Saturday, May 03, 2008

Philly News Sheds More Light On Marvin Harrison's "Fistfight"

An online Star story by Mike Chappell says that Colts receiver Marvin Harrison is not the subject of an investigation into a shooting which took place earlier this week near a Philadelphia business Harrison owns. Tom Condon, Harrison’s agent, told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen: “I’ve spoken with Marvin and I’ve spoken with his attorney, and they say the reports are erroneous. Marvin was not involved in any shooting, and he is not the subject of this investigation.’’ The agent's claim in the Star report seems at odds with a report in today's Philadelphia Daily News. The facts that can be surmised from this report are:

  • Harrison is under investigation for a shooting that took place this past Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. one block from a garage and car detail shop owned by Harrison.
  • Six shots were fired, hitting an unidentified 32-year-old man--who had just had a fistfight with Harrison. The man suffered a gunshot wound to the hand, while a 2-year old boy suffered a cut under his eye from glass that showered him after a bullet struck a car windshield.
  • The gunshot victim initially lied to police about where he was shot. It turns out the man had been kicked out of Harrison's bar two weeks earlier and had been feuding with him since.
  • Police retrieved from Harrison's garage and detail shop a Belgian firearm, FN5.7 on Wednesday. Police described the gun Harrison turned over to them as a high-powered weapon which fires armor-piercing rounds. Harrison acknowledges being the owner of the gun and ballistic tests confirm that five of the six shots fired during the shooting came from Harrison's gun.
  • Police further report that a man contacted them Friday night also claiming to have been shot by Harrison. Police have not been able to find the man who made the telephone call.
  • Police say Harrison was questioned by police for four hours accompanied by an attorney. He denies he shot anyone, although he admits to the fistfight with the shooting victim.

11 comments:

Chris Worden said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Gary R. Welsh said...

Chris Worden, You are a fellow attorney and officer of the court of this state. If you cannot post comments on this blog without hurling defamatory insults at me, then you will not be permitted to post here any more.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Comment moderation is now turned on.

artfuggins said...

Marvin Harrison is a gentleman and I will be hard pressed to believe any of the negativity about him.

Unknown said...

Oh, you know Harrison personally, do you artfuggins? Amazing how many people know him and can say he's a saint. Get real, he's a fallible man just like anyone else. I'll wait for all the facts to come out before making any judgment. I would, however, like to know who shot this guy with Harrison's gun if is wasn't Harrison.

Anonymous said...

Sources said that Harrison had a Belgian firearm, an FN5.7, in his garage. Harrison handed the high-powered weapon - which fires armor-piercing rounds - over to investigators.

I was with everything, till I read this. This is nothing more than media sensationalism. While it is true that the Five-seveN can shoot some armor-piercing rounds, it is not unnecessarily high power. And civilian sales of the armor-piercing rounds are restricted, though it there was a place to get them, it would be in some back alleyway in Philly.

Once again, media wants to make it sound like Marvin was running around with a weapon that ranks just under a bazooka. These pistols are costly, about $700 each.

Mark said...

From everything I think I know about Harrison, it seems hard for me to believe that he overtly had anything to do with the shooting.

I'm on the same page as spooknp on this one - the report doesn't even mention if the firearm was legally obtained (I'd have to assume it was. A pricey firearm like this isn't something people usually sell off the back of a van). And ditto, the crap about armor-piercing rounds is absolutely ridiculous. Many, many firearms can fire armor piercing rounds, if you get your hands on some.

Bottom line there's more to the story than is out right now, and it will probably take months to sort out. Hopefully it doesn't impact the Colts' season.

artfuggins said...

Once again, David, you either misunderstood or are deliberately trying to distort what I said. I do NOT know Marvin Harrison personally. I have never met him. In the media, he portrayed as a gentleman, family man who stays to himself. He has never been involved in any scandalous behavior. I said it would be hard to believe and I am going to wait until the facts come in ....they are coming in now and it appears that he was in no way involved and many of the original facts were inaccurate. Jumping to conclusions can ruin reputations.

Gary R. Welsh said...

Someone who used to be in the gun business passes along this information about the gun in question:

FN FIVE-SEVEN
having been in the business I know a little about firearms. The FN pistol Harrison used holds 20 rounds. The projectile used was originally developed to be used in submachine guns. This pistol was specifically designed to fire armor piercing rounds. The bullet can penetrate 48 layers of Kevlar.
Some will argue that the armor piercing bullets cannot be purchased for this pistol. They can, by the truckload. My guess is that Harrison had these armor piercing bullets. The FN 5.7 with armor piercing bullets is a "street cred" firearm popular with gangs that can get them.
It's a poor choice for personal protection because the bullet passes directly thru the target rather than "mushrooming" on impact. It's not a man stopper but it will penetrate the doors of Cadillac Escalade SUV or even a cop car for that matter. It's not common for it to be used for personal protection but more as an assault pistol.

Mann Law, P.C. said...

You know I too wanted to learn about this gun. I did a google search and found a thread which talked about the gun and how professionals should use it as the ammunition was hard to get, proper equipment such as holsters were hard to come by and 2 youtube videos with 2 young white women target practicing with them. A description without the obvious racists comments is what people are looking for.

Unknown said...

As soon as I heard of this on ESPN I wanted to look up the weapon. I had suspected they were talking about a Five Seven which I own. The AP rounds are much harder to aquire, but they are out there for a price. Normal rounds aren't too hard to come by though.

There is much question about the true capabilities of the AP round. Wiki the five seven for more info.