An Extraordinary Incident in Tallahassee

What should have been an ordinary incident in Tallahassee (Florida) went off the rails on 27 August thanks to the fuzzy thinking of Wallace and Beverly Fountain, an elderly couple with more guns than brains, seemingly. Beverly Fountain, apparently the owner of the Fountain Plaza strip mall, had allegedly received complaints from one of the businesses located there—a U-Haul drop-off facility—about people siphoning gas from the trucks parked there. For some reason not explained she decided that the thing to do was to hide out in the lot with her husband and fire off guns to scare people off. Apparently she hadn’t taken into account the possibility that people might show up there to return rented vehicles, because when somebody came to drop off a rented truck, she and her husband opened fire.

A police officer parked nearby happened to observe the fiasco. He noticed a U-Haul van pull into the lot followed by a GMC truck. “The driver then parked the GMC by the U-Haul and based on their interactions, I assumed both parties knew each other and the gentleman driving the GMC was picking up the driver of the U-Haul.” This is what any normal person would assume, but not the Fountains. They assumed that the two drivers were up to no good and started shooting. Hearing the shots the police officer drove back to the lot to see the GMC speeding off and the Fountains waving pistols about.

When the crazed couple declined to immediately lay down their arms the officer did not shoot them for some unstated reason, but called for backup. The Fountains eventually did drop their guns and lie down as ordered, and under questioning admitted that they had no reason to assume that the customers returning the rented vehicle were stealing gas, and that they had not observed any suspicious activities. The police found no evidence of gas siphoning, and they arrested the couple for aggravated assault. Beverly and Wallace Fountain both insisted that they did not fire at the U-Haul customers, but up in the air, but this is contradicted by the victims, who say they were fired at.

Well, the thing is, some people cannot be trusted with guns, second amendment rights or no. Based on this incident, the Fountains are clearly among them.