Posted on 09/16/2005 12:44:59 PM PDT by Goofystacey
A frightening scene involving the Longview Hands on a Hardbody contest early Thursday morning. Police say a contestant killed himself in front of them at a local store.
He was contestant number 4. Quiet, soft spoken and well liked. But shortly before the 6:00 a.m. break, 24-year-old Richard Vega of Tyler took his hands off the hardbody truck and began walking across the street to K-mart.
"When I talked to Ricky this morning, he seemed fine. I said, 'How you doing?' He said, 'I had too much caffeine.' Next thing you know , three minutes before the horn blows he's taken off, gone, across the street to K-mart" said KYKX radio announcer Danny Tyler.
Witnesses say they saw Vega cross this street, calmly walk over to K-mart and throw a trash can through the front doors. As K-mart employees scrambled to get out, he calmly asked one of them a question.
"He asked where the sporting goods section was at and that's it," said a K-mart employee.
Getting a shot-gun and shells, he tried to make his way out, but he was stopped.
"When officers approached him as he was coming to the front of the store, they actually confronted him told him to drop the weapon and at that point he took a couple of steps back and shot himself," said Sergeant Carlos Samples.
"Never did I have a thought in my mind that anything like this would happen from anybody especially him," said contest watcher Dru Laborde.
Hours before the shooting, witnesses say Vega had become intense about the competition.
"He took it very personally. It struck me, that out of all the people here he needed the truck the most and wanted it the most," said English reporter James Mawre covering the event for BBC.
Some also noticed that Vega had been taking numerous Monster power drinks that were loaded with caffeine.
"He'd had about six, and he said am I all right. My head is buzzing, am I all right? And right up to the last moments, before he ran off, he was asking for help," says Mawre.
"Horrible , horrible, all I can do at this point is pray for the family," says Laborde.
Patterson Nissan has canceled this year's event and sent remaining contestants home.
Bob Hallmark, reporting. bhallmark@kltv.com
Check this one out.
Self Darwined.
That's not fair. How far into the contest were they?
Sore loser.
First 48 hours.
He quite on his own. Other reports say he had been in trouble with the law for beating his wife.
I predict a lawsuit in someone's future.
Thanks. That's not as bad then.
I've been watching the HOHB contest for years, even judging one and the lack of sleep really gets to some people. About day 3, some of the contestants are ready to kill each other, and you don't want to be the judge that tells them they are DQ'd for pulling their hands off the truck.
K-Mart still sells shotguns and shells? Not any I've been in lately. But then again most of the ones in Texas closed a couple of years ago, although the one in Killeen, adjacent to Ft. Hood is still open, along with a couple of others. They most definitely do not carry guns.
But that's OK, because the "pawn" shop across the road does, both new and used. So does the gun shop about a mile down the road. It has 1700 guns on display and 3,000 or so in stock. K-Mart is not missed.
Lock the racks? Most put the guns away in a vault or safe, or a minimum in some sort of cage. Maybe not in a retail store open 24 hours, even if the sporting goods department isn't staffed all those hours.
ICK! Amp tastes like latex paint.
I suspect the contents will be revealed in the upcoming lawsuit trial.
Six of them!
Good grief.
Isn't that the case with all losers of "hands on a hardbody" contests? They always quit on their own, except in the rare cases when they're dragged kicking and screaming from the truck. Sore loser.
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