I don’t know how many of you have been keeping up with the Erik Scott story in Las Vegas, but I’ve been watching the Coroner’s Inquest, incessantly listening to recount after recount of the witnesses to the death of what by all accounts would be an all-American kid.  Erik Scott, a graduate of West Point, a recipient of an MBA from Duke and a very successful business man.

While the eyewitness accounts vary, many were very credible witnesses on both sides of the story.  The stories range from a wild-eyed, drug-crazed man who was packing not one but two firearms, to Scott was shot with nothing in his raised hands and was a pleasant person while in the store, to Scott was attempting to hand his weapon to Metro PD.

Curiously, the store’s security system was unable to produce a video of the event and his weapon is pictured on the ground, still holstered, some 8 or 10 feet from his bullet-riddled, lifeless body.

According to even his acquaintance, with him at Costco, Scott was indeed armed with (pictures later show his .45 semi-automatic on the ground just outside the entrance of Costco) and held a Las Vegas permit to carry a concealed weapon. 

A Costco security person testified that he approached Scott after another employee raised a red flag about his behavior.  The security guard testified that Scott had brandished his weapon and that he’d received complaints from other people that Scott was stumbling and excitable, tearing open packages and throwing the contents onto the floor.

Along with 2 gunshot wounds in his chest and 5 in his back (according to multiple witnesses the five gun shots in the back came after he already dropped to the ground from the original chest shots), the medical examiner testified that Scott’s body also contained massive quantities of hydromorphone (dilaudid), methamphetamine (Adderall) and alprazolam (Xanax), amounts that would be lethal to most, but he’d apparently developed a tolerance for the drugs (all prescribed).

Scott was a sales representative for Boston Scientific, a very large medical device manufacturer, creating such devices as implantable cardiac defibrillators, pacemakers, drug-eluding stents to prevent cardiac stenosis and many other devices.  As such, he would have undergone rigorous examination by the federal government - Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.  Device implants of this nature are very frequently accompanied by the manufacturer's sales rep, having been well trained in the application of the devices.

I’d dealt with Erik during my recent health care career here in Las Vegas and although I was not a big fan of high-visibility sales reps in general, I am flabbergasted, not only to learn that he carried a weapon, but very surprised that his behavior would supposedly cause him to brandish one at police officers and others.  I suppose one never truly knows an occasional visitor, but I’m finding an extremely difficult time envisioning him a wild-eyed nut case.

I am not certain one way or the other about the details of Scott’s demise.  In fact the coroner’s inquest seems to be muddling that even more each day with the variety of conflicting testimonies.  Mix that with Las Vegas’ Metro PD’s own sordid past related to their trigger fingers and I grow a bit suspicious of the law enforcement’s and the security officer’s accounts of this incredible tragedy. (Be sure to watch the video posted in the upper right portion of the article).

"I was alerted about this thread and wanted to ask everyone to please consider that a brave young man has died. He leaves behind many friends and family that all miss him greatly. I knew Erik and he was a true American Patriot that always had a kind word and honor in all his actions. May God bless him and his family."

Caesar Fonte -  Erik's local supervisor

What am I absolutely certain of?   Had Scott NOT been carrying a weapon at all, he’d be alive today.  What valid reason is there for a medical device sales person to carry a concealed weapon?  What valid reason is there for ANYONE outside law enforcement to stick a gun in their pants then go shopping at Costco???   If in fact he was permitted, then WHY?  Why would a person, who according to his own doctors had been taking the drugs for years, even be given such a responsibility?

Just too many conflicts here to sort out.

I own multiple weapons myself, but they are kept locked in a safe, only to be used as non-lethal (animals included) sport.  The only time I have ever carried one around was during the many hikes with my daughter in the forests of Colorado and then only for very valid protection against bears and mountain lions. 

I feel for his family and friends, I truly do.  What a horrible way for anyone to leave life, but guns are damned dangerous in and of themselves; add to the mixture of that inherent danger, a weapon stuck in your pants in a public place and the stakes are beyond high, they’re deadly.

“The drums keep poundin a rhythm in my head.”  And debate goes on, and debate goes on.