Martin Riggs

History
Riggs joined the United States Army at age 19, eventually becoming a member of Special Forces, receiving specialized training in weaponry and hand-to-hand combat. These skills would later serve him well when he became a police officer. Most of Riggs' time in special forces was in Vietnam, where he served as an assassin under the CIA's "Phoenix Project" directive; while his ability as a trained killer would later plague his conscience, he thought of it as "...the only thing I was ever really good at."

In 1984, Riggs' wife of 11 years, Victoria Lynn, dies in a car accident, sending him into a deep depression. Driven to the brink with grief and anger, he regularly puts himself (and anyone else near him) in harm's way, secretly hoping someone will put him out of his misery by killing him, while unable to do that himself with suicide. The factor which initially gave Riggs the edge is that because of his wife's death, he was so suicidal that he didn't care whether he lived or died, and this gave him a definite advantage in showdown situations. By the end of the first movie, he has resolved these suicidal tendencies. In the second film, we learn that his wife's death was actually a murder attempt on Martin himself, gone wrong.

Riggs is transferred from the narcotics division to the homicide division after a shooting incident. He is partnered with fellow detective sergeant Roger Murtaugh in hopes that the older, more conservative veteran will keep him in line. The two of them have worked together to defeat drug-lords, military mercenaries, and the South African crime lord, Arjen Rudd.

Description
After his wife's death, it had sunk Riggs into a depression, where he wouldn't care abotu life or death (although, it seemed to put anyone around him in jeopardy, as well. Riggs has used martial arts, including Jujutsu, Judo, and boxing, (leading Murtaugh to jokingly suggest that Riggs himself be registered as a "lethal weapon") and a Beretta M9 pistol as his signature weapon, though he will often commandeer an AK-47 assault rifle from a vanquished foe if more firepower is needed.  Riggs has previously claimed to have killed a target in Laos from a distance of 1000 yards "with a rifle shot in high wind," something he claims 8 to 10 people in the world could have accomplished.  Riggs has a loose shoulder which can dislocate easily. How he developed the issue is unknown. He is able to dislocate and re-set it at will. He sometimes demonstrates this as a trick, but it also comes in handy. It helps him escape execution by the South Africans in Lethal Weapon 2 when he is able to escape a straitjacket while tied up underwater.

Fight against Max Rockantsky
Contested December 10th.