Home Invasion

[Squeeze]

A fellow co-worker recently encountered a male subject in his attached garage the other morning as he got ready to head out for work. He lives in the C-470/Belleview area. From what I gather...a very nice neighborhood. The white male, 30's, tweaker junkie had gained access to a few other homes that morning prior to gaining illegal entry into his garage. He did the right thing, called 9-1-1 and held the puke sack at gun point. I spoke with him yesterday and he's doing fine aside from being a bit shook up. He's a great guy with a big heart and served as a corrections officer for many years prior. I told him, "Why didn't you shoot his sorry ass?" He said, "You know Scott, the problem I had with it was knowing that every day as I got ready to go off to work, I would have to be reminded every day that I killed a man in my house." Now, as commendable as that may be, I told him I would rather be talking to him over the phone to ask how he is doing, rather than visiting him in the hospital or even worse...attending his funeral. I asked him how far away the suspect was, he replied, "About 8 feet". My heart sank to my stomach. That's way to damn close. He also informed me the guy was giving him a ton of verbal flak, racial comments, etc. and on top of it all, the suspect even threw some ceramic tiles at him while he was at gun point. Jefferson County deputies told my friend, he would've been 100% legally justified in shooting the suspect. Fortunately deputies were close by and ended up having to taze the suspect and fight with him to get him into custody. He told me, "In all my years, that's the closest I've ever came to taking another man's life".

He was lucky. Now, I know how many of us on the forum feel about this and please try not to bash on him too hard for his decisions. I've given him a stern (but fair) warning about never doing that again. Next time, take that damn shot! Had the guy somehow gotten the upper hand, he would've had free reign of the house and his wife who was still asleep inside. So, taking something positive from this; not only is it important to adquately train with your firearm, but mentally bullet-proof your mind for the moment of truth. A lot of people say, "Damn right I'd take the shot!" But until you've been there...I think it's pretty easy to say what you "would" do.

[KestrelBike]

Sobering thoughts, indeed. Thank you for the writeup.

[Dr_Fwd]

Wow, frankly I have no idea what my reaction would be in situation like this...

[GilpinGuy]

Holy crap. With my wife and kids in the house, I "think" it would've been hard not to plug the piece of shit. But I've never been in that position and hope I never will. I have gone over scenarios repeatedly and feel that I'd not hesitate, but ya know....

My wife's ex is a lunatic with warrants out for his ass and he has threatened to kill both of us repeatedly so I have had to prepare myself for this shit.

[USAFGopherMike]

damn.. that's scary. Did he feel "threatened"? Did he attempt to retreat? I hope holder and the rest of the gun grabbing dems read about this.

[BuffCyclist]

Wow, definitely makes you think about and remember to always be on your guard, no matter where you are or how safe you feel. Having never been in that scenario and having never seen combat, I think it would be hard for me to pull the trigger in that situation knowing full well he could cover those 8ft faster than I could draw my gun.

[USAFGopherMike]

I think he had the gun on him at 8ft.

[BuffCyclist]

I think he had the gun on him at 8ft.

Yes, thats the point of why it was so scary. A person can cover 21ft of distance faster than a person can draw a pistol from a holster. So 8ft is basically very scary! Unless he had his gun IN his hands as he was walking out the door.

[USAFGopherMike]

One more reason to believe in integrated safeties.. no flicking of knobs. Grab, pull, aim, squeeze, call meatwagon (grab shovel).

[Mick-Boy]

Situations like the one outlined by the OP, though anecdotal, can serve as excellent food for thought when considering your training regimen.

How much time do you spend training with your pistol at contact distances? When you train, are you dressed the way you do day to day or are you all tac'ed out? How much time do you spend training skills that are more/less likely (CCW handgun vs. chestrig and carbine)? Drawing and shooting while seated in your car with the seatbelt on? Working strong hand only while miming pushing a loved one behind you?

Not all bad guys are tweakers or idiots. They'll look for vulnerabilities and exploit them ruthlessly.

Think through your day. When are you the most vulnerable; Texting while you're walking out to your car in the morning? Leaning into your car to set your stuff down in a parking lot? Tired and heading into the house after a day at work? etc. Do what you can to minimize your exposure in those situations of course, but try to train with those kind of situations in mind.