Body armor developer shoots himself (video)
This video is not new, but a friend just pointed it to me. It is noteworthy because it shows a dude shooting himself in the chest and not dying. Also, because it includes mock-pizza-boxes crafted for a robbery enactment on television. The mock pizzas appear to be made of palm thatch. How do they do that?
Richard Davis, former U.S. Marine and onetime pizza delivery guy in Detroit, survived a gun shootout (he killed three armed robbers when they attacked him during a delivery). He went on to develop new forms of concealable body armor using kevlar. Those products are now widely used by military and law enforcement personnel, and private sector folks who have reason to believe they will be shot. This video tells a bit of his life story.
Richard Davis: video
[ YouTube, via, thanks, Susannah Breslin ]
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was detroit so dangerous in 1969 that pizza boys had to carry guns?! that's crazy!
Ladies and Gentlemen, we now have our Gordon Freeman. Check the shot at 2:00.
Casting directors take note.
@MrGone1980, that guy looks a bit like a younger, angrier Wilford Brimley. But then, I'm sort of obsessed with Wilford Brimley right now.
@Xeni, ain't we all? You've surely bookmarked Diabeetis.com, the unofficial source for all your Brimley needs. Stay strong against the 'Beetis.
Wilford Brimley is the new Chuck Norris, methinks.
Item 1: This just doesn't add up. Why the heck was the guy delivering pizzas with a loaded revolver drawn? The "gang member" who pointed the gun was not reported to have said anything, so how do we know he wasn't just pointing his gun in self defense? -After all, wasn't it on their property? If you believed that you were endangering your life to deliver pizzas, how on earth would it be worth it for minimum wage + tips? It makes more sense that he was an undercover cop, which would have also given him the contacts to start his body armour business. Pizza delivery guy has the balls to shoot several stone killers before they can fire a shot? Uh hunh... (Oh yeah, there was a re-enactment. That proves everything.)
Item 2: Love the sensationalist "journalism" and the attempt to tie in the Apollo missions as relevant somehow (There were several of them. They were on TV a lot)...
This really isn't any different than "go down into that mine and dig coal", or anyone else working as a roughneck.
I've had my share of shit jobs, believe me, but none that made me feel I had to carry a loaded revolver to work...
The wiki page says that he was shot in the incident, too. Something not mentioned in the video.
The thing that gets me, is that in the video, he says that he pulled the gun and hid it under the box while still thinking this was going to be an ordinary delivery.
My question is...
If he was armed when he turned the corner, could it not be argued that "attackers" shot in self defense?
I cannot stand the military channel. There's much to be said about military history and the surrounding context, but a lot of the shows on that channel add up to "blowing shit up is cool", while only vaguely pointing out that blowing other people up is *not* cool.
I would hope that the invention of really effective bulletproof armor would add up to the cessation or reduction of gunfighting, but in reality, it's probably going to just mean bigger guns. Nevermind the fact that the people who can afford the better armor gain an advantage because they're more affluent, and you've got a sociological quandary.
How is it considered "crazy" to take the responsibility to protect yourself at all times--especially while on the job?? I live in Michigan, and even recently there have been pizza delivery people jumped for their money. Screw that shit, I'd be protecting myself too. Who else is going to do it? THE COPS?!! LMAO
VERT: Yeah, that was my point.
And it's one thing to accept a certain amount of hazard on a job (which I am not condoning, but have done), and another to think that people are actively going to try to kill you (which I would never do for minimum wage + tips.) The whole thing sounds just a little too John Wayne (ok, Wilford Brimley in a western) for me.
That's the kind of bullshit TV documentary that makes you doubt the veracity of anything reported in it.
This style of BS seems to be have come from US cable channels such as A&E, TLC, and so on, where it has been the stock-in-trade for many years. This one comes from something called "The Military Channel."
Beside what Phikus points out, the bullshit comes from common elements of this style:
- hackneyed, cliché-ridden narration, delivered in a sort of Casey-Kasem-meets-Coming-Soon voice
- camera bullshit: the shaky handheld, and the tilt
- re-enactments that have the look of an EC horror comic
- repeated or slow-motion violence
This is bread-and-circuses stuff. Why does Boing Boing lower itself to it?
@#14 Bouncy Bouncy:
Why does Boing Boing lower itself to it?
Because a YouTube video of a dude shooting himself in the gut, then holding up a woven bamboo pizza dummy for a robbery re-enactment, while the Casey Kasem guy narrates in dramatic deadpan and scary music plays, is awesome.
what a stupid vid to post here :(
for me (maybe not an average European) his story boils down to "so i went there, murdered three people in their won backyard, and look at me now - im a hero". :(
@#16 Xeni Jardin:
Because a YouTube video of a dude shooting himself in the gut, then holding up a woven bamboo pizza dummy for a robbery re-enactment, while the Casey Kasem guy narrates in dramatic deadpan and scary music plays is awesome.
Awesome? Really? How so?
@#18: Deconstructing the funniness or lack thereof in black-comedy-verite on the internets is like arguing who's more evil, Darth Vader, Stalin, or Hitler. Pointless. If you don't get it, and don't dig it, the space bar is your pal.
This guy is kind of an institution in law enforcement circles. My dad is a cop in Warren, MI and for a while they were using Second Chance vests exclusively. I frittered away a few saturday mornings watching this guys promotional videos with my old man - interestingly enough, back in the 90's he alleged that his cardiologist advised him to stop with this stunt, but here he is doing it again. I guess the pillow makes it okay?
Anyway, to #1 above: Possibly. This is 2 years after the '67 riots and the start of Detroit's hard, long slump. When I lived in Detroit (2002-2006)there were a lot of no-go areas for delivery businesses. My neighborhood was not one of them, but a former delivery driver explained to me that food delivery places (like pizzerias) divvy up their delivery area into zones: In one zone, it's business as usual. In the second zone, you don't approach the house - you have the person come out to your still-running car. In the third zone, you tell them to come and pick it up.
FYI - the company that Davis started, Second Chance, was sold in August of 2005 to Armor Holdings. In July of 2005 Second Chance was in deep do-do due to the fact that many of their products which contained a product called Zylon were proven to be defective and there was a large recall issued to law enforcement and others. Something tells me he was wearing Kevlar in this video, not Zylon. Now I wonder what it would've looked like if he'd been wearing his companies products in 2005!
As a former (gun carrying) pizza delivery driver, I can say that if you carry cash to any location that the customer wants you'd be an idiot not to have some protection against thuggery.
During summers its entirely possible to accumulate well over $100 cash before returning to the store to make a drop. If you've ever watched "Most Police Videos" you know that $100 is worth killing for for some people.
I recall, as a youth, that after one such robbery, a clerk at a smoke shop that did everything he was "supposed" to (according to the police) was shot in the head at point blank range so that he wouldn't be a witness to the crime. All for less than $100.
Oh, think it doesn't happen where you live? I'm in South Dakota. This shit can happen anywhere.
When you order pizza, expect that the guy who meets you at the door is more than capable of killing you if you try to take his cash.
I forgot to mention why we do (or did) it:
Want a way to make well above minimum wage and around $100 in tips a night? Deliver pizza.
Want a job where its impossible to have your boss over your shoulder all the time? Deliver pizza.
Want a change of scenery and get paid for it? Deliver pizza.
I'd never accept minimum wage. I'd never accept $1 + minimum wage. If those are the options, then the employer is being unrealistic.
Driving may be a skill that most have, but not something most are skilled at.
"The thing that gets me, is that in the video, he says that he pulled the gun and hid it under the box while still thinking this was going to be an ordinary delivery."
Actually, he said no one came to the front door and he heard a someone rustling around in the bushes in the dark who told him to come around to the back of the house. He didn't say he expected it to still be an ordinary delivery. He said he still had HOPE that it would still be an ordinary delivery, but his suspicions were raised enough that he drew and concealed his gun under the pizza box. He also made it clear that the other man pointed his gun first.
Why anyone would have an issue with the way this chain of events played out as presented in the video is completely baffling to me. Sure, the camera work, music, and narration are laughable.
Still, people have the right to defend themselves from thugs.
I used to deliver pizza (for the reasons listed above--it's the best "menial" job ever). I didn't carry a gun, but a deputy I knew recommended getting one of those gigantic MagLite flashlights. The ones with 4 D cells. He showed me how to hold it over the shoulder, casually, and shine it right in a suspicious person's eyes. You can still hold the pizza in the left hand and still carry out the transaction, but he's blinded at that point. You can see, but he can't. If he does anything threatening, you can bring that thing down like the hammer of Thor.
I never had to use it on a person (although I did feel the need to use it for blinding a couple times), but I did have to use it on a dog that charged me. He'd charge and I'd blind him. I'd move and he'd charge. I kept calling out to the people in the house to come get their dog, but they never came. So I let him charge and then whacked him in the head (just hard enough to let him know this wasn't going to go well). He ran away, yelping. I delivered the pizza.
I always hoped the dog wasn't too hurt. I hated doing it, but I didn't see a choice.
LOCK UP YOUR DOG IF YOU ORDER PIZZA!
Just an observation, note the specificity he uses when talking about the gun pulled on him (nickle-plated) as well as the extent of knowledge about the wounds inflicted.
It's part of any sub-culture I suppose, like engineers talking about very specific tools or mechanics getting into the finer points of catalytic converters, but when it's gun culture it just feels kind of creepy.
I'm very comfortable around guns, hunted with family since I was a kid, but that comfort is tempered with a healthy degree of fear.
Yeah. I used to deliver pizzas, too. I never carried a gun, nor did I when I drove cab (which, although illegal to do so in the sate where I worked, many drivers did) and OTR (Federally illegal, but still people do it).
And... I never killed anyone.
I did have two incidents where I cancelled deliveries because I was sketched out. I got reamed by my boss both times, but as I explained to him, it's not worth getting killed or hospitalized or even just slightly injured to me. If he thought I should be fired, that was fine. Still not worth it to me. No one else volunteered to take the pizzas when I explained what made me so nervous; and predictably enough, no one called to complain about not getting their pizzas.
In other words, you learn that you won't hurt anybody just by holding a gun in your hand, but you also learn that guns are not to be handled thoughtlessly (or "as a toy").
Guns shouldn't be feared, but they must be respected.
Wait wait wait....did everyone really miss the best part?
"If body armour is the automobile...I'm not the German guy named Auto (Otto?!?) , I'm Gerald Ford...."
If he's being funny, he sure can keep a poker face.
Folks, any job where you are on your own and deal with large amounts of cash has more people carrying guns than not.
Heck, the owner of the art supply store near my school in Brooklyn had shotgun under the counter back in the late 1980s. Most bar owners have a gun or weapon of some sort as well.
But will say this. The whole video is worthy of parody. If only Mr. Show were still on the air.
The only problem is that this guy then went on to market and sell vests that were about as resilient as a Violet Blue post.
His company is the target of a number of criminal investigations alleging the vests were defective and the company knew it.
Ironically, some critics find problems with his armor in this video as it appears to show bunching of material which is generally considered to be a flaw in body armor as it can make the material more easily penetrated.
@ JSO: your post was much better before it appears you attempt to equate pizza delivery guys with good drivers.
Just because you deliver pizzas (or anything) regularly, doesn't make you a good driver (which IMHO is a safe driver). In fact, I've seen some courier drivers with horrendously bad driving. Practise only makes you better if you practise the right things to do.
This guy's story is very Robert Ford.
JSO&24: Around here, it's: If you want a job where you can be high all day: Deliver Pizza.
DAVID BRUCE MURRAY@25: "He also made it clear that the other man pointed his gun first." How is that possible when he also said he had the gun drawn and pointed ahead of him while walking around to the back? He could not have adjusted his pistol much to point at the dude who had the gun at him without being obvious about his ploy (since he was supporting the box with it, purportedly. This is assuming any of this happened close to what was reported, which I still seriously doubt.)
HALFADROP@30: It's Henry Ford, not Gerald, though it would have been much more funny if he'd said that instead.
JACK@31: Mr Show would have done this ridiculous justice, indeed.
The things I didn't know about pizza delivery persons... (If Wilford Brimley comes to my door, I will surrender peacefully...)
@Halfadrop: "Nikolaus August Otto invented and later patented a successful four-stroke engine, known as the "Otto cycle"."
There's probably at least a short story, if not a book, to be written about Richard Davis. I don't know if the bottom line is good, bad, or just weird. In addition to a long history of shooting himself to prove the safety of the Second Chance body armor, and the deadly problems noted in others' comments that emerged when the company began making their vests with Zylon (people died because the vests failed - see http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-167016.html ), there is also the fireworks incident.
Davis headed a fireworks company, in addition to the the Second Chance company in Central Lake, Michigan. On July 26, 1997 his company was doing the fireworks display in Charlevoix, Michigan, when a mortar misfired and one person in the crowd was killed and more were injured, many seriously. See http://www.rbbi.com/folders/acc/firewks/freep28.htm
Funny they don't list pizza delivery among the world's most deadliest jobs... Maybe domino's should invest in more Pope mobiles.
I'll never again take for granted the freedom of not having armed pizza delivery guys.
@35 Phikus
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/everyone_involved_in_pizzas
@38 Ephcee
Dominos doesn't own their delivery cars, the drivers do.
@33 Wiredarp
I didn't mean to imply that all delivery drivers are good drivers. What I meant to imply was that good drivers are a rarity and paid well by their employers. Driving is only part of the delivery process, there is also remembering virtually every street in the delivery territory and the fastest way to accomplish a delivery or set of deliveries.
Its interesting there's so much discussion of the alleged shootout, when the Detroit Free Press article linked to in @37 makes it very likely that Davis simply made that story up (Davis was later charged with felony arson for allegedly burning down his pizza business after taking out an insurance policy on the place a few days before, though he ended up making a disorderly conduct plea.)
@#35 PHIKUS
Shake the Crime Stick!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuPXymJEldE
JSO@39 & JACK@41: Nice!
This style of BS seems to be have come from US cable channels such as A&E, TLC, and so on, where it has been the stock-in-trade for many years. This one comes from something called "The Military Channel."
Oh yes!! When 'the military channel' was launched, so was my cable box. Launched out the window.
Propaganda is one thing, charging me 40 bucks a month for the privilege of eating it is another entirely.
The above may not be one of them, but this dude has done some very informative ballistics videos. Kinda like a proto-Mythbusters distributed on VHS.
I’ve never delivered pizza nor driven a cab, but I have managed a convenience store in the ’hood. I refused the repeated offers of a “company piece” until I stared down a .12 guage and then watched my girlfriend share the same joy. After that I changed my position. I never drew, but I carried.
Working a job where you keep a safe / possible stores of cash and might be robbed is one thing. Carrying a gun onto someone else's property where you shouldn't be carrying much cash anyway if you believe you might be robbed is another, unless you are deliberately trying to provoke others in some kind of pizza-boy goes vigilante fantasy. Are syndicate hit men so hard up for cash in Detroit or wherever this supposedly took place they are ready to knock off pizza guys? Come on!
Realistically, most would not pull a weapon to protect a minimum wage job / risk their life to save the store owner's cash, or kill others to protect said $. But this is all beside the point. The whole story is highly contrived and very unlikely to have ever happened, which makes this vid even more awesome! It could only have been better if Wilford Brimley himself had starred in the re-enactment. Thanks Xeni!
@WiredEarp
You're right about that. During college, I worked part time as a grave shift security guard. Around the corner was a pizza place and every single night I'd have their delivery cars racing down the (residential) street and slow down slightly just for the speed humps.
They'd do rolling stops, make turns at full speed, etc. Worst. drivers. ever.
This man is a hero. Many, many people have died because low-lifes such as the people described in this video pull this same stunt over and over again. His body armor saves lives every single day, and people here are getting their nickers in a twist over how he protected himself?
Are you people that dense that you cannot see that he KNEW he would be in that situation eventually and he took steps to arm himself so that he could protect himself? He wasn't killing people randomly, he wasn't trying to rob anybody, the guy had a gun pointed on him. What would you have him do? Get killed? The guy pointing a gun at him already made his choice to kill him--what is so strange that someone would want to preserve their own life?
Citizens need to be armed, and ready to take the life of people who want to do the same to them.
The criminal made up his mind months before he got there with his pizza: He is going to take stuff from other people using whatever means he can. This includes shooting people with a gun.
The way I see it, the criminal is nothing more than a mosquito sucking on the lifeblood of the world. They do nothing to further humanity, and only seek to help themselves to what other people work hard to get.
If you can kill a mosquito, you can kill someone who is pointing a gun at you. End of story.
@#47 The response here should not surprise you. This is the same crew that thought a child rapist that had to carry a sign around has being punished too harshly (and that molestation victims should "just get over it.).
A guy defends himself from robbers and they wonder what he did to bring it upon himself. Now if those robbers had deleted some old posts, then there would be reason to shoot...
Clearly you guys weren't living in the Detroit area in the '60s. My Dad was shot at hanging gutters, carrying no money. Firemen were shot at when responding to fires. People were shot for no reason other than they were there. I am glad those days are behind us.
And yes I did work and live in Detroit in the '70s and '80s and it was rough but not "I need a gun" rough.
-Carrie
P.S. Three months after I moved to the 'burbs there was a shootout in my nice suburban backyard between a whole flock of police and two bank robbers. "So it can happen anywhere" isn't just a phrase to me.