Hearing
difficulties

Few people really know what the deaf are saying when they sign to one another, and it’s just as likely to be friendly banter as it is a discussion about killing you for your iPod. So when Anchorage’s Raymond Keith McWain noticed a man gesticulating in the truck travelling alongside his car, the offence he took had possible merit. But it took pettiness on both sides to escalate things into a five-man brawl and bit of gunplay.

Police say that what McWain interpreted as “disrespect” was just a deaf-mute signing to his two buddies. McWain responded with genuinely rude gestures, then cut their truck off before pulling into the parking lot of a pizza joint where his cousin, Daniel Harris, works. The three men followed. A shoving match erupted, which was stepped up a notch when Harris came rushing out and began beating the deaf-mute while the mute’s friends took on McWain. Several shots were reportedly fired, but no one was hit.

Police arrived to find McWain lying on the ground bleeding profusely from the head, while Harris sobbed under a counter of the restaurant.

by Scott Saxon