Feature Writing Winner Publication: St. Louis Post-Dispatch By: Todd C. Frankel Judges’ Comments: The absolute class of the category.
Excerpt from “How the Aurora shooter got his ammo” T H E N O . 1 S T. L O U I S W E B S I T E A N D N E W S P A P E R
Start with the FedEx packages. Follow the trail. That’s what police in Colorado did. They wanted to learn how the gunman got his bullets, how he accumulated an arsenal of more than 6,000 rounds before he walked into an Aurora, Colo., movie theater last July, where he fatally shot 12 people and wounded 58. Where did that ammunition come from? The answer appeared to be an online company in St. Louis, a detail widely reported one year ago. But recently released search warrants and additional reporting by the Post-Dispatch have shed new light on the path traveled by those thousands of rounds. The trail leads not to St. Louis but to Knoxville, Tenn., and on to Atlanta, to a secretive 4-year-old company considered to be among the nation’s top online ammunition dealers. Its founders — a pair of former real estate developers — sell bullets using far-flung P.O. boxes, different corporate identities and online marketing tactics that have offended even some firearm enthusiasts. By last summer, these entrepreneurs stood perfectly positioned to close on a quick, legal sale to a deranged killer. The story of how the Aurora gunman got his 170 pounds of ammo — a transaction that received far less attention than how he obtained his firearms — is a journey into the divisive debate over gun violence, about how guns and ammo flow through the nation and the companies that profit along the way. Each shooting briefly revives talk about banning certain guns or magazines while another often common feature goes overlooked: the ammo stockpiles. In Newtown, Conn., authorities are looking into how the gunman at Sandy Hook Elementary School acquired more than 1,600 bullets. A thwarted plan by a former student to shoot up the University of Central Florida in Orlando earlier this year led police to 1,000 rounds of ammunition. And then there’s the 6,000 rounds in Aurora. It wasn’t always possible for someone to buy so many bullets so quickly, with so little scrutiny. And it wasn’t always so difficult to track where those bullets came from. It can feel like chasing a ghost. Just try to follow the trail.
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Zimmerman not guilty in Trayvon Martin case Prosecutors fail in bid to prove Florida man was a ‘wannabe cop’ who pursued, killed teen without cause.
BY KYLE HIGHTOWER AND MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press
SANFORD, FLA. • Neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman was cleared of all charges Saturday in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager whose killing unleashed furious debate across the U.S. over racial profiling, self-defense and equal justice. Zimmerman, 29, blinked and barely smiled when the verdict was announced. He could have been convicted of second-degree murder or manslaughter. But the jury of six women, all but one of them white, reached a verdict of not guilty after deliberating well into the night Saturday. The jurors considered nearly three weeks of often wildly conflicting testimony over who was the aggressor on the rainy night that Martin, 17, was shot while walking through the gated town house community where he was staying. Defense attorneys said the case was classic self-
GOT HIS AMMO
See TRIAL • Page A8
STEPHANIE S. CORDLE • scordle@post-dispatch.com
Physician assistant Dale Friesen examines patient Alberta Bean, 85, of St. Louis, on Wednesday in St. Louis at Smiley Urgent Care.
James Holmes bought thousands of rounds from an online retailer that claims it’s based in St. Louis.
New Missouri law aims to ease doctor shortage Physician assistants get more freedom to give care where and when supervising physicians are not available.
BY MICHELE MUNZ mmunz@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8263
But the path was never that simple.
Supporting the theme parks and attractions in the tourism hub of Branson, Mo., are thousands of hourly workers manning the ticket counters, cleaning hotel rooms and waiting on tables. These residents, living among the Ozark Mountains in Taney and Stone counties, often lack health insurance. Three years ago, a group of volunteers opened a clinic in a donated building with donated medical equipment to care for them. “It was just a matter of us saying we wanted to provide this for our community because we thought it was the right thing to do,” said Rick Tallon, who volunteers as a dentist at the clinic. But for the past two months, the Faith Community Health clinic has been idle. Trying to provide care with busy physician volunteers has been unreliable and sporadic, Tallon said. “We have 500-plus patients on the waiting list.”
And the journey leads straight into the nation’s debate over gun violence. BY TODD C. FRANKEL • tfrankel@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8110
S
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tart with the FedEx packages. Follow the trail. That’s what police in Colorado did. They wanted to learn how the gunman got his bullets, how he accumulated an arsenal of more than 6,000 rounds before he walked into an Aurora, Colo., movie theater last July, where he fatally shot 12 people and wounded 58. Where did that ammunition come from?
The answer appeared to be an online company in St. Louis, a detail widely reported one year ago. But recently released search warrants and additional reporting by the Post-Dispatch have shed new light on the path traveled by those thousands of rounds.
See ASSISTANTS • Page A3
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The trail leads not to St. Louis but to Knoxville, Tenn., and on to Atlanta, to a secretive 4-year-old company considered to be among the nation’s top online ammunition dealers. Its founders — a pair of former real estate developers — sell bullets using far-flung P.O. boxes, different corporate identities and online marketing tactics that have offended even some firearm enthusiasts. By last summer, these entrepreneurs stood perfectly positioned to close on a quick, legal sale to a deranged killer. See AMMO • Page A6
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