The Price of Paranoia

A champion cliche word in the contemporary lexicon is paranoia. Like most cliches, it gained its currency from actual conditions. A tragic example is an incident that took place in a Chicago supermarket parking lot. David Munoz, 10, earned soda-pop and movie money by carrying grocery bags to customers' cars. As he was crossing the parking area carrying loaded bags, he passed an armored truck. Inside was a guard, Ronald Brannan, who was waiting for his partner to pick up the supermarket receipts.

Whether or not Munoz accidentally bumped into the truck will probably never be known. Brannan poked his revolver through a porthole, the weapon discharged, and the bullet pierced Munoz's lung. The boy ran into the store, crying, "I've been shot from the truck," and collapsed. Brannan told his boss, President Robert Wilson of the Armored Express Corp., that he and his partner were being harassed by several teenagers, that he stuck the revolver through the porthole to warn them off, and that the gun fired accidentally. Munoz died two days later, a casualty of fear--or paranoia.

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