THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 20, 1995 TAG: 9505200317
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Although several pizza delivery drivers have been shot during robberies in Hampton Roads in the past few years, Thursday's shooting was apparently the first in which a delivery person turned the tables on a would-be robber.
But it isn't the first time citizens have shot back.
The number of citizens who have killed criminals has climbed 30 percent since 1989, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 1993, the latest year for which national statistics are available, private citizens killed almost as many criminals as did police.
Citizens killed 356 felons that year, compared with the 455 who died in confrontations with law-enforcement officers.
According to the FBI, 1993 was the first year in which murder victims were more likely to die in confrontations with strangers than with people they knew. Deadly robberies - especially of delivery drivers, cab drivers and convenience store clerks - boosted those numbers.
Norfolk statistics show delivery drivers have a high probability of facing armed strangers.
According to an analysis of police reports from 1993 to the present, police have investigated at least 100 robberies of delivery drivers, making drivers the victim in one of every 25 armed robberies. Pizza deliverers were the most frequent target.
Most of the robberies happened on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and nearly nine in 10 happened at night.
Delivery drivers were robbed in nearly every area of Norfolk, but the most dangerous areas for drivers are East Ocean View and Bayview, where more than 35 percent of all robberies happened.
According to the FBI, fears of being killed during a robbery aren't unwarranted.
``Every American now has a realistic chance of murder victimization in view of the random nature the crime has assumed,'' reads the conclusion to the homicide chapter in the FBI's ``Crime in the United States, 1993.''
In 1965, only 5 percent of all homicides were committed by strangers, the FBI reported. In 1993, more than half were. The trend has led many people to carry firearms, and has led many states, including Virginia, to ease restrictions on carrying concealed weapons.
But delivery drivers, cab drivers and convenience-store clerks - the most often victimized occupations - generally are prohibited by employers from carrying weapons. MEMO: Database editor Lise Olsen contributed to this report.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERY STATISTICS PIZZA DELIVERY FBI FEDERAL BUREAU OF
INVESTIGATION by CNB