Man Dressed As Joker Gunned Down

[Bucky]

Man Dressed As Joker Gunned Down

In a sad bit of news the Associated Press reports, Army Spc. Christopher Lanum, a soldier at Fort Eustis, was dressed like The Dark Knight villain - the Joker - when he was gunned down after pointing a loaded shotgun at police after a chase. Lanum was a suspect in the stabbing of a fellow soldier, Spc. Mitchell Stone, at Fort Eustis.

Stone told emergency workers that Lanum stabbed him and used a stun gun on him. Lanum and his girlfriend, Patsy Ann Marie Montowski, fled in her van, which a park ranger spotted about 200 miles northwest of the base. The ranger called for help, and Lanum led police on a slow-speed chase before running over a spike strip laid down by police and crashing.

Lanum's girlfriend Patsy Ann Marie Montowski, a passenger in the van, was hit by gunfire and treated at a hospital. She was arrested Wednesday evening and charged with being accessory after the fact to assault, authorities said.

According to the FBI affidavit filed in federal court in Montowski's case, Montowski told the FBI that Lanum idolized the character. Montowski also said that Lanum handed her the shotgun and asked her to kill him, but she refused. Lanum pointed the gun at police, his finger on the trigger, and refused commands to drop the weapon. A trooper fired through the driver's side window, Lanum's shotgun discharged, and police fired several times.

Idolized the Joker. He should've idolized the Cesar Romero treatment of the character: more laughs, less bloodshed.