Too bad the Darwin account was mostly fictionalized reality. And walking past a cruiser to get in the place & he does it anyway?
Actually, the Darwin account has the facts basically correct. Mostly it exaggerates the difference in firepower and numbers, between the robber and those who shot him.
Years ago when I lived in Los Angeles, I lived on a side street a couple of blocks uphill from the Shortstop, an Echo Park bar which at the time was the unofficial hangout of the Rampart Division LAPD. A kid who'd been working his way down Sunset committing robberies tried one too many... He came through the door with a bandanna draped over an afro comb, announced it was a robbery, and supposedly three separate customers managed to get bullets into him before he hit the floor.
California had just passed a law mandating prison time for anyone who uses or carries a gun while committing a gun, and there were a lot of posters and billboards around that said, "Use a gun, go to Prison." I understand the bar did a brisk business for a while in tee-shirts and ball caps that said, "Use a comb, go to Heaven."
add: I just looked up an old LA. Times article talking about the bar possibly closing down after the Rampart Division scandal in 2000, and it mentioned the robbery. According to the Times, a single off-duty cop put four bullets in the robber and he died on the sidewalk outside. It may be right. But the way I remember it, multiple guys tagged him after he took a few bucks from the bartender, and he died in the doorway.
