In the immortal words of the great Jimmy C:
“A lifetime of having been advised not to resist people pointing weapons at me would have told me to come out slowly, with my hands up and palms facing forward. I would like to think I would have said something like, “OK, we’re not making any trouble for you. Take whatever you want — guns, money and anything else — and, please, be on your way.”
That’s what intrepid former Kansas City Star reporter and editor Jim Fitzpatrick wrote here on KC Confidential not two weeks back in reference to a January 9 gun battle inside a small Shawnee business in which its owner was shot and killed.
Of course, thanks to the needless paranoia of the Shawnee Police and Johnson County District Attorney locals were left for weeks to wonder how it all went down.
Did ladies gun boutique co-owner Jon Bieker save his wife’s life by coming out of the back room armed and ready for a shootout with the four bad guys who already had the drop on his wife and were in the middle of a daylight robbery?
Did Bieker needlessly place himself and his wife in harm’s way costing him his life?
The Shawnee Police explanation for the information freeze out that I got was that precautions were being taken so as not to risk their case against the four perps.
Just the facts please, officer
Bullshit.
The police report and store video of what went down were going to come out eventually anyway, there was no reason to cloak it for weeks, as if that might strengthen the prosecution’s case.
Not unless someone planned on doctoring the evidence and hadn’t had time to make a determination as to how.
And we know the police would never do anything like that, right?
Ah, but now it can be told, because just as officials knew all along, they had to tell it.
Hence the headlines, “Court files reveal details of shootout” and “Police reports shed light on details of She’s a ‘Pistol’ shootout.”
So finally we somewhat know that, yes, the perps had the drop on the Biekers and one of them had taken a swipe at Mrs. B. And that apparently only two of the bad guys were packing with guns pointed.
And sure enough, Jon Bieker had indeed stormed out of the back room, guns ablaze, foolishly initiating a gun battle that was to cost him his life.
The bad guys bolted, but that wasn’t good enough for Bieker.
And even after dropping one of them to the floor, he came around the counter firing multiple gunshots into the now-in-a-coma dude as he lay there as Bieker sank to the floor.
If someone were making an action flick it was the perfect storm.
Maybe Bieker saw a few too many such movies and with the adrenaline coursing through his veins was unable to restrain himself. Even trained police have that same problem when the going gets intense. The IT turned ingénue arms boutique owner was obviously not qualified to make that sort of call.
And that’s why Fitz was dead right that Bieker blew it by not coming out in the hands up position and telling the dudes to take what they wanted and to please leave.
Now here’s something worth hoping for; that despite the rah-rah pro gun crowd encouragement and rationalizations and Becky Bieker‘s sincere-but-mistaken claim that her husband saved her life, let’s hope a lesson was learned here.
And let’s even hope that paranoid police and prosecutors give themselves a reality check and stop playing games with the public and the media.
Fat chance, right?
The details were that you were WRONG on all counts.
Idiot.
Easy there, Greed…
The so-called “details” are still vague.
Obviously, everybody concerned that commented on this event were fishing behind the net put up by police and prosecutors.
Dream on
What is vague about video footage of an event? I hardly consider the Super Bowl vague, I see what happens. To your credit I haven’t seen the footage, but someone has seen the footage and is reporting what happened.
Best I can tell, that video has not been released
If only that 14 year old found dead at the water park had just put her hands up and not come out shooting she might still be alive. Oh wait……..
Obviously, the advice police give merchants in a robbery do not apply to every imaginable situation outside of a robbery, Jim.
The Florida pawn shop robbery obviously bore out that advice. Nobody resisted and nobody was shot or killed.
Can I take a swipe at Mrs. Christopher?
Not with a name like yours, Ron…
But I guess you did anyway.
Up until the incident turned violent, Jim Fitzpatrick had a point. But once it turned violent, is someone supposed to bet their life that that a criminal won’t escalate the violence further? If I were to punch a police officer in the face would you expect them to assume I was no longer a threat?
Jim already presumed that Mrs B was hit prior to the shootout, man show
Presumed? I thought the reports say the security video shows exactly that. Bieker was in the back, thats usually where people have their security feed located. Assuming he didn’t see it on the video feed, most people scream out in pain when they are struck. Very few remain silent. May I ask, are you married Hearne? Would you be able to tell if your wife was hurt or in danger?
Yep, I’m married…
Yes, Jim presumed that Mrs B was smacked, shoved, whichever prior to Jon Bieker bursting in. That’s all I said.
Ok, I am going to ask this question sincerely. No more jabs at you. But since you are a member of the media, and obviously know more about it than I do. (again i mean that sincerely). You say he presumed. They say he was in the back, everything was caught on camera. When they say he was in back in my mind I am imagining him in the office and see’s what is going on on the camera feed. That he maybe saw his wife taking a swipe and looking down the barrel of a gun. Do we know where he was? Do we know if he saw what happened as it was happening?
You seem to be wordsmithing in just the way so many of your authors despise. swipe? what is a swipe?
Did you mean 1)a sweeping blow or stroke or 2) a critical remark?
Read the police report as reported, man show
Could you direct me to the reference to “swipe” you are referring to Hearne? From the reporting by Fox4 and KSHB I see “strike” and “hit” but no mention of this vague and mild “swipe”.
I’m not sure why you’re so intent on judging Jon’s actions. Did his actions affect you in any way? Are you that desperate for traffic?
I’m sure if you were in that situation, you would handle it perfectly.
Hard to say how I’d handle it, Phaedrus…
And that’s what Jim wrote as well. But in a perfect world I’d have handled it as Jim laid things out.
Bieker was a fool. He watched too many John Wayne movies and thought they were real.
I still laugh at the stupid name of this business — mixing sex and guns is so wrong.
Will details emerge about the needless grave dancing that occurs on this site?
Seems they already have, Skeptic
Armed intruders assault the man’s wife and you still paint him as some kind of Charles Bronson reject. Why you have a hard on for this dead man is beyond me. Personally if I had to guess I’d say it’s because deep down your Uber leftist sense of superiority deems anyone white and working class to be some hayseed hillbilly beneath anything other than contempt. The truth is you and the jack springer and Jim Fitzpatrick s of the world measure a man based on yourselves. You would lay down and lick your nuts rather than try to protect someone. Deep down there’s a little voice that tells you that you are cowards. You try to drowned out that voice by ridiculing a dead man who had the stones to do what you never could summon the courage to do.
I’m speculating here and passing judgements based on my own bias and prejudice. ..not unlike you and your posse of pussies.
I like it. Mark…
“posse of pussies” – nice one!
Looks like a pretty small posse though here in the comments section, anyway.
Who or what was the man protecting? He was outnumbered. He lacked common sense and thought he — one person — could outshoot 4 others.
Me a leftist? Are you kidding? LMAO
Bieker would be alive today if he would have given the thugs the money. He was a stupid man who saw money as more important than his life and the life of his wife.
I find it interesting that you refer to the assailant striking Mrs. Bieker as “taking a swipe”.
Generally, the idiom “taking a swipe” means to hit at someone — but missing.
So, what purpose did your use of this idiom serve?
Because we still don’t know exactly how the kid’s action resulted in Mrs. B getting that bump on her forehead.
Or what exactly preceded it.
And it sounds like her husband burst in almost simultaneously, which may mean that he wasn’t sitting back by the monitor observing it or even knew that it had taken place when he entered the room shooting
Have you read the court records or the KC Star article? Wiley and Patterson pulled out handguns and pointed them at Mrs. Bieker, who raised her hands.
Midgyett jumps on the counter, strikes Mrs. Bieker, knocking her to the floor.
Then</i< Mr. Bieker enters the room and fires a weapon.
Wow…Really messed up the HTML tags there….The last sentence should read:
Then Mr. Bieker enters the room and fires a weapon.
I would have to guess Mr. Bieker saw his wife getting hit by the perp on video or through one way glass and that is when he came out guns a blazing. If I was in his situation after they hit his wife I can’t say for sure what I would have done. Knowing this information I can’t really blame the guy for doing what he did. He probably thought since these young scholars were not pros and inflicted unprovoked violence on his wife more was to come. Hard to say.
There’s really no blame where Bieker is concerned…
It’s just too bad he didn’t play it differently because the odds would have been in his favor had he chosen to.
This is an account, not an actual video of what happened in real time, Lance.
Read it closely.
Let’s see what the video shows.
Sounded to me like Bieker was charging in almost the instant Midgyett (great name) jumped the counter.
It doesn’t even make clear for example how she hit her head.
Was it because he jumped the counter and she fell and hit it?
Or did he hit her? Roger the Plumber read it and that he smacked her. Doesn’t say that, does it?
In any case, it SEEMS like the hubby was in the act of entering the room, guns blazing. If he’d been back watching the video monitor there would have been more of a time differential.
We don’t really know. Do we?
“Sounded to me like Bieker was charging in almost the instant Midgyett (great name) jumped the counter.”
Sounds to me like Bieker entered the room after his wife was struck (or “swiped”, if you prefer), and knocked to the floor.
Of course, it sounds that way to me because that’s exactly what the article in the KC star states.
Here’s the link to the Star:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/crime/article8182491.html
What were you using for a frame of reference?
roger the plumber is now with CSI….
come on…the guyovercharges to clean out
septic tanks…what does he know about
crime scenes..
have roger examine glazes pics with his
hotties….then tell us what he says.
I dont blame Jon Bieker for losing his life.
I blame the 4 young scholars for that.
Fair enough, Lib.
Fitz and I don’t blame him either. We just wish he’d followed another course of action
It doesn’t give an exact chronology on how quickly Bieker burst in…
Seeing the video will tell the tale.
Thanks for answering my question, Hearne. I’ve never been to She’s A Pistol. I know at Show-Me Shooters they have two “backs” one is the range, the other is the office. Do they have a range at She’s A Pistol? I guess the reason I ask is this. I take you on face value that he came out guns a blazin. If thats the case he had to know SOMETHING was going on. That is unless everytime he came to the front of the store he came out Bruce Willis style expecting there to be bad guys. Now how did he know something was going on? Once again, not ragging on you Hearne. Please don’t take it that way, I just know you are more familiar with Shawnee than I am.
I’m not going to bullshit you, man show…
I don’t know either.
But looking into the tiny boutique, it doesn’t look at all like a “normal” gun store.
It looks more like a Forever Pink.
Maybe that’s why the perps thought it would be easy pickings.
I don’t think any of us can “assume” what Bieker may or may not have been thinking.
What we can assume is that he saw at least two guys holding and pointing guns and knew he was in for a firefight. Those were long odds, as the Dude pointed out.
It’s a sad deal – no two ways about it.
And Bieker did not deserve to die. It wasn’t his fault. And he need make no excuses.
It’s just too darn bad another course of action wasn’t followed and he’s not alive today.
is there video of the shootout?
glaze could us it in his king of sting film.
We get it Hearne. Paint John Bieker as a crazed gun man because it fits in with your liberal narrative. Let the whimsy of a armed criminals dictate whether you live or die. Lots of “what if’s” and “maybe’s” but you weren’t faced with these circumstance and he was. Now you get the pleasure of bashing him for his stance. Great cowardly journalism.
When do you plan to testify as an expert witness for the defense of the 4 “mischievous youths” charged with murder? Your argument being that Mr. Bieker deserved to die and that the criminals by returning fire were acting in self defense.
By the way the KC Star called. Your still fired.
Uh, for the millionth time, I wasn’t fired…
I was laid off alongside hundreds – thousands of others at McClatchy.
They tried to hire me back almost immediately to freelance the column, Coop.
None of which is relevant to a Shawnee gun shop owner being shot.
And your point is?
My Point – your pathway to this story all started with your anal retentive critique of the KC Star. Bashing them for the page space dedicated to Biekers memory. This isn’t the first time you’ve been bitter of the Star that’s nothing new but this time you elected to drag Bieker into your rant.
More important you’ll bash Bieker for defending his wife, personal property, and portray him as a gun totting, crazed cowboy. MEANWHILE you’ll give Glazer free reign to romanticize his life as a felon and promote that life. Giving a pass to those that attacked the Biekers in their place of business.
Hearne likes to beat a dead horse to get page views. The guy was trying to protect his wife and property, instead of judging his actions why cannot you write 5 stories on why these thugs made the wrong decision on robbing a gun store? I think that as a society we are judging the wrong people way to much.
Come on, Jess?
Page views? Seriously?
Hearne my man it is starting to feel that way.
I can tell you that seeing an armed robbery in progress on your video feed into the back room, which includes your wife’s assault while in danger of losing her life, will send a serious jolt of adrenaline through your system. The idea, that we can, in retrospect, pass judgment on this man for his actions as he hurried out to come to his wife’s defense is arrogant and insufferable.
Conflating his actions, in the most stressful, violent and emotional time in his and his wife’s life, with a Hollywood movie, or, Hollywood hero, or retrospective lumpen liberal advice is not just illogical, it is needlessly tendentious, pejorative, counterproductive, sanctimonious slog that begins to smell of schadenfreude.
Gun ownership will increase as local law enforcement agencies, under siege from various and sundry “Movements” are forced to deny moral agency and criminal charges to favored groups of lawbreakers, who, with de facto permission from the President, the Attorney General and the power of the Federal Government, harbor not just criminal intent, but revenge for perceived wrongs.
The worm turns and maybe Bieker is better off a dead hero. Who can say with certainty, that if the thug P.O.S were all dead and Bieker alive, that he would not be the subject of a “Civil Rights” investigation?
The man made a decision and did the best he could in the most difficult of circumstances. Too bad he didn’t kill every fu*kin one of them.
+1
another illiterate…false story by the clown! Where do you
get this sh*t from that you write bout.?
Bravo!!!
I agree, of course, with Jack Springer who said Jon Bieker had probably watched too many John Wayne movies — in which the blusterous, bigger-than-life hero shoots up a bunch of people and rides into the sunset.
I also agree with Jack’s assessment that the name of the business — She’s a Pistol — was problematic. In fact, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the robbers targeted the place because of its feminine implications: Could it be that only members of the fair sex were “manning” the counters and computer registers?
…And speaking of ill-advised names for gun stores. How about “Frontier Justice” in Lee’s Summit? It’s website describes it as “a next-generation firearms facility and shopping destination.”
Not an apt description; it is meant to appeal to a generations-ago mentality, where “frontier justice” was dispensed liberally. LIBERALLY.
I would assume, then, that the Frontier Justice inventory includes stout ropes for lynchings.
I agree with Mark Smith that you’re probablya cowardly member of Hearne’s posse of pussies.
But we’re probably both wrong.
That’s a heckuva way to agree with someone, Lance…
I’m going to have to sleep on that one!
Can we please stop blaming the victims and start blaming the assholes that robbed the place?
Blaming a business’s name for it being robbed is laughable. Tell me Jim, should Bank of America change its name too? You know, by putting “Bank” in its name, that company is just begging to be robbed.
“Bank of America” is synonymous with ruthless thievery. No guns required
Boom there it is. Tell us how you really feel Fitz. White people, guns, and businesses selling a product that offends your liberal sensibilities. Toss in a “redneck” name, and it’s the unholy NRA Wingnut Cracker trinity. From there it’s a short stretch to lynchings and racism . Like a true Star “journalist” you’re never REALLY objective. You dont know dick about the now dead store owner, his mindset, or if he ever watched a John Wayne movie in his life. You can’t know what he was thinking in that moment when he saw what was happening. Of course that doesn’t stop you from making assumptions from the comfort of wherever you you hack away at your keyboard. You feel wholly justified in defining a strangers character and intent, when you cant know either. Speaking of hacks….
Au contraire, Mark…
Courtesy of the Star, we know that Biker loved Star Wars, sharpened his own lawnmower blades, was a Pantera fan.
He was an IT.
What else did we need to know? other than he made a fatal mistake. Unfortunately.
I think we’re getting conflicting opinions here from those
who have been convicted of felonious crimes and those
who were never in the justice system.
Frontier Justice is a tragedy-in-waiting. I drive by it every day and hope that when it gets hit by thugs I’m no where near it.
I think the LS Journal said the place wanted to promote a family atmosphere. My suggestion if you want to enjoy a family atmosphere play a board game with your family or attend Church — don’t go to a gun shop.
Amen, Jack…
And you won’t hear me utter the word “amen” often
Thank you.
The problem was not the name of the business, the problem is the four POS.
‘She’s a Pistol” could easily be the name of the sex website. Google it …. it may be already.
I’m not surprised the local authorities sat on the information for so long since the JoCo D.A. has reportedly been less than willing to comply with the new Kansas law (effective July 1, 2014) pertaining to probable cause affidavits. He who controls the information has the power, right? So much for openness and transparency in government.
Finally!!!
Someone addresses one of the main points of the column. That the powers that be in Kansas are so full of themselves that they hinder the free flow of what should be public information.
And for what?
To prove and drive home the point that they think they don’t have to obey the law because they have read too many Judge Dredd comics. The backlash is playing out in Ferguson and New York still. These cop idiots just don’t get it, they are here to serve and protect the people.
While there are still not enough true details to make even a qualified judgment of Jon Bieker’s actions (and may never be since we cannot know what he was thinking, how he judged the situation before him) I would note the following: any combat vet will tell you that once you engage the enemy, whatever plan you had? Gone, right out the window. So you must be able to adapt immediately to the new situation, without hesitation, or you will be overcome. And the way you do this is to train for any eventuality, over and over and over again, hundreds and hundreds of times. Casting no aspersions, I would venture a guess that type of training was not part of Jon Bieker’s daily life.
Maybe I’m a little thinned skin with regards to my politics but I feel compelled to offer a side comment to the discussion going on here. Two or three commenters have referred to the perspective shared by Hearne, Jim Fitzpatrick, and Jack Springer as the liberal/leftist position. That is not an accurate assumption to make.
Anyone who has read Jack Springer’s offerings here would not label him as a liberal. I’ve known our esteemed admin for longer than I care to admit and would certainly not call him as a liberal. On social issues maybe but certainly not across the board. Hearne can explain himself.
On the issue of guns in general, the overwhelming majority of liberals are not looking to take anyone’s guns away. I’m a supporter of the 2nd amendment. It is fair to say that the general liberal perspective would ask for simple things like background checks. Criticizing and second guessing Jon Bieker is not a liberal perspective, it is a personal perspective. From what I know of the facts so far, I’m betting I would have done the same thing that Jon Bieker did.
Just sayin’
Damn, Stomper…
I thought you were part of my pussy posse!
Great point Stomper. I don’t share the same views as Hearne and Springer. And I don’t know whether their political affiliation is left/liberal. What I do know is that people throw around the left-right monikers way too often. I am a conservative, but I can also think for myself. I won’t be a sheeple for the right or the left. I am myself before anything else. Just because I don’t blindly follow my thought captains in Washington doesn’t mean I am not a conservative.