Hey,

Since we're reposting the Golden Oldies, here's the Gary Fadden Incident with the Class III Ruger 556.

"F you and your high powered rifle!" The Gary Fadden incident - The Ayoob files
Massad Ayoob

Situation: A road-rage incident escalates into a deadly pursuit.

Lesson: Keep communications as handy as your gun. Bad guys fear resolutely armed people, not weapons. Remember that full auto can stop a fight--but start an indictment.

It's amazing how often a criminal will say something unbelievably stupid just before he forces a decent citizen to kill him. For many years I've been piecing together a book subtitled "Famous Last Words of Scumbags." The working title will come from the most memorable such incident: "F*** You and Your Automatic Rifle!"

The shooter was Gary Fadden. The incident took place some 20 years ago. Only now is Gary comfortable speaking of it, in hopes that others may learn from lessons that cost him very deeply.

The Incident

Sunday, February 24, 1984, approximately 2 PM. Gary Fadden, 26, and his lovely 22 year old fiancee are driving from a birthday party in Martinsburg, WV, into Virginia to look at some property for what they hope will be their starter home after their marriage. It's a bitterly cold day, and with the winter coats in the back of a new '84 Ford F-250 supercab 4WD diesel pickup, the Pendleton-clad Fadden looks from a distance like a harmless Yuppie. That means he and the pretty brunette look like prey to another kind of person.

Heading east on Rt. 50, they are passed by a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with two people astride, the operator cutting in front of him so sharply that he has to brake suddenly. Gary comments to his fiancee how cold they must be riding a bike on a low 30s day, and that driving as carelessly as he is, the cyclist needs to worry about sudden patches of ice.

A few minutes later, he spots a Chevy pickup in his rearview mirrors. It contains three people. One passenger is gesturing to him to pull over. Gary doesn't know what these scruffy guys want and he ignores them. But then he sees the passenger waving a knife, and the driver bringing up a revolver.

Gary says to his fiancee, in what will probably be the understatement of his life, "We've got a bit of a problem here."

Pursuit

It is 1984, long before the universal coming of cell phones, and there is no other communications in the vehicle. They are entering Middleburg, a town of perhaps 800, and stop at a red light. Behind them, Gary can see both males exit their truck and run toward him. The driver's hand is actually on Gary's door handle when he pops the clutch and sends his new truck screeching through the intersection against the light. The two men run back to their older pickup, and the chase is on.

They're almost on his bumper. Gary accelerates, hitting open road now, zig-zagging between reaching 95 miles an hour when the speed governor cuts in. Not only are the pursuers keeping pace but he sees the driver aiming a revolver at him out his window. Honking his horn and flashing his lights when he runs into a cluster of automobiles, passing them sometimes on the shoulder of the road and spraying rooster-tails of gravel, Gary still cannot elude the truck behind him.

Gary is desperately looking for a police car he can flag down. He doesn't see one. The chase has gone for 22 miles now and they're getting into a more compact area again. Coming up is an intersection tic knows well: he goes through it every day on his way to work. Even on Sunday it will be clogged. He forms a plan quickly: if the light is in his favor, he'll go through it and keep going, hoping to find police in a more populated area. If the light is against him, he'll turn right, and make for the plant where he works on Chantilly Road.

The light stays red. Gary cuts hard right, heading for what he hopes will be the sanctuary of the workplace. Behind him, he can see that the pursuers haven't given up an inch. "I've got my pass card through the gates and the front door," he tells his fiancee urgently. "We'll get into the building and we can hide. They can't find us. We'll call the cops from there."

He pulls into the front area of the plant, the automatic mechanism taking an achingly long time to raise the gate. As the gate opens, the pursuing truck comes to a stop behind his, both men jumping out and running to Gary's Ford, their hands clawing at his door handles. He guns the engine and gels away from them, sweeping up to the front door and locking up the brakes in a skid.

The plant is Heckler and Koch.

Gary Fadden is a salesman for HK, and among the rest of their firearms, he sells machine guns. In the truck with him is a competitor's weapon he has acquired to test, a Ruger AC556, the selective-fire assault version of the .223 Mini-14. He grabs it now as he throws open the truck door, hoping to hold them off at gunpoint. lie knows his fiancee can't make it to the building's door now, and he screams to her to get down on the floor of the Ford.

The Shooting

The passenger is running toward him, an average size man in ratty clothes with stringy hair, a long beard, and an expression of absolute rage.

The selector switch and manual safety of the AC556 are in two different locations. Gary has not yet fired this weapon and, though he has taken off the safety, he doesn't know whether the switch is set for semi, three-shot burst, or full auto. He yells "Stop or I'll shoot," points the muzzle upward, and pulls the trigger for a warning shot.

The weapon is set on full automatic. Everything is going into deep slow motion, and Gary is aware that the Ruger spits a burst of nine shots before he can get his finger back off the trigger.

There is no effect whatsoever. The attacker is still running at him, perhaps ten yards away and closing fast, reaching for knives at his belt with each hand. The assailant screams, "F*** you and your high powered rifle! I'm gonna kill you motherf***ers!"

And Gary Fadden has run out of time. He lowers the Ruger, points it at the charging knifer, and pulls the trigger one more time. in the ethereal slow motion of profound tachypsychia, Gary can see the spent .223 shells arcing lazily out of the mechanism. He stops the burst, aware that six shots have been fired, as the man in front of him falls heavily to the ground.

Gary moves quickly, putting a big brick planter between himself and the onrushing pickup as cover. The truck stops and the driver, the larger of the two bearded men, shrieks. "F*** you! You killed one of the brothers! You shot him, you motherf***er!" Gary's weapon is level and ready, but this time instead of waving the revolver, the man looks as if he's trying to hide it in the cab of his truck. Gary can see now that the third person in the truck, the one who has always stayed in the cab, is a woman.

And then, the police are there. "They've got guns," Gary shouts to the officers disgorging from two patrol cars. He sets his rifle down and steps back as the officers swarm the pickup truck, taking the surviving man and woman into custody. In a moment, a cop is standing with Gary. "I did it," Gary says. The cop answers, "Did what?" "I shot that man." The officer picks up the AC556. "It's loaded," Gary warns, "Do you want me to unload it'?" The policeman answers. "No, I'll do it. Why don't you sit down?"

Gary Fadden sits on the curb. For a moment, it seems as if the whole bizarre nightmare is over. Unfortunately, it has only begun.

Aftermath

The man he had shot. Billy "Too Loose" Hamilton, was dead. He had been hit by all six rounds of Winchester 55 grain FMJ, headstamped "'WCC81." One bullet had struck behind the lateral midline in the instant that he turned away from the gunfire, taking out a chunk of his spine as is skidded across his back from side to side. This would be interpreted later by the prosecutor as having been "shot in the back."

The partner, who went by the name of "Papa Zoot," had gotten his weapons out of his hands by the time police arrived. In the front of the five-year-old Chevy pickup that had chased Fadden for more than 20 miles, police found a .22 auto pistol and a four-inch Smith & Wesson L-frame .357 Magnum. The revolver had three live and three empty cartridges in the cylinder. More fired brass was on the floor, and a plastic bag with more live amino was open on the seat. Though Fadden heard no shots and no bullets hit his truck, he was convinced then and now that they were shooting at him during the chase.

Hamilton's two knives, a Schrade folding hunter and a nondescript fixed blade, were found with his corpse.

Gary Fadden was arrested that night and charged with 1st degree murder. His family raised $60,000 bail. He hired DC attorney Gerry Treanor to defend him. Treanor, at Gary's request, retained John Farnam and I as expert witnesses. Today, Gary remembers, "Two prosecutors wouldn't touch it until the third took it. It was all political because of the automatic weapon."

The weeklong trial took place in October of 1984. Word had reached Gary that Papa Zoot had bought a .30/06 rifle and sworn a "blood oath" to kill him. I was driving toward Fairfax County when I got the message from Gary's lawyer that John and I wouldn't be needed because the prosecution had self-destructed.

On the stand, Papa Zoot and the woman had testified that Gary had tried to run their biker brother off the road, and they had just followed 22 miles to get his license tag. Defense lawyer Treanor took them apart on cross-examination. An undercover detective broke his cover to testify that the deceased and Papa Zoot "put a bomb in my car. They like to rough people up." The prosecutor made such a show of waving the machine gun that the judge made a point of instructing the jury that the death weapon had nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not the shooting was self-defense. The jury learned that Gary purchased the AC-556 personally and that it was perfectly legal to possess the weapon.

By the start of trial, the charge had been dropped to second-degree murder, and as the trial collapsed around the prosecutor's ears, he offered a plea to manslaughter, which Gary flatly rejected. At the end, when it was announced that the jury had found Gary Fadden Not Guilty on all counts, Fadden recalls that the self-same prosecutor snapped--in open court, in front of Gary's mother--"'You've let a murderer loose!"

"'H&K protected me," says Gary. "They picked up the tab for about half of my legal bills, and got all the publicity for it, until I quit a few years later. Florian Deltgen (at that time CEO at HK) told me after an argument with the vice president that one or the other of us probably had to go, and the vice president wasn't going anywhere. I accepted a job offer from Beretta USA and then resigned from H&K. Deltgen stuck me with the remaining bill, which I paid off at 10% interest." The bill had amounted to more than $45,000. Gary was 34 years old before he had paid everything back.

Dr. Deltgen is no longer with Heckler and Koch.

Lessons

Have communication. In 1984, only the rich had phones in their cars. Today, Gary Fadden is never without a charged-up cell phone. He knows that if he'd had one that day he could have called the police, who would have been able to interdict his pursuers before the thing became a killing situation.

Flight can trigger pursuit. Prey that flees inflames the pursuit instinct of predators. This is why we teach our children never to run from snarling dogs. Gary Fadden did what society told him to do when facing criminals: he ran. They chased. By the time they caught up with him, Billy Hamilton was in such a rage to kill that he could not be deterred.

Understand how deterrence really works. Papa Zoot and Too Loose had guns and amino and knives in their truck with them. In Gary's truck were a Remington Nylon 66.22 rifle (for plinking, and never touched during the incident), a 9mm HK VP70Z pistol, and the AC556 with enough amino for perhaps tour full magazines. None were loaded at the start. The pistol was loaded and placed in the console during the chase, and the rifle was at that point loaded and placed conspicuously on the dashboard by Gary in hopes that it would deter file pursuit. It did not.

When Gary Fadden stepped out of his new Ford at the climax of the chase, most of us would have seen him as an intimidating presence. The man stands six feet eight and weighed 260 pounds at the time, and he was holding a machine gun. His pursuers were unimpressed.

Later identified as belonging to one of the "big four" outlaw motorcycle clubs, Too Loose and Papa Zoot were members of an armed subculture themselves. They did not fear guns. Zoot was about 6'4" and 240 himself, and neither man feared big guys dressed like something off the cover of an L.L. Bean catalog. It is critical to understand this: Criminals don't fear guns. Criminals fear resolutely armed men or women they believe will actually shoot them.

22 miles of running away from them had left these wolves convinced that they were dealing with a large sheep, not the sharp-fanged sheepdog Gary Fadden turned out to be. Testimony that "they liked to rough people up" shows that they had a lot of ego invested in brutalizing others. Perhaps Hamilton, in his last moment on earth, took Fadden's warning burst as an indication of unwillingness to shoot him. Toxicology screen after death showed Hamilton to have a .19% blood alcohol content. This is a level of intoxication consistent with inhibitions being at their lowest. Gary Fadden sums it up today, "The mouse had run, and the cat was loose. Physical size was no deterrent. The gun was no deterrent with these people. If you pull a gun, you'd better be ready to use it."

Politically incorrect "assault weapons" make politically incorrect defendants. Though he didn't say it in so many words, prosecutor Jack Robbins' case against Fadden seemed to be, "I say, Muffy, people of breeding simply don't shoot criminals with machine guns in Fairfax County! Now, had he used a civilized weapon like a Browning Superposed ... and preferably shot him on the rise ... "

You and I know that Class III holders are the ultimate "card carrying good guys and gals." That particular card says they have been investigated for six months by the Federal government and been found trustworthy to possess machine guns. Unfortunately, most of the public in the jury pool, and most politically motivated prosecutors, don't know that. Every self-defense shooting I've run across with a Class III weapon, however justified, has at the very least ended with the shooter facing a grand jury. Asked what he thinks would have happened if he'd shot Hamilton with a Remington 870 Wingmaster instead, Fadden replies with certainty, "I would have gone home that night. I've told dozens of people since, 'Do not use a Class III weapon for personal defense."' Today, the guns Gary is likely to have in his car have neutral images: an M-1 .30 carbine, and a 10mm Glock 20 pistol.

Be there for your friends. It was stunning how many people he had trusted shunned Gary after the shooting, and particularly, after his indictment. He cherishes those who stood beside him through the ordeal, particularly Jim Stone and Rick DeMilt and, most particularly, knife-maker Al Mar.

Much later, after his AC556 had been returned to him by the courts, Gary gave that gun to Al Mar, another man who appreciated a fine weapon of any kind. On its stock was a brass plate engraved "To Al Mar, Because You Understand."

Gary says, "For twenty years now, I've cherished every morning I've gotten up, because I earned every moment of my life. I fought for it."

After Al Mar's death, Gary Fadden scraped up the money to buy his knife business, and he is CEO of Al Mar Knives to this day. One good man carrying on the work of another. It seems fitting.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Publishers' Development Corporation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

Kevin "Enjoy!"

tag for later reading

I love the Ayoob files.

He is a member here, I wonder if we could get him to post some unpublished stuff.

Another good story, thanks for posting.


GM

Interesting read.

Havnt ever read that one. wow

He did something the A-Team could not.....

interesting.  

thanks for the post.

good story ...

good lesson ...

  The article brings up a good point, fight or flight.
Most criminals who see someone flee believe the
person fleeing is in fear, so they give chase.
In states which have a duty to retreat, it usually
means someone is going to pay the price.
Legislators which support such "duty to retreat" language are
actually helping unarmed folks become victims, and
forcing armed citizens to use more force because
the criminal presumes the citizen is unarmed, until
they charge at the citizen and the person fleeing now has
only the option of using force.  

This is the best article that I have read of Ayoob.  What is particularly insightful is the point he made about retreating.  I have never thought about what happens to the mind of a criminal when you run but it all makes sense.

However, Ayoob failed to say just what Fadden should have done as soon as he figured out that the SHTF.  We all know that a car is a death trap when it comes to shoot outs.  At what point was he suppose to stop the car and confront the thugs?  At the time would WV laws even allowed for a no retreat?  Also look at his weapon choices (that he had on hand) a .22lr and a 9mm handgun vs. 3 drunk criminals.  I would imagine stepping out of the car would have almost surely gotten himself shot.


Some interesting things to ponder.  The big thing is that he survived.  That is goal #1.

ETA funny how Ayoob says the best inconspicuous handgun is a Glock 20, the same handgun that the Arizona prosecutor (who put that guy who shot the dog walker in jail) called a deadly hand cannon loaded with  hollow points.

Sounds like a righteous shoot, unfortuantly the shooter probably has to go through every day of his life looking over his shoulder fearful that any of the shit-stains biker friends are looking for revenge.

Politically motivated (phucked-up) prosecutor wanted to make a name for himself by criminalizing a man who acted in self-defense.  It doesn't matter if you use a 22, a pistol, shotgun, NFA firearm.  Self-defense against great bodily harm or death is a basic human right no court can take away.

Quoted: I love the Ayoob files.

+1

I love that story.

Quoted: that prosecutor can go fuck himself

Ditto.  One sick POS.  

Just drives home the fact that an average day can turn to hell in the blink of an eye. I really would like to hear what Ayoob feels he should have done differently. I think going through the security gate was good thinking.

Sounds to me like there were after him personally, that he wasn't just a random citizen they decided to terrorize.  

After having spent 15 years around hardcore club bikers when I was younger I can tell everyone that what's said in the article about them not fearing weapons is true.  As long as they're in a group, and specially if they're drunk or stoned, they're totally fearless.  The only way to deal with them is face them and not give an inch.  If they don't back off or allow you to, you will have no choice but to shoot.  Running means "the game is ON!".  

Most bikers are some of the best people you'll ever want to meet, but the ones that belong to the criminal clubs are no different than any other criminal gang member.

Everyone needs to read Gary's story and learn a lesson, and the lesson applies to any criminal gang, including the Latino gangs that are moving into the USA.  You cannot intimidate these people by displaying a weapon, they live, eat and breath weapons and, like the gangsters from the 20's, they've lost all fear of being shot.  If you draw your gun, you better be ready to shoot and keep shooting till they're all down or running, or until the police intervene.

...guns and amino and knives...

Watch out for those "aminos" or maybe it's spelled "aminoes."  Anyway, their dangerous!

Quoted: It looks to me like attorneys, in their politically correct arrogance, caused more problems and anguish than the actual criminals did.

Worth repeating.  So very true indeed.  What is truly scary is that once a politically motivated prosecutor puts the average American citizen in their sights, the citizen is probably going to be ROYALY screwed financially for a VERY long time even if they are later found innocent.   In my opinion, if the accused is found not guilty, then the law should automatically force the accuser to pay for all costs incurred by the defendant in their defense, and also pay for all damages done to their public character.

I submit the POS DA Mike Nifong vs the three Duke Lacross team members as an all too common example.  

Quoted: Politically motivated (phucked-up) prosecutor wanted to make a name for himself by criminalizing a man who acted in self-defense.  It doesn't matter if you use a 22, a pistol, shotgun, NFA firearm.  Self-defense against great bodily harm or death is a basic human right no court can take away.

I agree 100% with everything in this statement.

Quoted: Asked what he thinks would have happened if he'd shot Hamilton with a Remington 870 Wingmaster instead, Fadden replies with certainty, "I would have gone home that night. I've told dozens of people since, 'Do not use a Class III weapon for personal defense."' Today, the guns Gary is likely to have in his car have neutral images: an M-1 .30 carbine, and a 10mm Glock 20 pistol.

Excellent story!

But the highlighted weapons would be " A high capacity military assault weapon and a large caliber automatic hangun that can pass through metal detectors".

You only stand a chance in the media and with a jury with true Fudd weapons.



eta What's with all of the typos?

I don't understand why he was charged with anything at all.  It was clearly self-defense.

Quoted: I don't understand why he was charged with anything at all.  It was clearly self-defense.

Maybe someone was up for re-election? Or needed to boost his conviction numbers with a "slam dunk"? Or was looking for headlines with a high profile machine gun case?

Remember the Duke "rape" case? All politics.


eta But I know that what you're saying.

Quoted: I don't understand why he was charged with anything at all.  It was clearly self-defense.

Remember that the prosecutor was charging him with shooting the perp in the back.  

Quoted: He is a member here, I wonder if we could get him to post some unpublished stuff.

I wouldn't blame Mr. Ayoob for never posting here at all, based on how much trash gets talked about him every time his name comes up.  Everyone points fingers at him about some of his positions, accuses him of spreading fear, and discouraging self-defense.

He's nothing if not a realist... and he's been doing this for a lot of years   I daresay his self-defense expertise and experience probably exceeds that of any poster here.

Quoted: Quoted: I don't understand why he was charged with anything at all.  It was clearly self-defense. Remember that the prosecutor was charging him with shooting the perp in the back.

Right!  The same issue has arisen where LEOs have shot a perp in the back and were brought up on charges (I don't recall whether it was by their agency, the district attorney or in a civil suit), but it's been provened that it takes but a fraction of a second between when the shooter begins to apply pressure on the trigger and for the target to turn.  I think there was an article in Police Marksman magazine a few years ago.

BTW, thank you 3rdPig for your insights into bikers.

That was an awesome read.  That POS prosecutor should be fired at the very least.

Quoted: Quoted: He is a member here, I wonder if we could get him to post some unpublished stuff. I wouldn't blame Mr. Ayoob for never posting here at all, based on how much trash gets talked about him every time his name comes up.  Everyone points fingers at him about some of his positions, accuses him of spreading fear, and discouraging self-defense. He's nothing if not a realist... and he's been doing this for a lot of years   I daresay his self-defense expertise and experience probably exceeds that of any poster here.

I wish he would continue posting here, but after the shit he's caught from some posters, I really can't blame him for not clicking into this place ever again.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: He is a member here, I wonder if we could get him to post some unpublished stuff. I wouldn't blame Mr. Ayoob for never posting here at all, based on how much trash gets talked about him every time his name comes up.  Everyone points fingers at him about some of his positions, accuses him of spreading fear, and discouraging self-defense. He's nothing if not a realist... and he's been doing this for a lot of years   I daresay his self-defense expertise and experience probably exceeds that of any poster here. I wish he would continue posting here, but after the shit he's caught from some posters, I really can't blame him for not clicking into this place ever again.

He might be OK if he stuck to Team... you know he's got better things to do than field ignorant questions from some of our GD trolls.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: He is a member here, I wonder if we could get him to post some unpublished stuff. I wouldn't blame Mr. Ayoob for never posting here at all, based on how much trash gets talked about him every time his name comes up.  Everyone points fingers at him about some of his positions, accuses him of spreading fear, and discouraging self-defense. He's nothing if not a realist... and he's been doing this for a lot of years   I daresay his self-defense expertise and experience probably exceeds that of any poster here. I wish he would continue posting here, but after the shit he's caught from some posters, I really can't blame him for not clicking into this place ever again. He might be OK if he stuck to Team... you know he's got better things to do than field ignorant questions from some of our GD trolls.

As I remember it, he was pretty good at de-trolling..................

OST

Wow.  Always good to have reminders of the type of scum who are out there at any given time.

Can't get complacent.

As I remember it, he was pretty good at de-trolling..................

I suppose with as long as he's been teaching, he's probably fielded every ignorant/stupid/loaded question in the book.

He helped defend a friend of mine who was involved in a self-defense shooting, and was charged with murder by an activist DA (does this story sound familiar?).  Took the jury all of about 30 min to acquit him of all charges, but the cost of his defense rant into six figures.

.

good read

Quoted: Quoted: Asked what he thinks would have happened if he'd shot Hamilton with a Remington 870 Wingmaster instead, Fadden replies with certainty, "I would have gone home that night. I've told dozens of people since, 'Do not use a Class III weapon for personal defense."' Today, the guns Gary is likely to have in his car have neutral images: an M-1 .30 carbine, and a 10mm Glock 20 pistol. Excellent story! But the highlighted weapons would be " A high capacity military assault weapon and a large caliber automatic hangun that can pass through metal detectors". You only stand a chance in the media and with a jury with true Fudd weapons. eta What's with all of the typos?

Really?

With your sniper rifle, or you 12 gauage shot gun, so powerful that it is standard police issue.

Great read.  I have always liked the Ayoob files.

Awesome read.  Really worth reading a few times.  Thanks.