Food Delivery drivers is one of the most dangerous jobs in America, as the job REQUIRES you to bring cash, food, and a working car to a location chosen by a total stranger.
Dominoes Pizza does not let their employees carry guns, still this will be interesting to see the follow up for:
A 34-year-old man picked the wrong victim Friday night when police said he approached a pizza delivery driver with robbery in mind….After Byron Park, 54, of Palm Bay made a delivery to the hotel and returned to his vehicle, he was confronted with a demand for money, according to a release.
Park responded by shooting Kelly once in the upper torso with a handgun. Authorities said Park had a weapons permit necessary to carry the handgun in his vehicle.
The attacker is dead, so its valid also for Jay’s Dead Goblin Count. Still I’m interested to see how this case will play out.
Likely the Choir boy has a rap sheet that supports that he’s the type of fellow that likes to mug people at night, and given that this won’t likely get the racist treatment of the Zimmerman trial, he won’t be charged with any crime, so we won’t know if this is Stand Your Ground, or Castle Doctrine, as he was in his car.
What will be interesting is if he can retain his employment with Dominoes, because Florida has a “Parking Lot Bill” which may cover this. Either way, I’d rather be fired than dead.
I’m sorry he had to do that, but I’m glad he was able to and is now still alive.
I’d be shocked if they didn’t fire him, regardless of the legal outcome. Corporations want to distance themselves from anything like this, so they’ll drop him like a hot potato.
Yes, most likely Byron Park will be fired. Not because of the shooting itself, but because he likely violated Dominoes corporate policy.
I’m not a Florida resident, so take my ruminations for what they’re worth.
In the few jurisdictions that I’m aware of, the “parking lot bill” does not apply in this case. Being allowed to keep a legal, personal firearm locked-up in your vehicle in the companys’ parking lot is not the same as carrying it while performing your duty as an employee. So, Byron Park is probably screwed. Further, once Jessie, Al, Eric, the MSM and Barack get wind of this, he may never live in peace again. (unless Byron is also black, then it’d be a Bloomberg issue)
And as usual, I had to search through endless web pages to discover what I suspected. Creepy-ass Kelly was a black dude with a turnstile criminal history. His current lack of oxygen intake is a boon to decent society and should NOT to be mourned. (young Ms. Unborn Beard is that much safer now) With each passing year, I apparently become more racist for the mere fact of how politicians, the media, and even websites refuse to acknowledge the issue for what it is.
After all of the “victims'” families sort out their lawsuits, and TV appearances, maybe we can all get to the truth. One piece of sh!t is dead, and the good guy won. (but will be screwed anyway)
If I weren’t so tired, I’d gloat.
Yet another reason food delivery driver is such a dangerous occupation – most food delivery companies have that same policy, and all the crooks know it. In addition, probably the vast majority of food delivery drivers are under 21 – it’s a common job for college undergrads and high school students – and thus don’t qualify for legal CCW. So, one easy phone call brings cash, food, and a working car to a location of the goblin’s choosing, all under the control of a young person who is almost guaranteed to be unarmed.
As a bonus for the truly evil-minded, there’s also a significant chance that the delivery driver will be a young woman.
Really, if you think about it, Pizza Hut and all these other chains, should be issuing their drivers firearms, not prohibiting them.
The pervs tend to go with the other dangerous job. Real estate agent. You go to the agency and you can PICK the person you find most desirable, and then take them to an empty property.
An attractive female friend of mine was managing rental property in Maine. Having done the above math she got her carry permit. When she informed her boss she needed a day off for her NRA Basic Pistol course, the boss informed her that she would be fired for carrying a gun or a stun device or pepper spray while on the job.
She quit. Easier to find a new job than a new life, indeed!
Good point. I was thinking more about the opportunistic types, whose only plan is “rob the pizza guy” and who decide to improvise when they realize it’s a girl.
Yeah I’d say the delivery driver is more likely to be in danger only because of a criminal’s often impulsive nature. Hell, they might honestly not have planned to rob the pizza guy, but the thought can just occur to them when they see the cash the guy is carrying as he gives them change.
I worked as a Pizza Hut delivery driver one summer back in the 90s. First thing I did was get one of those BIG ASS Maglites (four D cells, not three) and put it on my belt.
It was a flashlight. I delivered to houses in poorly lit areas. I needed to see the house numbers, after all. Perfectly reasonable to have a flashlight.
I never brought up, and no one commented, that it was also a 2′ club….
I worked for a wide variety of pizza places in my younger days, carried every day of the job. My thinking was that it was better to be fired and alive than dead and employed.
I agree! I didn’t carry a gun because I couldn’t afford one (or the permit) at the time.
What’s funny is that every so often, we’d get an order and the Asst. Manager would ask one of the black guys who worked in the kitchen to ride along with me.
Posted at Jay G’s:
About twenty years ago, there was a Chanello’s Pizza driver who was robbed in Hampton Roads. Chanello’s had a written policy that strictily prohibited ANY weapons carried by employees, including less than lethal.
Driver had made the decision that a new job was easier to find than a new life (as did I, as did several pizza delivery guys I knew, including some who worked for Chanello’s).
Local shcock jock interviewed either the president or CEO of Chenello’s, and asked him if they were taking any action against the driver for vilating company policy. To paraphrase his response as closely as I can:
“Guy tried to rob one of my people. He’s dead. It’s a good day. No, I’m not firing the driver.”
I New Hampshire a guy was working at 7-Eleven when it was robbed. He shot and killed the robber, and was fired for violating the weapons policy.
A Mom-and-Pop up the street contacted him via the local paper who had taken his statement about the robbery (police declined to charge him), and offered him a job…then told every paper and every radio station that would listen that they PROUDLY hired the guy who shoots robbers, and don’t have a policy for any of their employees about shooting robbers.
Oddly robbers just rob the 7-Eleven, despite the fact that I have doubts the mom-and-pop shops don’t go to the great lengths to keep only a few bills for making change outside the store vault.
Criminals are capable of making informed decisions.
Many years ago someone on Ohioans for Concealed Carry published a list of all gun crimes for UDF carry outs in Columbus, Ohio–at the time, UDF posted “no guns” signs on all their stores. I asked them to do the same for Speedway, another brand of carryout in the area. Speedway had more locations, but less overall gun crime, and the rate was something like half.
Contra AZRon above (and after looking here) I have to think there is a distinct defense both criminally and civilly for the delivery driver based on the reporting of the incident.
“Three Basic Consequences of The Florida Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground Laws
One: They establish, in law, the presumption that a criminal who forcibly enters or intrudes into your home or occupied vehicle is there to cause death or great bodily harm, therefore a person may use any manner of force, including deadly force, against that person.
Two: They remove the “duty to retreat” if you are attacked in any place you have a right to be. You no longer have to turn your back on a criminal and try to run when attacked. Instead, you may stand your ground and fight back, meeting force with force, including deadly force, if you reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm to yourself or others [this is an American right consistently recognized in Supreme Court gun cases].
Three: They provide that persons using force authorized by law shall not be civilly or criminally liable for using such force.”
If the pizza company fires the driver, he ought to have a strong civil suit against them based on #3 above. I also think there is a novel interpretation of the parking lot application, since the job requires the driver to be present in another company’s (or private part generally) parking lot.
I’ll ask the Law Shield people to follow up on this story through the Fla affiliate office.
Just to be clear, the quote above is from a US Law Shield newsletter commenting on Fla statute 776.012. IANAL nor an English major. 🙂