posted
I was laying in bed, trying to sleep, and I heard a bunch of popping sounds outside my window. Looking outside, I saw four or five police cars. I went into the other room, where one of my roommates was still awake, and asked her if she heard gunshots. SHe said she heard something, but wasn't sure what it was. I found this on the news this morning:
quote: Robbery Suspect Shot and Killed Jan 04 2007 11:25AM
Reported by Tino Ramos
Four Columbus Police officers shot and killed a robbery suspect attempting to escape arrest overnight.
Police say the CVS at Sawmill Road and Hard Road in north Columbus was robbed around 1:30 a.m. The suspect, 23-year-old Michael Hevezi, was armed with a weapon. He went inside and passed a note to an employee demanding OxyContin.
No one inside the store was hurt.
"In the mean time, police aired a description of a black Cadillac that was seen leaving the CVS at the time of the attempted robbery. That Cadillac was spotted a half hour later, near the OSU campus," said Sgt. Kevin Corcoran, Columbus Police.
Police caught up with Hevezi near High Street and Lane Avenue. They attempted to stop him, but the man resisted arrest and showed police a weapon. Police say they had no choice but to shoot the suspect.
"I heard a bunch of overlapping shots, a lot of them," said John Hoddinott, witness.
"Four officers fired, striking the person and he was pronounced dead," Sgt. Corcoran said.
Police say they found an assault weapon and ammunition inside the vehicle.
The intersection of High and Lane is right next to my dorm. If you watch the video, at one point they show the entire intersection, and you can see a building behind it. That building is where I live.
posted
Well, given such an occurance it is reasonable to be a little scared, but the shooting had nothing to do with the campus or your dorm. It was just by chance that everything ended up there. So, I wouldn't take this as a sign that your campus or your dorm is somehow in greater danger.
If fact, based on the law of averages, it is probably now much less dangerous since the odds of another shooting randomly occurring there are extremely slim.
So, again, take some comfort that this was a random occurance and could have landed in anyone's back yard. Just a twist of fate that it landed in yours.
quote:If fact, based on the law of averages, it is probably now much less dangerous since the odds of another shooting randomly occurring there are extremely slim.
If a coin lands heads up, it is no more or less likely to land heads up next time.
If a coin lands heads up five hundred thousand times in a row, it is no more or less likely to land heads up next time.
Posts: 4313 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Wow, when I read the title of this thread, I thought it was going to be about a college student shooting another college student. You can imagine how relieved I was...
Posts: 930 | Registered: Dec 2006
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posted
Well, there were two student deaths here earlier this year: one boy in an elevator accident, and one boy died of heart failure in his dorm room. So it does worry me a bit...
Posts: 1591 | Registered: Jul 2005
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The robbery is a coincidence and the other two are natural causes/accidents, so I wouldn't worry. Still, it must be nerve-racking to be so close to a murder.
Posts: 1762 | Registered: Apr 2006
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quote:If fact, based on the law of averages, it is probably now much less dangerous since the odds of another shooting randomly occurring there are extremely slim.
If a coin lands heads up, it is no more or less likely to land heads up next time.
If a coin lands heads up five hundred thousand times in a row, it is no more or less likely to land heads up next time.
That may be true if you are flipping coins, but that is not what is happening here. This is a city with thousands of people and hundreds of businesses.
The odd of that sequence of events occurring again are about like winning the lottery twice in a row, or about 600,000,000 to 1.
posted
BlueWizard: it doesn't matter what the odds are, if the events are independent, they're independent, and the odds don't increase or decrease upon the event happening once. For instance, you've grossly underestimated the probability of winning the lottery twice in a row. Most common types of lottery will be somewhere in the zone of 10^13 to 1 for winning it for a given two times; the odds of winning twice in a row over a series of plays can be increased somewhat by playing a lot, but will remain significantly over 6 x 10^9. 10^13 can be simply obtained by squaring the odds of winning in a given time, because the events are independent.
Or if I roll a die, the odds of it coming up six the second time are the same as the odds of it coming up six the first time. This is true no matter how many sides the die has.
However, this event isn't really independent. Now one of the people who might have been involved in a situation like this is dead. In any large city this will not be a significant effect, though.
I would suggest checking out the Cartoon Guide to Statistics. It will help give you a better grounding in how statistics really work, and be fun to read at the same time (its the best introductory statistics course I know of, and is at least equivalent to a one semester introductory course for non-math majors).
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
Wow, that's scary. I heard about it on Channel 4 before I left for work. I've been to campus several times, and I sure wouldn't want to be there at night. Good to hear you're okay.
Is campus really as bad as I perceive it to be?
Posts: 684 | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
Actually, OSU has one of the safest campuses in the nation. Columbus just happens to be one of the most dangerous cities in the nation.
During the day, I feel perfectly safe. At night, though, I won't go outside without someone with me, preferably one of the guys on my floor that I trust.
Posts: 1591 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:BlueWizard: it doesn't matter what the odds are, if the events are independent, they're independent, and the odds don't increase or decrease upon the event happening once.
But in this case, I would doubt that the events are independent. A future robber, when choosing an area to stage a robbery, may have heard about this unsuccessful robbery, and that would affect their decision, likely increasing the odds of them choosing a location with less effective police coverage.
As for the story, wow, shots fired right outside your dorm, that's gotta be pretty nerve rattling. A few months ago I saw a street fight while walking back from my friend's dorm, and that left me pretty shook up even though I was never in any danger and the cops showed up shortly after it started. For all that see it on TV and in movies, real life violence is scary stuff.
[Edited to correct some rather embarrassing spelling errors. ]
posted
Wow, we just moved from Columbus a few months ago. I totally know where you live.
I didn't know Columbus was one of the most dangerous cities in the nation. Huh. Guess ignorance is bliss. I always felt relatively safe.
Posts: 293 | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Tinros: Columbus just happens to be one of the most dangerous cities in the nation.
Terrific. There's a good chance I'm headed to Ohio Dominican University in the fall, and I'll be living on campus. This is information I'm not comfortable with.
You'd think that living just outside Columbus I would know this. Posts: 684 | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
oh, you guys should have seen the Mirror Lake jumping during Beat Michigan week. THAT was some serious disrobing.
Posts: 1591 | Registered: Jul 2005
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