http://www.azcentral.com/php-bin/clicktrack/print.php?referer=http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1226shooting-ON.html 'Meat Puppets' bass player critical after shooting tonight
Michael Kiefer
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 26, 2003 10:11 PM
Cris Kirkwood, the bass player for the Meat Puppets, a Phoenix band that became a national act in the1980s and 1990s, was shot Friday after an altercation with a security guard at the downtown Phoenix post office.
Kirkwood, 43, was taken to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in critical condition and whisked into surgery for an abdominal wound. His injuries are not expected to be life threatening.
According to witnesses, Kirkwood quarreled over a parking space shortly before 5 p.m. in front of the U.S. Post Office at Central Avenue and Fillmore Street. Kirkwood was apparently backing into the parking space on Central when Jenny Hom, 32, of Phoenix attempted to pull into it from behind.
Hom honked her horn, then both drivers pulled into the parking lot. Hom said that Kirkwood, whom she did not identify by name, followed her and stopped her on the sidewalk outside the post office, yelling obscenities at her.
"He shrugged his shoulder as if he was going to hit me," she said. "He didn't hit me."
But Hom went into the post office and reported the man's behavior to a security guard. The guard escorted the man out.
Kevin Killigrew of the FBI said that the aggressor shoved the guard twice.
"[The guard] took out the baton and held it out in front of him and said, 'You need to leave,'" Killigrew said. "The guy took the baton from him and struck him at least one time in the forehead at which time the guard felt fear for his life. He said, 'I thought the guy was going to kill me.' He already displayed that he would hurt him, and the guard shot him one time in the abdomen."
Shortly after the incident, the guard was sitting dazed on the steps of the post office. Kirkwood's clothing sat in a pool of blood on the sidewalk.
"I never shot anyone before," the guard told Phoenix Police.
Charges are pending, federal authorities said.
Kirkwood and his brother Curt fronted the Meat Puppets, who had several hit records in the 1980s and -90s, and were cited as an influence for bands such as Nirvana.
The Meat Puppets released eight compact dicsCds and won a gold record in 1994 for "Too High to Die." The band toured with Nirvana, Soul Asylum and Stone Temple Pilots.
In August 1998, Cris Kirkwood's wife, Michelle Tardif, was found dead of a heroin overdose.
