| A veteran contract carrier for The
Kansas City Star parked close to the store at 5th
Street and Troost Avenue like always early today. It
meant a quick trip back to the safety of his van. But
one of his four attackers, the biggest guy, was too
quick for the carrier to drive away.
The assailant and perhaps others in his group rained
punches on the 66-year-old carrier through his
driver-side window. He used a gun to fend them off,
firing three times.
They never asked for money.
“I thought these guys just weren’t going to let up,”
said the carrier, who asked not to be identified because
his attackers remained free. “He intended to knock me
out … maybe leave me for dead.
“At that time, he’d get what ever he wanted.”
According to police, the carrier was assaulted just
before 3 a.m.. The carrier said he saw the men emerge
from Garrison Park and run toward him.
“I thought at first they were probably just going to
ask (for) money,” the carrier said. “I’ve been asked
before by people, ‘I’m not here for trouble; I just need
some help.’ ” He sometimes gives lose change.
But these men, probably in their teens or 20s, were
running at him.
“He just said ‘Hey,’ then pow,” the carrier said.
While the carrier was being hit, the van, which he
had already put in drive, moved a short distance and
smacked into the concrete and brick of the store
building
The carrier pulled a .380-caliber handgun from a
holster he keeps near his seat. The attackers fled,
running east, as the carrier fired a shot out his
window. He got out of the van, stumbling, the carrier
said, and fired two more shots above his assailants’
heads.
Investigators were unsure if the gunfire hit any of
the attackers.
The victim, police said, appeared to be within his
rights defending himself.
The carrier said he had bruises and swelling on the
left side of his face, and bleeding in his mouth and
nose. He refused an ambulance ride but went to an
emergency room later in the morning. He was treated and
released.
“We’re glad primarily that (he) kept his wits and
head about him and escaped that without further injury,”
said Chris Christian, vice president of circulation for
The Star.
It was only the second time since he started working
for The Star in 1988 that he was assaulted, the
carrier said. That time, though, involved a gun and a
clear demand for cash.
The carrier said he intends to continue to work his
route, though he might not return this week. His wife,
though, was having some second thoughts today.
“She said ‘Do you think you should still continue
that?’ ”
The Star has no prohibitions on contract
carriers carrying weapons on their routes, so long as
they abide by state laws, Christian said. They are not,
however, permitted to bring guns into Star
facilities.
Police said the carrier was in line with Missouri gun
laws.
Star carriers have been attacked a number of
times in recent years, most notably when carrier Robert
R. Hack was shot to death in his delivery van in August
2003 near 66th Street and Woodland Avenue. His slaying
remains unsolved.
That fall, a carrier exchanged gunfire with a robber
at 30th and Van Brunt. And last November, a robber
struck a carrier in the face and stole his van. |
