Anyone who’s attended an institution of higher learning has probably played beer pong at one point during their career. It’s something to do between classes and, of course, it’s an excuse to drink beer…as if the average 18-year-old really needs one. But for a suburban Chicago man, 27-year-old Manus Shannon, the game never really lost its appeal. Playing drinking games with a popped collar, he seems to be the type who longs for the good 0ld days and the ivy-covered walls of academe. And he seems to take his beer pong seriously, too . . .
As everyone who’s played the game knows, part of the fun is distracting your opponent when he’s shooting. And as the official rules of beer pong make perfectly clear, you can do a lot to throw off the other side, subject to a few limitations:
It’s probably been a while since Shannon Unfortunately for Shannon, distraction rule VI must have escaped his notice, because brandishing a handgun probably violates Cook County law.
Shannon, 27, was playing beer pong at a Fourth of July party in Roseland about 9:20 p.m. Saturday when he pulled out a 9mm semiautomatic gun, according to police and prosecutors.
Shannon began waving the gun in his opponent’s face to distract the 24-year-old South Chicago man during his turn, Assistant State’s Attorney Erin Antonietti said during a bond hearing Monday.
The opponent pushed Shannon away, and as he did, the gun went off — striking the opponent in his finger and a 20-year-old Roseland man in his shoulder, prosecutors said.
Shannon’s chilling in the Cook County jail right now, waiting for friends and family to post a $100,000 bond on his reckless discharge of a firearm charge. We assume that the firing of the pistol ended the game prematurely, what with two people being shot and all. And since we don’t know the score of the game at the time, there’s no way of knowing if the one cup penalty for a violation of local law would have lost the game for him.
But we’re the compassionate types. And since we don’t want Mr. Shannon to come away from the match empty-handed, we’ll be sending him an IGOTD trophy to commemorate the fireworks he touched off on July 4th.