I meant to post about this at the time, but I forgot, and I just remembered to look this up and see what happened.
BJ Baldwin is a 40-year-old truck racer, who is also obsessed with guns. He has some degree of notoriety in these communities, but isn't what I'd consider famous.
To us, he's more notable for being the son of casino executive and 1979 WSOP Main Event champ Bobby Baldwin. In recent years, Bobby has been in the news because he abruptly left his highly-paid, high-profile position at MGM Resorts in 2018, and then took a job with "The Drew" -- a casino which won't even open until 2022 at the earliest. Presumably he took a pay cut, and also a year passed in between leaving MGM and signing on with The Drew. Many rumors went around that Bobby had done something wrong during his tenure at MGM, and they quietly parted ways. This was never fully fleshed out nor understood.
Anyway, back to BJ.
To BJ's credit, he didn't attempt to follow in his father's footsteps or use him to boost his career. BJ carved out a completely different path for himself, staying away from gambling, and instead getting big into trucks and guns. He runs a company called Baldwin Motorsports, based out of Vegas.
On April 22, BJ and his girlfriend were eating at In-N-Out in the parking lot. He showed up just before closing at 1:30am, got burgers for both, and they were standing in the parking lot eating. At around 1:45am, BJ was still in the parking lot, and apparently nobody else was.
Two black males approached him and his girlfriend. BJ saw the gun, drew his own, and then got into a shootout with the man. BJ admitted it was "unclear who shot first". Being the trained marksman he was, BJ riddled the dude with bullets and killed him, while he and his girlfriend remained unharmed. The other black male ran off.
BJ did not call police. He drove away to his dad's house, asked what to do, and his dad immediately called him a lawyer, and they went to the police together.
Here's an article about it from April 26: https://racer.com/2020/04/26/baldwin...-in-las-vegas/
There was some initial skepticism about BJ's story.
Why didn't he call the police right away? Why did a business owner and experienced gun aficionado in his 40s have to run home to Daddy first?
And why did all of this happen in the first place? Was BJ really eating fast food in a parking lot, 15+ minutes after In-N-Out closed? Was it possible this was a drug deal gone bad?
The police did not arrest or charge BJ. Some cried racism. Others said this was corrupt Las Vegas at work, where those connected to the rich and influential often escape consequences for their actions.
Even I wondered about this. Was it possible that this really was a drug deal gone bad, but with the victim being an unsympathetic character, Bobby used his influence to make it go away?
Keep in mind that there definitely IS still plenty of corruption and back-scratching in Vegas. It's no longer mob-run, but a lot of things go on in that town which wouldn't fly in other cities. In some ways, Vegas has changed tremendously since the '80s. In other ways, it's still the same place.
Vindication came for Baldwin soon after, but not from the source you'd expect.
The two men who approached BJ's girlfriend in the parking lot were brothers Kevin Smith and Joseph Smith. Kevin Smith was not the same guy as the portly actor-director, and Joseph Smith wasn't the same guy as the founder of Mormonism.
Joseph Smith, 43, was the one BJ shot dead. Police picked up Kevin, and asked him what happened. They expected him to blame the entire thing on BJ, defending his now-deceased brother. Instead, he did the opposite.
Kevin admitted that the two of them showed up to the parking lot looking for trouble. He said that they had attempted to buy a gun from a store located in that same parking lot earlier in the day, but were denied. (The reason for this denial wasn't stated -- perhaps they failed the background check.) They had earlier thrown a rock at the window at the gun store to get revenge, but Joseph wanted to return to the scene late at night to cause further trouble.
Kevin claimed that he didn't realize Joseph was going to harm any innocent people, but had a feeling that he was going to do something bad. When they saw BJ and his girlfriend -- the only two remaining in the parking lot -- Joseph decided to go after them. He "smiled at the female after pointing his gun at her, then fired his gun at the male (BJ)", and the shootout ensued. Even though BJ didn't remember who fired first, Kevin remembered -- and he said it was Joseph.
Kevin then said that BJ jumped behind a trashcan to take cover, and returned fire, hitting Joseph and killing him. Kevin stated that he felt it was self defense, and didn't want to see BJ charged for killing his brother! Wow!
Police also found that Joseph's girlfriend showed up at the scene and removed his gun, but then later thought better of it and turned it in to police.
Given all of this information, BJ was not charged, and the DA ruled it self-defense. BJ had a concealed carry permit in Nevada, so he was legally allowed to be carrying a firearm when this broke out. It turned out that this was a legitimate "good guy with a gun story", and that BJ and his girlfriend would likely be dead if he weren't armed at the time.
Despite his cooperation, Kevin Smith is charged with conspiracy to commit robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. It is not clear if Kevin had a weapon on him at the time this went down, but he definitely didn't point it at anyone.
Here's the updated Review Journal article: https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...fense-2020768/
The NRA has seized upon this story, and Kevin is already featured in various promotions and commercials, where he tells this story.
The In-N-Out is located on Tropicana and Fort Apache in western Las Vegas, several miles away from the strip.
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