It’s pretty certain at this point it was a robbery. The autopsy has determined he was killed from a distance. So someone out there is shooting people on public ranges to steal their guns. Authorities are looking for the following firearm:
Police are still looking for the shooter. Meantime they’re asking firearms dealers to check their inventory to see if they may have a custom built AR-15 type semi-automatic rifle with a Lewis Machine Company model Defender 2000 lower receiver equipped with a 30 HRT upper receiver and a Yankee Hill Machine Company Phantom model 308 caliber silencer.
Nice rifle, but killing someone for it? That person needs to be found. If you go to a PA public range, go with a spotter buddy. This guy who did this is dangerous as hell, and it would be a shame for the state to have to waste taxpayer dollars on him. Let’s hope this is an isolated incident.
Too bad one has to be on the defense everywhere you go these days, but the adage “Safety in numbers” would have likely saved this man’s life. Pity
Public ranges always have been dangerous. Now they’re gonna get worse. There are always copycats out there when things like this happen.
This is why, if I’m at the range alone, I take my gun with me when I walk out to change the targets. It’s unlikely to ever happen, but the range I go to is fairly isolated and help is a long ways away.
“Nice rifle, but killing someone for it?”
Its an exercise in futility to attempt to put reason or logic on the motivations of criminals. One of the big reasons why I carry a gun, otherwise I’d just assume I could talk my way out of most dangerous encounters. people who do this are NOT reasonable people.
That being said a .308 AR with a suppressor, that’s a LOT of monetary value right there, and that’s not even factoring in black market cost which I’m sure is MUCH higher.
Sadly people have been murdered for a LOT less. Hell just read any story where a convenience store clerk is found dead. I bet you won’t be able to find a single story where the goods stolen in those fatal robberies were worth more than the RETAIL value of this gun and can….let alone what the jerk will get for it on the street.
They’d be taking a big risk trying to sell it anywhere local to the incident because of the publicity. And notice at the end of the article where it said a gun was stolen from the same range just 2 months ago. Probably the same person did both crimes, and they live close to the range where they can possibly observe other people as they travel to the range.
Fascinating – that’s the second robbery at a PA gun range in the last couple of weeks. (I don’t remember if you linked to this already) – Police: Man robbed at shooting range
It’s strange, because a shooting range is the one place I would expect to be safe from a robbery.
It’s reasons like this that I follow a few simple rules;
Only take out the weapon you are going to shoot RIGHT THEN. Leave the others locked up.
If you’re alone, take your weapon out with you to check targets.
Always leave one mag loaded with a defensive type round.
Paranoia? Apparently not…
Yeah, but the problem is that when you are actually shooting, you tend to “zone out” and forget your surroundings. And the articl did say that apparently this guy was sho from some distance away; which probably means a rifle.
It’s also possible whoever did this isn’t planning on selling the gun but stole it to use it in a crime later. The thugs behind the 1986 FBI Miami shootout did something similar using their victims’ cars to commit robberies (I don’t see any indication the used the victims’ guns). That rifle (and the gun stolen in the earlier incident) would make a good weapon for a bank/armored car robbery, or for some other crimes.
Scary story, esp. since i shoot at that range.
Jake,
the guns were the reason Matix and buddy were killing people at remote gun ranges. Most, if not all weapons found with them were obtained that way. The vehicles were also used. They did it more than once, don’t recall how many times. They got tracked down because the last victim didn’t die, so the FBI knew what car to look for.
Will,
I suspected as much, but didn’t want to say for sure since I didn’t see it in the minimal research I did – i.e., Wikipedia. I would have been surprised if they hadn’t, actually – if you’re going to do something like that for a car, it makes too much sense to take the guns too. Thanks for the confirmation!
This incident was a contributing factor to my decision to make the 2 hour drive to my parents’ house to shoot in the backyard, rather than using the public range here this weekend. (Of course, the final decision was made when Dad offered to let me have his uncle’s .308 Savage. Free rifle in a good caliber FTW!)