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Subscribe to RSSThe man who claimed to have been shot by a motorist while traveling and working on his memoir, "The Kindness of America," reportedly shot himself to get promotion. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Authorities say a man who claimed to have been the victim of a drive-by shooting in Montana confessed to shooting himself, The Associated Press reported.
Ray Dolin, 39, of West Virginia, told police he was walking along U.S. 2 near Glasgow when a pickup pulled over and the driver rolled down his window and shot him in the arm. Dolin, a freelance photographer, said he had been hitchhiking across the country working on a memoir titled "The Kindness of America" when the incident happened.
Valley County Sheriff Glen Meier told msnbc.com on Monday that Dolin flagged down another motorist and was taken to the hospital in Glasgow with non-life-threatening injuries.
Authorities arrested 52-year-old Christopher Danielson III, 52, of Washington state, and charged him with felony assault. They said he was under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time. The charges have since been dropped, the AP said.
No charges have been filed against Dolin. Valley County Undersheriff Vernon Buerkle said the case is still under investigation, the AP reported.
No one at the Valley County Sheriff's Office's was immediately available when reached for comment.
Raymond Dolin, who was hitchhiking across the United States while writing a memoir called "The Kindness of America," said he was shot by a motorist in northeastern Montana.
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His book should be re-titled "The Whackiness of America."
coo koo for coco puffs!! what a moron! I'm suprised he didn't miss!!
What a pussy.
It doesnt matter what he calls it now. nobodies gonna buy it. (i hope)
Out of money, hungry, looking for some sympathy cash. What an idiot!
Yeah I was interested in the story now he can just forget it.
NOTE to AUTHORS: If you want to make up a story, go ahead and label it FICTION, it's okay! You don't have to SHOOT yourselves!
When this story broke, all the anti-gunners were out in force, saying this is why guns should be outlawed. Turns out there was no crazy stranger with a gun, just a crazy liberal with another false flag exercise. Where are they now, what argument can they make?
The fearful little gun nuts have to make this some kind of an NRA propaganda event.
Old Sarge-3447849-The fearful little gun nuts have to make this some kind of an NRA propaganda event.
You have it all backwards, it's you anti-gun people who are the fearful ones, hence the reason for wanting to outlaw guns. Also, it's you anti-gun people who made this a anti-gun propaganda event when this was first reported. That's why I bought this up and asked where you guys were and what you had to say about it, clearly nothing worth reading.
I think if I were 52-year-old Christopher Danielson III, 52, of Washington state, I'd be suing the daylights out of this guy.
Darthfrodo 1.9
For getting him busted for drunk driving while on drugs?
It was the police that arrested him, not the idiot author.
@fire them all
"You have it all backwards, it's you anti-gun people who are the fearful ones, hence the reason for wanting to outlaw guns."
The gun nuts are the fearful ones -hence the obssesive need to own guns! To protect themselves from imagined assailants (paranoid) and to have to carry them everywhere. In coffee shops; classrooms and church -what a joke.
and this guy...what a dope. How does this help the theme of the book?
It's now official. He's a whack job.
Strangely enough, I view this person's actions as a somewhat bizarre breach of trust. I think we would all tend to grant a measure of trust to someone who claims that they're doing something odd and innocuous for the purpose of affirming that America, at its foundation, is populated with good, well-meaning people. I think we would all wish him well in his effort.
Then! To have this person turn out to be a charlatan who would pull a tacky stunt like this...is very disheartening.
He turns out to be a fraud, a liar, a manipulator, a con-man, and apparently a psycho, too. And I suspect that he will still find a way to make money from his actions. What a shame, all around.
rae-1629223-The gun nuts are the fearful ones -hence the obssesive need to own guns! To protect themselves from imagined assailants (paranoid) and to have to carry them everywhere. In coffee shops; classrooms and church -what a joke.
First of all, the term "Gun Nuts" is derogatory and shouldn't be used.
Second, we have no more paranoid people than any other group, including yours.
Regarding the "imagined assailants", please watch the news, the assailants are not imagined.
Furthermore we are the only country in the world that hasn't had foreign troops on it's shores since our independence. "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass." Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. Today that's an 85 million person militia (Militia is not an army, it's common citizens banding together in a crisis, like when the towns people gather together to fill sandbags in a flood)
Referring to your remarks about all the common places "coffee shops; classrooms and church", are we to not go to all the places we are constitutionally permitted because we are exercising our rights, what do we do with our gun if we want to go in, leave it in the car unattended for a criminal to steal?
Why should we even have to defend our constitutional rights? You do realize, that the Constitution does not give us rights; it only enumerates these natural rights we are all born with. Therefore they can't be legally taken away.
Furthermore the Second Amendment "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." doesn't have any words like "except, limited to, restrictions these are all infringements! By the way in modern English "A well regulated Militia" means "A well armed group of citizens.
"finally "what a joke." Our Constitutional Rights are no joke, if we loose the Second Amendment, all the rest will follow. History shows that this is true back to the beginning of recorded history. Every time a government disarms it's people, evil tyranny reveals itself. Emperor Ming (The vase guy) outlawed swords, then his soldiers began raping and pillaging, so the people learned to use farm implements (That's what all those weird looking martial arts weapons are). Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini Etc. all outlawed guns when they came to power, now you want that here?!
P.S. notice that I did not insult you at all in this comment, I hope you follow my example, it makes this whole process better.
I am a gun owner. I agree, in general, with your comments and I applaud your civility. However, I would like to point out that making false claims gives the anti-gun folks some cachet when they label us as ignorant rednecks. The British landed in Chesapeake Bay and New Orleans during the War of 1812, and the Japanese occupied Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands during World War II.
What an ass...............
if i was an ass, i'd be insulted by that
Well, I'm an ass and it only makes me feel appreciated.
I'm an ass and I feel neutral on the matter.
I'm an ass and I feel like theres a hole in my heart.
I'm an ass and I'm divided!
This ups my crack...err, cracks me up.
I'm an ass and i'm so tired, i'm completely wiped!
Delete double post.
His book will now be titled 'The kindness of America, how I tried to exploit it.'
'The Kindness of America''The Kindness of America,
Some people will do anything for a book deal.
Your absolutely right ! This guy is an attention whore.
Who will read his fake book full of lies? It should be called The Big Ugly Fat Liar of America!
@beecee-32 you left out loser and scumbag
Fame whore with paranoid schiz and/or manic depression. He needs hospitalization. I'm not a doc, but I play one on the interwebs.
Ironic that his photography business is named OneShot Impressions. Yeah, you've left an impression, that's for sure.
He didn't get it right the first time.
I guess it just goes to show you that you really can't trust anyone when you are hitchhiking across the country. Not even yourself. :p
Hahaha.....Guess he won't make the mistake of trusting himself ever again!
HAHAHA Sprintcarpilot :D Good one!
Thanks for the laugh! That was great!
bwaahaaa. . .GOOD ONE!
This proves that gun owners will more likely shoot themselves. It also gives people under the influence of drugs and alcohol a bad rap.
It's always a good day when a drunken driver is pulled off the road. That alone was worth this idiotic story.
He can write a new book now, "How I Tried to Shoot Myself and Almost Missed"! A real GUBU!
Well NOW he's certainly a target
...of scorn!
Might I suggest he take another shot, but this time try it in his temple?
Don't jump to conclusions people, he could be one of those Chris Durdin/ Fight Club split personalities, and he honestly didn't relize he shot himself...
Wait a bit, if the equifax/transunion/experian building explodes in the next few days, then obviously he is innocent.
If only he had ANOTHER gun to protect himself from himself..........
Yes. Does Montana have the stand your ground law?
It was self-defense from self-assault. Either way one of them missed.
How did they happen to find a driver in the area that was DUI, unless there are lots of them to choose from on Montana roads? Also makes me leery of Montana law enforcement methods.
"Shooting on Highway 48. Round up some suspects."
"Hey, Sarge. This one's drunk."
"Arrest him for felony assault."
My thoughts exactly. So they drop the felony assault charges, but why drop the under the influence of alcohol and drugs charges? Something ain't right here.
52 Year old Christopher Danielson, who is 52, was charged with a felony that was later dropped. How old was Mr. Danielson again?
The DUI charges were not dropped....he was transported to Roosevelt County where he was originally arrested and is facing the DUI charges there.
Ya'll are crackin' me up!!!
damm i was hopping some one else would notice that they got thier man / whom wasnt thier man at all ..
Chances are that the hiker/writer/photographer/dumb azz encountered Christopher Danielson along the road somewhere and realized that he was drunk and possibly on drugs and he could use him to make an attention-grabbing story. He would have gotten his license plate number and have a description of the car, so all he had to do was shoot himself and call it in with a location, plate number Police had better bring charges against and description of the car and a BLO would have him picked up very quickly.
As much as I despise DUI drivers, this guy didn't deserve to be falsely arrested for shooting this idiot and have his name plastered across the Internet and in papers. Police had better bring charges against Dolin and still expect to be sued for false arrest. They are probably afraid to keep the charges of DUI and drugs against him because if he didn't do something to make them think he was DUI, then since he was not guilty of the shooting, they had no valid reason to stop him.
Dolin and his ilk gives West Virginians a bad name.
Sadly this is another case of someone in the media trying to make news not just report on the news. He could have had a good story about Americans that were willing to help someone alone the roadways of the nation; but that wasn't good enough for him. He shoots himself, lies to the people that stopped and took him for treatment, lied to the police, lies to the news media, and caused all kinds of trouble for someone that just happened to get picked up for his lie. I hope his actions cost him dearly in the end. I also hope he learns a lesson from his actions; but I do not think this will happen.
Well, let's just see the high point of this disaster: A drunk was pulled from driving.
it's called making a false police report . it's a felonie bearing witness against some one whom is innocent . even if no one is guilty at all other than the one whom has admited making a false police report even though they got thier man . probibly maybe hopefully he recanted his false report baased on knowing some one already got picked for the charge and would've been convickted as well......... based on nothing at all other than his lie's
Book author = media??? Grasping at straws much?
really, is this all he can think of to keep himself busy? either he has way too much free time on his hands or he's certifiable...what a loser!
Somethings rotten here. If he had a gun at the time, why wasn't it taken and examined? Did he ditch the gun? How did he give the cops a description of a guy in the area who just happened to be drunk and have a weapon if the story was fabricated? Why would a person just randomly take a mystery gun and shoot themselves in the arm? Confession or not, it's all just not adding up.
Well, I'm thinking there is more to this story than the police are releasing, or the journalist dropped his notes in a muddy puddle. I've noticed that stories like this one are under-explained on purpose because that's more interesting and ensures that readers will click on an update. Any time there's been a story in the local news about an acquaintance or family member of mine, or an event, protest, or parade that I attended, there are always tons of mistakes, misspellings, and gaps. My words have also been twisted into something juicier whenever I've spoken to reporters, or they always pick the dumbest part to quote, depending on which spin they're going for.
My friend from there tells me that drunk driving is extremely common there. He would know;)
I doubt the entire story. It was on the 6:30 news recently. They said a guy was traveling about looking for the kindness of America and was suddenly shot. I remember thinking, "Oh, how ironic; America is not so kind." Then, out of the blue, the news changed the story to how the guy shot himself. My thoughts were how the news suddenly changed the story because they did not like it. The boss of the newsroom commanded it be changed. So, I somehow doubt the second version of the story. I find it too unbelievable. Why would some guy shoot himself just to make some statement? It makes no sense. There is some sort of coverup going on.
I hate when stories create more questions than they actually answer.
And lord knows, they'll never follow-up on this story, cause of the obvious embarrasment it will cause the PD that picked up this high/drunk driver.
If i was a drinker, under the influence of drugs i would take offense to having this crime pinned on one of my own.
That is, if i could think straight long enough to take offense to it.
What an idiot. He should get some jail time for being a nuisance.
And for being dumb.
Yeah but I'm glad the Police got that drunk driver off the road!! Too bad the drunken fool didn't run over this so-called writer!
so wait......the cops arrested a guy based off that information? Wow imagine getting pulled over because somebody said a person driving a truck shot a hitchhiker.
lol the credibility of this report makes want to jump into traffic!
Gee, too bad he wasn't a better shot. This world would be free of one of the many arses in the world.
A loser through and through! Hope they lock his ass up in jail.
The first clue that he was lying was that he said that the drive-by happened in Montana. Now, I'm sure that drive-bys do happen there, but it would have been much more likely if he said it happened in, say, California. Dumbass. And the title of his book is as funny as hell.
Maybe he will find some kindness in the county jail....... giggidy!!!
If he shot himself.......why in the arm? That itself doesn't sound right., unless he was cleaning his gun????
We'll never know.....
He shot himself in the arm because it doesn't hurt much and if he was smart enough not to hit an artery, then he wouldn't die.
My sister-in-law accidentally shot herself through the arm while hunting and didn't even know it until my brother asked her why her arm was bleeding. It didn't start hurting until she was in the ER and they cleaned the wound.