Victim of robbery who was shot in head, sued by passerby whose car was about to be hijacked

[madfloridian]

by the same person who robbed and shot the first victim. I am still trying to wrap my head around this whole situation.

I read about this several times 3 years ago, but I never did realize the robber of the photography store was about to jump into the passerby's car. So it appears the robber of the photography store was about to claim a second victim while the first victim who was conscious again tries to help her.

He gets sued, and the lawsuit settlement is secret. I really do have terribly mixed feelings about this.

As he chased Logan, "I tried to capture him. I told him to freeze. I didn't shoot him." Beck said he told Logan to freeze at least twice more before he saw Logan trying to get into Denmark's van.

Beck heard the engine accelerating, and thought he was about to be run down, he said, so he fired at Logan several times. Deputies said Beck fired 17 shots from his .40-caliber Glock semi-automatic handgun.

Sounds like the driver of the car who sued the photography store clerk would have been in danger. Should he have fired all those shots. Probably not. But he had just been shot in the head and would have been shot a 2nd time but the gun jammed. I think that probably someone who had just been shot in the head would be exempt from being sued by another victim of the robber.

Lawsuit in Photo Store Shooting Settled

The robber, Darrell Dwayne Logan, shot Beck in the head with a .22-caliber revolver and tried to shoot him a second time. Beck, dazed and deafened by the gunshot, chased Logan out of the store and shot at him with a gun he kept in his briefcase, striking him several times. He also wounded an innocent person, a special-education teacher named Alearria Denmark who was driving by at the time.

The shooting occurred on the morning of June 29, 2004, and on April 19, 2005, Denmark sued Beck and Phillips' Photographers, alleging that Beck's actions were negligent.

...."Beck said that when Logan pulled a gun on him and demanded money, he took him into a back room and gave him cash. Logan kept demanding more money, and Beck told him there was no more. Logan then pressed the gun against Beck's head and pulled the trigger.

"After he shot me and I came to, I realized I was alive and I thought, 'Wow, that's good,'" Beck said. But then, lying on the floor, he saw Logan's feet near his face, and realized that Logan was going to shoot him again. He struggled to sit up, thinking he at least wanted Logan to have to look him in the face when he killed him.

I guess this perplexes me so much because of the new laws here about shooting in self defense. I was roundly criticized for speaking out about the troubles it would cause.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1394

I guess this lawsuit seems so odd considering all the circumstances, and I wonder how the verdict and settlement can remain sealed.

:shrug:

[madfloridian]

1. Here's an article from 2004 about the incident.

http://www.polkonline.com/stories/063004/loc_gunbattle.shtml

And what is in this article is about all I remember hearing about it at the time. It did have this paragraph about the robber.

"Logan was released June 9 from Polk County Jail after prosecutors declined to charge him with the armed robbery of a Lakeland antique shop in January. State probation officials also declined to prosecute Logan, according to records. He was released a year ago from state prison after serving a 7 1/2-year sentence for robbery and battery."

Not a word that the car was being carjacked.