I Guess The Answer Is “No.” Florida Man Killed After Asking If Bulletproof Vest Still Worked

By Bob Owens

It’s always Florida Man, isn’t it?

Police say a Florida man asking if a bulletproof vest “still worked” was fatally shot by his cousin.

A Tampa police report says Joaquin Mendez, 23, put on the vest late Saturday and “wondered aloud whether it still worked.”

Police say his cousin, Alexandro Garibaldi, 24, pulled out a gun and responded, “Let’s see.”

Officers found Mendez outside the house with a gunshot wound in his chest. Mendez died at a hospital.

According to the report, Garibaldi initially told officers he found his wounded cousin after hearing a gunshot. However, police say a witness described Garibaldi shooting Mendez.

Police say the vest was found inside the house with a gunshot.

Garibaldi was held Sunday without bond on a manslaughter charge. Hillsborough County jail records didn’t show whether he had an attorney.

We don’t yet know whether:

• Garibali fired at his cousin and missed the vest
• Garibaldi fired a higher caliber firearm than the vest was designed to contain
• the “vest” was actually body armor, or if it was just load-bearing vest
• the vest was a armor carrier, if it actually had an armor panel inside it (they are removeable for washing)
• there was armor in the vest, and if so, was it …Read the Rest

  Source:: Bearing Arms