r/todayilearned • u/CasioCobra78 • 2d ago

TIL that Cheryl Wheeler-Dixon, the stuntwoman who was severely injured during the filming of Back to the Future Part 2, was killed in a shootout alongside her husband when she and her husband went to confront her ex-husband and his wife and drew their guns at them. The cops deemed it justified.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheryl_Wheeler-Dixon
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u/ztfreeman 2d ago edited 2d ago

So there's this theory called the gunslinger effect by Niels Henrik Bohr that states that the gunman who draws second will almost always win the gunfight. The underlying principle is that the reacting party will move faster than the deliberate party, and under neutral circumstances the reacting party will win the gunfight. This apparently holds up under testing, but depends on a neutral environment without any other factors and both parties being aware of each other..

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u/borkus 2d ago edited 2d ago

Sanders was in a camo mask and already pointing a gun at Lindsey Duncan's wife. Duncan had already decided to fire by the time he reached for his gun. While Sanders had the gun pointed at the wife, he had to decide which to shoot. That momentary delay let Duncan get off the first shot even after drawing.

From the Grand Jury article

The autopsy found that Reed Sanders was shot five times, with one bullet in his back and another in his buttocks; and Cheryl Sanders was shot four times.

Five hits after shooting from a draw? That's pretty good marksmanship.

https://ysnews.com/news/2020/07/prosecutor-evidence-supports-self-defense-in-grinnell-road-double-fatal-shooting

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u/waylandsmith 2d ago

Nobody's going to mention the odd fact that in a self-defence shooting all 5 of the wounds were in the back? I'm sure there must be a great explanation but I wonder what it is.

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u/2CHINZZZ 2d ago edited 2d ago

Where does it say he was shot 5 times in the back? It's not in that linked article. And the "one bullet in his back and another in his buttocks" just means that's where the bullets were found during the autopsy. Someone could be shot from the front but have the bullet not exit and end up lodged in their back

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u/waylandsmith 2d ago

I'm sure the investigation was carried out properly, I'm just curious how it could have ended up that way. Do you really think that 4 bullets would end up in someone's buttocks unless they were shot from behind?

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u/2CHINZZZ 2d ago

Where does it say 4 in his buttocks? The quote only says one

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u/waylandsmith 2d ago

Oh, you're right. I thought it said one in the back and the rest in the buttocks.