Wrong Is Just Wrong

The thing is, there's no good way to say that the robbery went "right" so saying a holdup that turned fatal had "gone wrong" sets up a problem. It's a construction that needs to be avoided.

 

I can think of two outrageous crimes where one or more people have gotten killed after yelling out that he/she recognized the perp. It would not be surprising if this turned out to be the case here. 

 

But who knows.

From the Associated Press

June 19, 2011, 1:57 p.m.

MEDFORD, New York—

A gunman fatally shot four people inside a pharmacy in a New York suburb Sunday morning, killing everyone inside the store in what police said looked like a robbery gone wrong.

The massacre happened at about 10:20 a.m. inside a family-owned pharmacy in a small cluster of medical offices in Medford, a middle-class town on Long Island about 60 miles east of New York City.