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.