Soldier Christopher Sullivan Shot at His Homecoming Party in California An Army soldier from San Bernardino, Calif., who survived a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, was shot at his homecoming party Friday night, leaving him paralyzed, authorities said. Christopher Sullivan, 22, of the 101st Infantry Division, was at a party held in his honor when one of the attendees got into a fight with his brother. “Supposedly started over just a minor argument over whose football team was better,” said San Bernardino Police Lt. Rich Lawhead. Lawhead said Sullivan moved in to break up the fight, someone pulled out a handgun, and two bullets hit Sullivan in the back and neck. Police said the gunman fled the scene on foot before they arrived. He is still at large. “There’s a lot of sadness over the shooting. Obviously, we are getting a lot of help from the family and a lot of help from the community, in order to solve the crime and get a suspect in custody,” said Lawhead. Sullivan was taken to a hospital and listed in critical condition awaiting surgery. “They said he was going to be a paraplegic, he will never walk again,” Sullivan’s mother Suzanne told ABC News Los Angeles station KABC. This Christmas, his family is praying for his survival and recovery. “They’re very distraught, very upset and you know, this is the time of year, any time of year is difficult, but this heightens it even more,” said Lawhead. While on tour in Afghanistan, Sullivan received a purple heart after being wounded in a suicide bomb attack last December, his mother said. Five of his friends were killed in the attack.
Wow. Just wow. What kind of idiot even goes to a homecoming party thinking about themselves? It's about the soldier. I don't think I would care enough about things other than the soldier to say or do anything.
The article doesn't say what team the shooter was supporting, but I think that team should be tasked with finding and arresting, and then executing their biggest fan.
That is terrible (although admittedly seemingly completely unrelated to his tour of duty - just edited to clarify that the actual shooting was unrelated, just horribly terribly coincidental)
I've never understood fanatical sports enthusiasts. Who gives a shit? It's just a bunch of guys running back and forth with a ball/puck/whatever. Look at all the shit that went down at Penn State because the football program is treated like a religious institution there. I know some people IRL who get so pissed off when their favorite sports team loses, and it ruins their whole day. Really? It's not like you were on the field playing the game. You were just watching it on TV. Is it really that big a deal? I'm not saying I don't enjoy watching an occasional sports game. But its just entertainment. I don't care about the statistics and player trades and off court antics from the players... I actually wish there was some way I could filter my facebook news feed to exclude all comments on all sports matches. My news feed would be almost empty...
Yup. Take every bad thing I've ever said about religious nuts, multiply it a hundred times, there's my opinion on sports nuts.
I don't know if you guys remember this story from back in April: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2011/04/05/san-francisco-giants-fan-beaten-dodger-game-brain-damage/ What the hell is wrong with people? Besides, many of the professional athletes we glorify (at least in North America) are a bunch of brainless thugs and barbarians anyway. Especially NFL and NBA players.
I don't get why Trekkies get so much grief; sports fans too often let their fandom take over their lives to far greater a degree.
Sounds about right. That's why when my son expressed concerns about getting killed in the sandbox, I told him straight up - you stand a much better chance of getting killed by some drunk asshole when you're downtown, or in this damn heavy traffic by a shitty driver. Anywho, on topic, recently a football coach got severely injured and had to have reconstructive surgery when a HS player swung his helmet as a club in a post-game brawl. Better still, YouTube "tailgate" fights and the fun begins. A lot of football fans are fat fucks trying to relive their glory years (or never were years) vicariously thru the younger versions of themselves. Ironically, MMA fans (and fighters) are generally the most law abiding, controlled and civilized of the contact sports fans. Hmmm.......:santa_huh:
When was the last time you heard of two Trekkies getting into a fight over whether Picard or Kirk was the better captain? You don't suppose the fact that they'd have to stop for frequent asthma inhaler breaks has anything to do with it, do you? (This is as close as I could find to a serious nerd fight.) I remember reading a news piece on the glorification of high school athletes and one person said something like that it was going to be the high point of the kids lives and because of that, it made sense to make a big deal out of things. If that were really the case, wouldn't it be more humane to just shoot them upon graduating high school? After all, life expectancy is somewhere around 70-80 years, so it seems cruel to put someone through roughly 60 years of suck once they've passed the high point.
Now how are you gonna propose to start a fight over Star Trek by bringing up something other than Star Trek?
San Bernardino has become a very violent place over the years, used to be a great place to grow up, now it's unsafe to even be outside after dark. Seems gangs from LA expanded eastward into the Inland Empire, or what is now referred to as "The IE," and the whole area went to hell. Oh and football didn't paralyze Christopher Sullivan, some shit bag with a gun did. As for the insane devotion of football fans goes, it's more of a human thing than a football thing. For example, partisans are just as fanatical as any sports fan could ever hope to be.
By bringing up the fact that Star Wars was real sci fi compared to that socialist crap, and only because of Star Wars was trek dragged back out of the closet for a movie
I had a friend was a big baseball player back in high school He could throw that speedball by you Make you look like a fool boy Saw him the other night at this roadside bar I was walking in, he was walking out We went back inside sat down had a few drinks but all he kept talking about was Glory days well they'll pass you by Glory days in the wink of a young girl's eye Glory days, glory days Sports are Very Important to some people, particularly those whose Glory Days have passed them by, or who never had any to begin with. But there's probably a loooong history behind this family's story that has nothing to do with sports teams.
Easy: In a scenario pitting the USS Enterprise (D or E, doesn't matter) against an Imperial Star Destroyer, the ISD will win hands down to superiour technology, tactics and numbers. Oh, and Mike Wong agrees!
Update on this story here: Full Article Christopher Sullivan, 22, had just returned home to California from Kentucky where he was stationed while recovering from injuries sustained during a suicide bombing attack in December 2010 while he was in Afghanistan. The San Bernadino County Sun reported that the Army specialist narrowly survived the attack which killed five members of his unit and left Sullivan with a cracked collar bone and brain damage. Sullivan was awarded the Purple Heart after the incident. "Right now, my son is hanging in physically," Suzanne Sullivan told CNN. "He's on 100% life support. He can move his head and he responds through nodding and blinking to us. His eyes aren't always open but we try to encourage him to do so as often as possible."
Huh, I don't seem to recall shooting or beating anyone to a pulp over liking a bad movie, but maybe it just slipped my mind.
Perhaps people get physically violent and aggressive over made up war (football if you take things to extremes, or any intense contact sport) because they don't have any real aggressive action/manly activities in their sedentary lives. This doesn't however explain folks who already have jobs like cops, military, athletes etc. going bat shit crazy. Maybe those people are just ass-holes. If someone actually playing in the football game gets a little aggressive, I can understand. But fans who don't even personally know anyone playing? That is a little pathetic IMO. :santa_sad:
Totally missing the point. It's got zero to do with being allowed to carry. When I was a kid we were knee deep in guns, and rarely did this happen in my neck of the woods. :santa_angry: It has everything to do with America having an epidemic of batshit crazy assholery that seems endless at this point.
No, not sense of humor failure. It's just my assuming all Europeans are anti-gun. If you're not, I apologize. Anyway, GOOD NEWS! The shooter turned himself in. :santa_ok: Now the bad news - he didn't turn the gun on himself seconds after confessing. :santa_sad:
