A drive-by shooting is an assault in which the offender fires a weapon at a victim from inside a moving or stationary motor vehicle and then flees the scene. The vehicle lets the shooter approach a target and escape quickly, before police or witnesses can respond, and provides a degree of anonymity not available to an attacker on foot. This combination of an easy approach, a quick escape and a reduced risk of capture is treated as a significant reason the method is used, particularly in gang related violence. Drive-by shootings are typically prosecuted under an area's existing offenses for assault, attempted murder or murder rather than as a separate named crime, but the method is distinct enough to be catalogued on its own.
Facts
Notable ExampleThe 1996 Las Vegas drive-by shooting death of rapper Tupac Shakur 1 Jurisdiction VariationIn Italy, despite low civilian firearm ownership, drive-by shootings are common in professional criminal contexts, with almost all firearm assaults carried out from cars, motorcycles or scooters 1 Classification
Offense GradeSerious or Indictable Offense 1 Connections
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Sources
1. Drive-by Shooting (Wikipedia)
History section
Rapper Tupac Shakur died yesterday from wounds suffered in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting, becoming a casualty of the kind of bullet-sprayed urban violence captured in his lyrics.
Italy section
Drive-by shootings, on the other hand, are common, especially in professional criminal contexts, as the statistical incidence says that almost all assaults with firearms are carried out from cars, motorcycles, or scooters.
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