Gunman fired at point-blank range

A stand-up has survived a shooting at point-blank range after a comedy show.

Dave Shumka escaped with a grazed scalp after a mentally ill gunman held a handgun to his head and fired.

He ducked in time to miss the full impact of the bullet, but has still been left with a ringing in his ears a week after the attack.

Shumka, who co-hosts the Stop Podcasting Yourself podcast, wrote in his blog: ‘At around 11:15pm on July 4, I was leaving a comedy show with about 50 other people.

‘A man ran into the crowd with something concealed under his shirt. He then walked up to me and my friend and said, “Hey, how’s it going?" He pulled out a handgun, lifted it up to my head, and fired point blank. I didn’t realize what was happening at the time, but I ducked. I ran away and heard him fire two more times.

‘When I returned to the scene, I found everybody standing around in shock, and the shooter lying on the ground. He had shot himself, and he later died. Everyone else is physically okay. I was grazed on the top of my head by the first bullet (that’s the picture above), and I still have a ringing in my ears.

‘All things considered, I’m really lucky. Not only am I alive and didn’t witness him shooting himself, as so many did, I have extremely supportive family and friends, I have an understanding employer, and I have resources to talk to. The shooter was mentally ill and wasn’t so lucky. The lesson I’m taking away from this is that we need to make mental health a priority’

The incident happened on July 4, after Shumka had been in the audience of the Ring-a-Ding-Dong-Dandy wrestling show in Vancouver. The show was hosted by his Stop Podcasting Yourself co-host Graham Clark and featured guest Colt Cabana.

On the podcast Shumka added: ‘He looked like a weirdo. He was hiding something in his shirt... I had a bad feeling about him as I assumed he has just stolen something

‘I didn’t realise it was a gun right away. My initial reaction was to flinch because it was a guy trying to touch my head... He fired it at the same time, in like a second.

‘He fires it my head. I duck and I run away. I felt something on my forehead. I ran halfway down Main Street. I heard two more shots. I felt my head to see if there was any blood. There wasn’t. And I heard two more shots. I walked back to the scene and the man was on the ground.’

He said he only realised he was injured at all when he started speaking to the cops when the arrived, and said: ‘Another inch and I’d be...’ and tailed off.

But he also joked: ‘The last tweet I sent was about testicles. I thought that could have been my last tweet ever.’

Clark added: ‘People I’ve talked to said, “It was outside a comedy show, you must have thought it was one of the bits”. People have such a bad idea of what comedy is.’

Both Clark and Cabana will be performing at the Edinburgh Fringe next month.

Published: 12 Jul 2013