Author's note. This is a story from my cop days. It is as I remember it. Names and places have been changed to protect the ignorant. In 37 years behind the badge, I've seen some stuff, and worked cases that some folks won't believe. I started my career in 1980, and retired from two agencies, serving in a variety of positions. This is one of those stories.
The .25 ACP us much maligned as a self-defense cartridge, and rightly so. I don't want to get shot with one, and I don't want to get shot with anything. Let me tell you a story.
Back in the early 80s, Dindu was shacked up with Gonorea (Gu'-nor-e-a). She had an apartment in the big projects, down off MLK Blvd.and Dindu slept there most nights.
It was Saturday night, and Dindu was out hustling at a place called "the square", trying to score a few dollars selling low-grade weed. Dindu happened to look down the block and observed Gonorea under the streetlamp on the corner. Talking to some other dude. Dindu took offense and extracted from his pocket a small Raven Arms handgun in .25 ACP. He took one shot at what was later measured to be about 125 yards. Gonorea folded up like a cheap pocket knife. Graveyard dead.
The police came and scooped up the body. Began looking for Dindu..They found him the next morning and took him to the jail house. They found the pistol, and sent toe body for an autopsy.
The medical examiner found the bullet in the deceased skull. It had hit her in the forehead, penetrated the skull and entered her brain, causing instant death. He sent the bullet to the forensic lab, who matched the bullet to the handgun. Game, set, match.
Dindu was charged with murder, which requires intent. His defense attorney adopted a legal strategy where he argued that Dindu had no reasonable intent. It was a Raven in 25 ACP. No reasonable marksman could expect to make such a shot, at night, at that range, with that gun. It was either Bad Luck, or an Act of God, but the shot had no reasonable chance of success.
The jury did't buy it. THey did drop the charge to manslaughter and Dindu got a 20 year sentence.
9 comments:
Amazing tale. And if they’re still flying, bullets can kill you. Doesn’t matter if it’s a weensy .25acp at 125 yards or a .45-70 at over 2 miles (sandy hook nj 1879). For bullets 350fps is super slow, but that’s still 240mph. More than enough speed to kill.
Drew458
My oldest daughter, her half-brother, and stepmother were all killed with a .25ACP. He then turned the gun on himself. A .25ACP can and does kill people. My personal opinion is, if you point a gun at someone in anger, it's murder.
An interesting tale.
I have heard prosecutors will argue one's use of hollow point ammunition in a personal defense situation will signify intent, thereby increasing the odds of you receiving a conviction.
I hate lawyers....
Howdy there Pawpaw!
I have a personal rule that comes from experiece.... NEVER SELL A FIREARM. Therefore I still have my chrome plated Raven Arms MP-25 I bought brand new for $75 as a concealable pocket pistol. This was decades before the advent of concealable striker fired pistols we have now. The barrel is part of the lower receiver and I remember that pistol to be stupid accurate for what it was. Since Hornady makes .25ACP Critical Defense ammo (and also .32 ACP), the Raven and my Beretta Tomcat may not be a bad backup pocket or ankle pistols.
If you look at federal murder stats, 25 acp and 22 lr are right behind 9 mm as the most common murder calibers in the US.
Jonathan
I know that the .22lr on paper is supposedly better than the .25acp, but the thing about the .25acp is that they tend to feed pretty reliably.
I had a .22lr Jennings that I bought from my dad for 100$ when they needed the extra money. I couldn't get it to fire a full magazine with any of the 4 different types of ammo I tried. I was at a dump shooting with it, and another guy was there shooting his Mosin-Nagant. He let me shoot his Mosin, and I let him shoot my Jennings .22. He really liked the little jam-o-matic.
I told him I would sell it to him, if he promised me that he would never, but never carry it for a defensive gun, and if for some reason he did, he would not carry it with a round in the chamber. That little slide that they called a safety was not worth much, and as a single action, shooting a .22lr bullet into his thigh from his pocket very well might have resulted in death.
I of course made him get the Michigan permission slip from his mother, er, from the police, and met him at the police station parking lot to do the deal. I have sold a few guns and that always has seemed like the best place to make the exchange. And in Michigan, you have to have paperwork as a buyer to turn in to the police after the deal is done. They claim that it is not a registration scheme, but of course it is.
My condolences for your families loss Judy. It was the intent of the person carrying the gun, not the gun itself which murdered your daughter.
Yep, a 25ACP or even a 22-short RF can ruin someone's day.
Anonymous - Thank you for the condolences. I may have phrased the comment wrong. I can kill someone with my bare hands, if that is my intent. Guns are nothing more than a tool. Hence my comment about pointing a gun at someone in anger.
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