Showdown at Cottonwood Arizona. Sounds like a movie John Wayne might have made.
A family band of Buskers - Matthew 24 were behind the throw down. 8 cops injured, one cop shot in the leg. One busker killed. One shot in the gut. A Walmart rent a cop got a broken arm.
Somehow, I suspect all the shots were fired by the cops. :rolleyes: But so far they haven’t reported that the buskers had any weapons other than their fists.
NY Daily News is reporting the buskers are a family band, Mathew 24. Heres their Facebook page. It hasn’t been updated since Aug 2014. The posts seem rational enough. Even some wry humor. But that might just be one member of this large family band.
It is unfortunate that a bathroom break resulted in all this carnage.
I know homeless people and begging are becoming a bigger and bigger problem at Walmart and other stores. I had a guy get upset a couple weeks ago when I rejected his spiel for a handout in the Krogers parking lot. I spot him inside Krogers a few minutes later at the self checkout. Awkward. I ducked down an aisle and continued shopping. Didn’t want to risk another run in with the guy.
Found a local tv station news report. The local witness reactions are interesting. Sounds like a mini riot broke out between the cops and the large family band.
This is going to make a really good long-form article before long. I just browsed around to see what’s been reported already, and it’s just wacky. You have a 9-member family from Idaho whose Christianity apparently compels them to travel around in a Suburban and attempt to support themselves by busking their religious tunes in various places. It seems that only the patriarch and two of the sons were actually performing, but that’s unclear. They then camped out in a Walmart parking lot in Arizona, and eventually the situation escalated into this.
No, I don’t want to make light of the death and injuries, etc. It’s just a fascinating case. It’s less funny than the twenty naked Pentecostals in a Pontiac (I distinctly remember hearing on the radio about this incident back when it happened. I was twelve. Some things stick with you), but still amazing.
Reports said it started because the whole group was gathered in or just outside the Walmart bathroom. An employee tried to go in and was shoved away. Cops get called and all hell breaks loose,
I wonder if some of the family was inside washing up and changing clothes? The rest of the family were guarding the door. Just a WAG
That doesn’t explain why it escalated too such violence.
I’ve always been surprised people get away with camping at Walmart. Their security is always circling the parking lot in their marked cars. Makes me a little uncomfortable. Rent A Cops don’t have the same training as the real police.
This RV video explains the rules for staying overnight at Walmart.
A lot of the stores allow RV to stay overnight as a courtesy. But that may change if the policy gets abused or they have more incidents like the one in Cottonwood. A few bad apples could ruin it for everybody.
Which would be a pity. That policy has been a god-send to entire generations of RV people.
My cousin and I once made a pilgrimage from Mt. Vernon, WA to Sidney, NE and back, and we camped in Wal-Mart parking lots about half the night of the 2-week round trip. It makes money for the store, because the campers will generally go inside and buy supplies wherever they stop for the night.
The whole dashcam video is available. Bits have been shown on the news, but htis is the whole thing. Trigger warning: the kill-shot is visible, and you can see and hear the anguished aftermath, all from a distance. That part happens off to the right, not in the initial pile-up. The shot that wounds the cop happens amidst too much chaos to really make out at first, and the shot that wounds one of the Gavers must happen behind the vehicle.
It’s all pretty disturbing. The initial violent outburst is difficult to follow. It seems to start behind the people in the foreground.
I find it very interesting that more people aren’t asking the obvious (to me) question: why are these people still standing? If this had been a minority band of whackos, all of them would be shot dead and with justification, except for the 11 year old. When you look at the blow-by-blow analysis narrated by the chief of police, you have to wonder why the easy trigger when minority perps are in the picture, but restraint almost to the point of officer fatality for this group? Starting at 17:54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki-R0d7DIAE I can guarantee you’ll have the same questions I do after you watch that.
This story is going to be my Bill Hicks proverbial sore tooth that I can’t stop touching.
I love the comment on their Facebook page quoting the Bible verse scrawled onto a guitar pictured there: “Acts 17-5: ‘…so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city.’”
Seriously, I’m an atheist, and watching the video, I couldn’t help but ponder the fact that all those people are more viable candidates for public office than I’ll ever be, even after the brawl happened.
That cop in South Carolina who shot the black guy while he was fleeing would have hunted down the Gavers’ distant relatives across three states and shot them in the face.
Although it’s worth noting that the cops in Cottonwood were preparing to take some shots, but were hampered by other cops being in the line of fire.
They had enough officers to handle the situation without firing. Or they thought they did. Those buskers put up a lot more fight than anyone would expect. Even shaking off tasers.
I think the shots that were fired were accidental? The news reported the officer was fighting for control of his gun and it went off hitting him in the leg. I’m not sure how the two buskers got shot. Did the officer aim and fire or were those shots also during the fight over the gun?
I wasn’t able to figure out when the officer wounded one busker, and I guess it might have happened behind the vehicle. The kill shot, however, is visible and audible. One of the standing cops takes aim and fires, and you can see Enoch Gaver on his back, dead or dying.
I ducked down an aisle and continued shopping. Didn’t want to risk another run in with the guy.
