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Back From Afghanistan, Marine Shoots Would-be Carjacker

The Associated Press
December 19, 2002

MONTGOMERY, Ala.(AP) - A Marine sergeant based in North Carolina who served in Afghanistan earlier this year shot and killed a would-be carjacker.

Sgt. James C. Lowery, 22, returned fire after being shot in the face in the drive-thru lane of a fast-food restaurant. He was listed in fair condition Thursday at a Montgomery hospital. His father, James Eugene Lowery, said the bullet hit his son in the top left cheek and stopped near his voice box.

"He comes back from Afghanistan safe and whole. Then he comes home on leave to have rest and peace and this happens," the father said.

Police said Lowery got out of his Chevrolet Suburban when approached by a gunman in the drive-thru lane of a McDonald's restaurant Tuesday night. The gunman shot Lowery, who was then able to get his .45-caliber pistol from the car and shoot his assailant multiple times. Dead at the scene was Thaddeus Antone, 19, of Montgomery.

The fatal shooting is viewed as self-defense and no charges were filed, police spokesman Lt. Huey Thornton said. It will be reviewed by a grand jury following routine procedure.

Lowery, who was on leave until Sunday, serves with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 252, based at the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point, N.C.

Lowery's father said the unit flies tankers than can refuel aircraft in flight. Lowery, who got married in January, went to Afghanistan a week later and served there for about two months.

Good for him (the Marine), serves the fucker right (carjacker).

After getting shot in the face. That is pretty badass.

neoolong wrote:After getting shot in the face. That is pretty badass.

By the sounds of it, it's just a flesh wound, although he must've been looking down for it to have gone in his cheek and stopped(?) at his voice box.

Ted wrote:

neoolong wrote:After getting shot in the face. That is pretty badass.

By the sounds of it, it's just a flesh wound, although he must've been looking down for it to have gone in his cheek and stopped(?) at his voice box.

I know. But still. It is still getting shot.

Damn. Jacking the car of a marine must be pretty bad luck. Reminds me of that episode of The West Wing where a Secret Service agent walks in on a convience store robbery and arrests one of the perps.

Of course, the agent did wind up getting holed, but still...

This is why you NEVER FUCK WITH MARINES, EVER.

HemlockGrey wrote:Damn. Jacking the car of a marine must be pretty bad luck. Reminds me of that episode of The West Wing where a Secret Service agent walks in on a convience store robbery and arrests one of the perps.

Of course, the agent did wind up getting holed, but still...

ACtually I find the most amusing Secret Service moment of the West Wing to be the episode in season 1 where the Presidents daughter is getting hassled by some idiots in a bar... And then for the hell of it one of the people with her pushes the panic button.

I can't believe he shot that poor kid. All he wanted was a Happy Meal, but this maniac marine with a gun shot him dead. This is a prime example of why the government should completely ban and confiscate all handguns.





(before I get flamed, yes I'm being sarcastic)

Actually the wound he received sounds pretty nasty. I bet he is in for reconstructive surgery. This sounds like a clear cut case of self defense.

Fuckin A, go USMC!

Hmf. Reminds me of that Darwin Award when this guy tried to rob a gun store in Washington DC, while a police car was parked in front of it. The guy walked in, pulled out his gun, fired a few shots into the air, then the police and clerk returned fire, while a few other customers took out their guns too...

I hope that marine doesn't need a voicebox or anything. He gave that carjacker his just fucking desserts.

Exonerate wrote:Hmf. Reminds me of that Darwin Award when this guy tried to rob a gun store in Washington DC, while a police car was parked in front of it. The guy walked in, pulled out his gun, fired a few shots into the air, then the police and clerk returned fire, while a few other customers took out their guns too...

Yeah, I remember that one. I think it was in Washington State though, not DC. Tacoma area, if I remember right.

As for that carjacker, a service to humanity has been performed with his death. Fuck what all these pansy-ass, pseudo-hippie, think-they're-still-in-the-60s liberals have to say, we need to start executing the fuck out of career criminals in America. How do you stop carjacking, gangbanging, etc? Make the fucks terrified to do it!

And yes, in case it isn't blatantly obvious, I'm pretty emotional about this subject.

Go USMC! May our Marine brother have a fast and speedy recovery.

Exonerate wrote:Hmf. Reminds me of that Darwin Award when this guy tried to rob a gun store in Washington DC, while a police car was parked in front of it. The guy walked in, pulled out his gun, fired a few shots into the air, then the police and clerk returned fire, while a few other customers took out their guns too...

And I though the two guys who tried to rob a major gunshow where stupid...

Captain Kruger wrote:Fuck what all these pansy-ass, pseudo-hippie, think-they're-still-in-the-60s liberals have to say, we need to start executing the fuck out of career criminals in America. How do you stop carjacking, gangbanging, etc? Make the fucks terrified to do it!

There's very little, if any, evidence that capital punishment deters criminals. Indeed, deterring petty crime is extremely difficult as most of these thugs simply don't believe they'll get caught. All told, three strikes laws backed by life imprisonment w/o parole (cheaper than execution and far less pleasent for the criminal) is a much better way of dealing with existing street crime problems.

Preventing yet another generation of youth from growing up into thugs, however, is a matter for education, economic restructuring, social engineering, and all those foul 'liberal' concepts that are completely off the table in American politics.

Enlightenment wrote:There's very little, if any, evidence that capital punishment deters criminals. Indeed, deterring petty crime is extremely difficult as most of these thugs simply don't believe they'll get caught. All told, three strikes laws backed by life imprisonment w/o parole (cheaper than execution and far less pleasent for the criminal) is a much better way of dealing with existing street crime problems.

Have you ever wondered why America has one of the highest crime rates in the world despite having one of the best standards of living in the world? It's because criminals here think they're untouchable. That's because they're coddled way too much when they commit a crime. Look at other countries where they deal with criminals a bit more harshly...the examples are too many to name.

And just in case you're thinking of posting a "slippery slope" response about how this would lead to a horrible police state, it doesn't have to. We don't have to change anything about our due process...just slam down the iron boot when they actually are convicted.

Capital punishment doesn't deter criminals in America because we don't do it very often. If 1st-degree murder carried a mandatory death penalty nationwide, I think we'd see an interesting drop in the pre-meditated murder rate.

As for life imprisonment being less pleasant than death, not always. Some criminals who grew up as poor inner city boys might actually have it pretty good in there. They can hang out with all of their gangbanging homeboys, neo-Nazi skinhead brothers, etc., and terrorize other inmates, such as middle-class guys who made a mistake and are just trying to survive a few-year sentence. For some people, prison isn't punishment...it's sending them home.

Enlightenment wrote:Preventing yet another generation of youth from growing up into thugs, however, is a matter for education, economic restructuring, social engineering, and all those foul 'liberal' concepts that are completely off the table in American politics.

Agreed, education is the key to everything. But our education system is screwed up enough right now that it could take another two generations to even partially fix it. Toughening up punishment for violent criminals would be a more immediate solution we can implement in the meantime.

As for economic restructuring and social engineering, could you be a little more specific?

Enlightenment wrote:

Captain Kruger wrote:Fuck what all these pansy-ass, pseudo-hippie, think-they're-still-in-the-60s liberals have to say, we need to start executing the fuck out of career criminals in America. How do you stop carjacking, gangbanging, etc? Make the fucks terrified to do it!

There's very little, if any, evidence that capital punishment deters criminals. Indeed, deterring petty crime is extremely difficult as most of these thugs simply don't believe they'll get caught. All told, three strikes laws backed by life imprisonment w/o parole (cheaper than execution and far less pleasent for the criminal) is a much better way of dealing with existing street crime problems.

Preventing yet another generation of youth from growing up into thugs, however, is a matter for education, economic restructuring, social engineering, and all those foul 'liberal' concepts that are completely off the table in American politics.

Capital punishment takes care of repeat offenders, who make up quite a large part of crimes. As for effectiveness. How many western nations have had it for carjackings? Not many...

Enlightenment wrote:

Captain Kruger wrote:Fuck what all these pansy-ass, pseudo-hippie, think-they're-still-in-the-60s liberals have to say, we need to start executing the fuck out of career criminals in America. How do you stop carjacking, gangbanging, etc? Make the fucks terrified to do it!

There's very little, if any, evidence that capital punishment deters criminals.

Yes. There is. Criminals that are capitally punished are deterred from committing crime ever again.

"Have you ever wondered why America has one of the highest crime rates in the world despite having one of the best standards of living in the world?"

Higher crime rate than the UK or others european countries?
Do you believe that they are harder on crime than the US?

I keep my ass away from Montgomery. Birmingham too. However Montgomery has the rep for high violence. You may go in, but you aint comin back out.

Admiral Piett wrote:"Have you ever wondered why America has one of the highest crime rates in the world despite having one of the best standards of living in the world?"

Higher crime rate than the UK or others european countries?
Do you believe that they are harder on crime than the US?

I'm not sure. I haven't been to Europe myself, but I never hear about you having anywhere near the level of street violence we do. Note that I'm not counting situations like Bosnia...I'm talking about stable regimes.

Who in Europe do you think has it as bad as the States?

Enlightenment wrote:

Captain Kruger wrote:Fuck what all these pansy-ass, pseudo-hippie, think-they're-still-in-the-60s liberals have to say, we need to start executing the fuck out of career criminals in America. How do you stop carjacking, gangbanging, etc? Make the fucks terrified to do it!

There's very little, if any, evidence that capital punishment deters criminals. Indeed, deterring petty crime is extremely difficult as most of these thugs simply don't believe they'll get caught. All told, three strikes laws backed by life imprisonment w/o parole (cheaper than execution and far less pleasent for the criminal) is a much better way of dealing with existing street crime problems.

A large part of the reason crime is on the upswing here is because frankly, it pays well and there's little risk involved. If a homeowner tried to stop me from robbing his home he'd end up with just as many legal issues as I would if I got caught, and as a result of this homeowners are quite reluctant in confronting robbers. 10 years ago home invasion robberies were almost unheard of, now they're almost a daily occurence. The perps know that no one's really likely to stop them, and that their chances of being arrested are quite low. Same thing goes for carjackings, muggings, theft, and pretty much anything short of murder. The perps know that the cops and legal system don't have the time and resources to fully investigate anything short of murder and whatever the "hot topic" of the month (drug rings, kiddie porn ring, etc.) happens to be. With nothing to really deter them, it's no wonder that crime's on the upswing.

Since the cops can't be everywhere I believe the best method of detering crime is to give the citizens the means and will to do so. If homeowners could shoot would be robbers on sight with no legal repurcusions, and robbers started getting shot and killed on a regular basis, I'm betting that home invasions would drop nicely. In fact that's exactly what happened in SC a couple years back after the DA declared open season on home invaders after a disturbing surge of home robberies, and instructed the justice system NOT to prosecute homeowners who killed robbers. After the first few perps were killed and the homeowners got off without charges, the perps realized that home invasions would likely get them shot so they quit doing them.

Same thing should go for carjackings, muggings, rape, and kidnapping to name a few. When perps realize that they're likely to end up being shot on the spot they'll be thinking twice about commiting crimes, because now they don't have a good chance at all with getting away with it. Crime is easy right now and it pays pretty well too, that's why there's so many criminals around.

Amen, aerius.

Captain Kruger wrote:Amen, aerius.

I'll second that in a heartbeat!