Our sympathy out to the Gary Holdren family.

[iisp0tii]

Gary Holdren was a loving, wonderful, fun and incredibly kind man who lived a very happy life until he was knocked down in a hail of paintball rounds fired from a bluff in Back Bay, Newport Beach on Sunday March 24 around 1:15pm. He suffered a severe head injury and had 2 surgeries. He's was in a medically induced coma until he passed away on Saturday April 6.

If you have any information on the crime, please contact the Newport Beach Police Department at (800) 550-6273.

For more information and pictures of the attack site, please follow this link:
http://www.madrussian.com/cgi-bin/ne...k_Bay_2002.cfm

source - www.pbreview.com

[RT_Luver]

OMG......thats terrible. If I knew who did that I would KICK THEIR A**. I can't believe that.

[Load SM5]

Yea there are a few sticky threads about this on top..I did'nt know he died, though. That's absolutely terrible.

[nutz]

grrrrrr the stupidy of those ppl...

i think a major paintball industry person (TK!!) should show up at the walk thing and make a speech about paintball and how those people are not to be accepted in the paintball world, also to express symathy from the whole paintball world

[shartley]

Does ANYONE ever check to see if OLD news has already been discussed or posted here, before posting?

And from what I understand the "attack" was not quite an "attack" unless you count the Traffic Sign that was being shot at. Did the people shooting the sign commit a crime? You bet! But from other accounts stated, there was NOT an attack on the man. He bladed into the line of fire, but was NOT the target. BIG difference. But it does not make good headlines that way.

What does that have to do with anything? Simple.. INTENT! People have already branded these idiots as “Attackers” and now “Murderers”. You can kiss any chance you DID have of them coming forward on their own goodbye. Were they “Attackers” or “Murderers”? NO, they were IDIOTS that by other information posted, were only intent on vandalizing the stop sign.

It is sensationalism like this that you have to worry about. The TRUTH is often bad enough, but to make things into MORE than they were is worse.. worse for those involved, and worse for Paintball. And he was FAR from being MURDERED. Sorry.

Those involved will more than likely be charged with Manslaughter, but “murder” would be a stretch. And anyone who supports this verbiage needs to seriously think about it. It upsets me just reading it. Accountability for your actions.. YOU BET! But not for things you did not do, and calling it “murder” indicates the intent to harm and kill the man.

I had better stop now…. Hopefully more people can see it for what it was, and not for the sensationalism it can cause by people writing irresponsible articles like the one I just read. I feel very badly for his family, but I will say it again, he was FAR from being MURDERED.

[Vegeta]

I see your point shartley...

But I just do not understand how it went down like that. You just don't skate into a line of paint. If there was kids shooting at a sign, and this 50 some odd year old man saw then shooting at it... don't you think he would have avoided that area? I betcha taht they stopped shooting, and then decided to light it up again as he went by. I mean unless this dude was a total idiot.. which i'm sure he wasn't.. he wouldn't have skated into that area if he would have know thay they would be firing at the area.

[shartley]

Good points. But how it went down will never be known until actual eyewitnesses come forward, or the individuals responsible are caught.

Now that THAT is said, we live in a society where you are innocent until PROVEN guilty. And I have seen FAR too often where people get the WRONG idea of how things went by what they thought they KNEW and what they thought was “more likely”. We have even seen this on AO where people have been ready to lynch people only to find out that what they THOUGHT happened didn’t.

Now as for this..

If there was kids shooting at a sign, and this 50 some odd year old man saw then shooting at it... don't you think he would have avoided that area?

Yes, I would think he WOULD… IF he SAW them. How aware was he of his surroundings? Was he wearing a walkman? What else was happening at the time (if anything). Unfortunately some of these questions will never be answered because he can not answer them.

How many times have you driven home? Now how many times could you be asked what happened WHILE you were driving home, and you could not recall? Many times we do things repetitively so many times that we are in “la la Land” when we are doing them and almost unaware of anything going on around us. Now add the possibility of wearing a walkman to that or daydreaming……

Sure, purely speculative, but so is any claims that these idiots actually intended to “attack” him.

I betcha taht they stopped shooting, and then decided to light it up again as he went by. I mean unless this dude was a total idiot.. which i'm sure he wasn't.. he wouldn't have skated into that area if he would have know thay they would be firing at the area.

And this is the same intelligent man who knowingly refused to wear the proper safety gear associated with the activity he was engaging in? How idiotic he was would be a good argument…either way.

Now please don’t anyone take this post as bashing Mr. Holdren, because is ISN’T. It is simply stating that “feel good” causes people to jump to conclusions about this case that are just NOT proven facts. And there is a good chance that this unfortunate accident was NOT an “attack”, but actions of idiots out to “have fun” and vandalize a street sign.

My big problem is the inflammatory accusations made by people who just do not know what happened. And when you start calling someone a Murderer, that is pretty serious. And even more so when the facts known don’t even support that accusation. Irresponsible reporting and stating “theories” as FACT do not help the situation, as neither does taking wild accusations as truths.

Simply put, anyone drawing ANY solid conclusions at this point would be ignoring any and all other possibilities. And at this point, does anyone think supporting statements like “Help find the murders” will help paintball in any way? Even more so since it has not even been established that he was “attacked” in the first place? We know several things…

1) He was roller-blading without a helmet.
2) Some idiots were shooting paintball markers in the vicinity of a street sign.
3) He was hit a couple times, one hit causing his eye to be injured.
4) He fell and struck his head.
5) Because he struck his head while NOT wearing a helmet, he sustained serious head trauma.
6) He was then “medically induced” into a coma.
7) He died.

With these facts how can ANYONE know for certain that he was indeed "attacked"? So calling it murder would be premature at best, and down right irresponsible at the least.

Again I send my deepest regards to the Holdren family, I feel their loss. But would lynching these paintballers without even a shred of evidence help matters? And what if they did NOT attack him? And if the Paintball Community stands up with pitchforks hunting these “murderers” down and come to find out they were NOT? Hmmmm

A bit of self control and prudence would be the wisest thing at this point. What if these idiots were your sons, or your brothers? Again, I am all for making them pay for their actions, but let’s find out WHAT their actions were first.