Crime scene (courtesy abcnews.go.com)

“The incident began when the armed suspect, former Trooper Clarence Briggs, 55, confronted two employees — including 55-year-old toll collector Danny Crouse — and tried to tie them up,” abcnews.go.com reports. “A struggle ensued and Briggs fled. Security guard Ronald Heist, 71, a contractor for the turnpike, then drove up to the plaza. Briggs confronted Heist and Crouse there and shot and killed them.” And then died in the gunfight. Under FBI guidelines, this incident falls one fatality short of a “mass shooting.” Even so, there’s no doubt Everytown for Gun Safety and other gun control orgs will ignore this “gun crime” in their ceaseless campaign for civilian disarmament because . . .

the killer used to be a cop. While you and I know cops are civilians, anti-gun rights agitators make a distinction between law enforcement and the general populace. They want to disarm average Americans while leaving the police fully armed. Which is why they’re so damn scary. It’s also why anti-ballistic Bloombergians never take exception to cop carve-outs for gun control bills — despite the fact that police are more likely to commit crimes than the general population. (Three times more likely to commit murder, in fact.) So this one will go unremarked. Personally, I wonder about Trooper Briggs’ honorable discharge.

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44 COMMENTS

        • They’ve used Shootingtracker stats in the past, which included ‘mass shootings’ committed with airsoft guns, where no one was injured.

  4. Typical, cop kills 2 and nothing on the news. “civilian” kills 2 and everybody would be, well, up in arms.

    • Are you daft? How many times do murders in Chicago make the national news? There’s 500 of them a year, but we don’t hear about all those ‘civilians’ killing civilians. And yet we’re hearing about this.

      • Can we just stop with the “you don’t hear X”. Plenty of things are reported in print, TV, and online media. You just have to be listening to hear it.

  5. Bloombergians™

    Trademark infringement. I have ownership of this term and used it first on this site… Ok…fine… Everyone is free to use it.

    “Bloombergians,” kind of like Martians or Vulcans, etc, you know, strange people from another planet.

      • And the Martians were an ancient, water loving race, that is fortunately now dead.

        At least that’s what I remember The Doctor telling me.

      • Think of bloombergians as the opposite of Vulcans. Incoherent. Full of rage and emotion. Completely illogical. The only thing they truly share is they are both weirdos from another planet.

    • Gosh! All this time I thought it was “Bloomboogers”. I shall update my auto-correct to “Bloombergians” immediately.

  6. Robbery. He knew where the money was, having worked the pike for decades. Probably jealous of the “skimming” he saw going on with the booth guys he knew.

  7. Xray nine to xray 6, come in, over. Xray nine to. Big Daddy 12 do you have a copy, over. Xray nine to alpha 471,over. Xray nine to FAC one, do u have a copy,over. I tried every freq, no response. Boys we are on our own. Check ur munitions, Tops is gone, lost our LT, Im up n were fckd. 1972 Cambodia

    • Lets talk war stories, seen a usmc fuck a gook with a bayonet. Throwin candy bars out our duece n a half, laughn when the next truck run over kids grabbin csndybars. Drug a chu hoi behind a jeep cuz, well, fcker was a sack of bones when we stopped.fun fun fun till Daddy takes the t bird away. God I miss them “Thuds” flying over

    • THC, no US soldiers were in Cambodia in 1972 aside from CCS and CCC people, and they never used the goofy sorts of call signs you’re hypothesizing.

      • Really. Those aint goofy call signs. N.yes we were in cambodia in 72, and laos. We just didnt know it, border wars and mushrooms. Goofy call signs ha… ever heard NERT on your horn? Well there you are n there you go.Insane asylum allready been there, liar, only if the information will hurt my company.

  8. A little more research and a lot less speculation and you’ll have your answers. The trooper retired under no shroud of secrecy or looming disciplinary action. He recently filed for bankruptcy after having his retirement benefits heavily garnished to cover his $300,000 in credit card debt. His own father in law is openly speaking to the media about the out of control spending of his daughter and her former trooper husband.

    You also seem to be missing that he was a current employee of IWI, you know, the Tavor people.

    • So out of nowhere, once in retirement, he went spend-crazy and racked up six figures of debt? Uh huh. Sounds more like he has all kinds of money troubles dating back decades while on the force, too. He probably was on the take to cover it and he just continued to spiral out of control until eventually they couldn’t cover for him anymore and he “retired” with an honorable discharge. More cops covering each other’s rears, it sounds like. The problem with covering people’s rears is that sometimes it comes back to bite you in yours.

      • Jonathan I don’t know how you make a living, but if you’re ever hunting a job it sounds like you’d fit right in as a reporter at the National Enquirer.

  11. What the heck would cause someone to want to tie up a couple of toll booth workers? Talk about life in the whacklands.

  12. “Even so, there’s no doubt Everytown for Gun Safety and other gun control orgs will ignore this “gun crime” in their ceaseless campaign for civilian disarmament because . . .”

    No they won’t. They’ll include anything to increase those stats, why would they care?

  15. Pretty big story here local. Retired trooper in bankruptcy, maxed out on over 30 credit cards, big mortgage. He knew the pattern for transporting toll receipts off the turnpike. An out of the way, lightly used and attended tollgate. Must of thought it would be an easy score.

    • Okay, I just HAVE to ask…Is there really big money in a Toll Booth? Sounds like this guy was so deep in debt that he needed a big amount to do him any good, but maybe he just needed grocery money for the week.

      • You wouldn’t think there would be, especially at Fort Littleton, but then like I said, probably thought there was little risk as well making it worth it. I have no idea how much cash they accumulate before a pickup but being a patrol officer that worked this section of the turnpike for many years, he probably would have had a good idea.

        • Okay, thanks. The more I thought about it, I think your assessment that he knew what he thought he was getting into and how much money was likely there is right. The local toll roads around me all require electronic transponders and prepaid accounts, so no cash is involved.

  16. It will be interesting to see the toxicology results from the autopsy to learn if substance abuse was a factor in the evil perpetrated by this murderous loser.

    Delinquent multiple credit card accounts to the point of bankruptcy along with the irrational by any means necessary desperation to get cash suggests this homicidal rampage might well have been carried out by a crazed prescription drug junkie committed to doing whatever it took to feed the addiction.

    Over the last 35 years I’ve known several LEO’s who’ve destroyed their family, life, and career with destructive behavior which started with prescribed pain killers that led to an addiction they allowed to spiral out of control.

    A Rx junkie can be the worst kind and those I’ve known all chose a Rx opioid like Oxycodone or Hydrocodone as their poison and they all maxed out every single credit card they could lay hands on to fund their habit for as long as possible before descending past the point of no return and doing something incredibly stupid and criminally desperate like forgery, theft, or worse to get fired and/or arrested.

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