A bartender told police that Hillstrom and his friends had been arguing with two men. Shortly after 1 a.m., Gantt approached Hillstrom and said he wanted to fight. Gantt threw a punch, sending Hillstrom “to the ground in a daze,” the complaint read. The second man punched Hillstrom when he tried to stand.
Hillstrom hit his head on the concrete floor and was knocked unconscious. The two men ran from the bar.
via Murder charge: Punches from 2 men in New Hope bar killed Crystal man | Star Tribune.
This one of many cases out there where an “unarmed” individual produced grave bodily harm and eventually death. I can almost bet you that more than one Mike Brown protester out there went home at night, chilled in front of the TV while watching a Mixed Martial Arts fight and his/her brain never made the connection between both.
Then again, they probably have never been righteously punched to the point of stars, little birds circling and blackout.
The Barrio Aztecas(sp?) rang my bell a few times during an altercation on a rec yard once. The unarmed thing didn’t apply, they had arms with fists attached. That little event went a long ways to changing my attitude about having a gun again. I was also very lucky to go home that day, 5 to 1 odds are not conducive to a long life. .
But I sure did look funny for about a week.
For most people, their only experience with a fight or taking a punch is in the movies. They see the hero get the snot punched out of them and come back for more. They see the big bad guy get punched, or hit in the face with a pipe or crowbar, and shrug it off. They see the hero get knocked unconscious and wake of a few minutes later and start running with no long terms effect.
In the real world, any hit to the head that causes dizziness or a daze is a concussion. Any loss of consciousness, for even a few seconds, is serious head trauma. Either way, it is a trip to the hospital for a head CT or MRI, because the doctors need to look for bleeding in the brain and do overnight monitoring.
Boxers and MMA fighters train to know how to take a punch. Even then, if they take one badly, they will suffer a one punch KO. You see it every once in while, especially in MMA. A fighter gets blindsided by a hit they weren’t expecting and then… lights out.
For a person who has never trained in how to take a punch – and no, taking a karate class doesn’t teach that – a cold-cock to the face is a recipe for head trauma. It’s not just the hit that gets you. The brain bounces around inside the skull, sloshing and smacking up against things. It is the same mechanism of action that causes shaken baby syndrome, just more violent.
It doesn’t take a superman to cause a 1 punch KO or death. All it takes is getting hit hard enough while not expecting it to buy the farm.
I think Harry Houdini would second me on this.
As I read somewhere else, “unarmed doesn’t mean ‘not dangerous'”.
Look at the FBI stats on crime, hands and feet kill a lot of people.