers shot Wilcox rather than the woman?

[SpeakerToAnimals]

The video is on the same server as Lois Learners e-mails. It was lost when a hard drive crashed.

[stylin19a]

the police should release all of the video to the public.

They'll end being with Lerner's e-nails.

[IncPen]

truth

[21twelve]

http://mix941fm.cbslocal.com/2014/06/09/fundraiser-for-wilcox-family/

http://www.gofundme.com/a54vjs

Two of the donation sites for this man. The top one is through Wells Fargo. The other is on “gofundme”.

[SunkenCiv]

> Initial stories did not include mention of the fact that the victim killed in the Wal-Mart was a legally armed citizen.

Thanks marktwain.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“We have often seen how, when only select snippets of video are released, as in the Rodney King affair, those snippets can be completely misleading.”

You ain’t kidding! I saw the King vid the very first time it aired. Never saw that version again. The later clips had King’s repeated refusals to stay on the ground, his attempts to get up and get around the car, and his very combative attitude, edited out! All you saw was the cops “beating” him for no apparent reason. The reasons were on the cutting room floor, so to speak.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

I doubt we will ever know what happened. Glad the perps are dead though.