another close call, distance is your best friend

[gunsmith]

it's my lucky week I guess.
I was talking to a friend who was parked on the street when a crazy homeless type yelled at me to move, I was tempted to tell him to shut up but I backed off and said "ok" the guy was trying to stare me down and trying to goad me into a confrontation and I repeated "I moved, ok" and he said "wise choice" but went on his merry way yelling and threatening .
After he was a block away my friend told me he had been concealing a small folder, open, in his hand!
I was looking him in the eyes and not at his hands, I didn't see the knife!
He could have gutted me before I had time to access my ccw.

I backed off to calm him down but not enough for safety.

I did my civic duty and followed him from a block away while getting on my phone to call LE.

They took him in for ADW!

(and also told me I should have shot him!, but I think they were trying to judge if I was trigger happy or didn't know the 21ft rule)

He'll probably plead down to brandishing though.

I'm gonna start putting distance first in encounters.

weird week!

 

[TheFederalistWeasel]

Here in Nashville the homeless problem is nothing short of off the chain, we have so many aggressive panhandlers its not funny. They do the whole screaming and yelling trip when folks don't cough up some cash.

Last month we had 7 agg assaults in the down town area in a two week period and all 7 were committed by homeless types and the most common weapon type was a screwdriver.

 

[gunsmith]

TFW!

TheFederalistWeasel
Senior Member


Join Date: 08-01-03
Location: Tennessee
Posts: 777

woah! 777! do you have the lottery in TN? you should go plunk a dollar down!

 

[TheFederalistWeasel]

 

[sacp81170a]

I was looking him in the eyes and not at his hands, I didn't see the knife!

Classic case of tunnel vision. It's surprising what you can miss if you don't train yourself to stop, back off mentally and assess your surroundings. It happens to the best of us, that's why you have to train your "visual sequence" until it becomes habit. When I look at someone, I first look at the overall picture, clothing, stance, etc. Then I notice the hands and what they're doing, then I go to the face and the eyes. All this takes place in a half second or less.

1. Look at the big picture: clothing that can hide things, uniform or not(important for me for telling the diff between friendlies and possible suspects), moving or not, aggressive stance or not, etc.

2. Look at the hands: what are the hands doing, are they holding something, are they balled up into fists? Hands are where the things that can hurt you are held.

3. Face and eyes: calm looking or not, where are they looking (glancing at you and then around to see if there are any witnesses can indicate criminal intent), glassy eyed or thousand yard stare, etc.

It sounds kind of complicated, but it's a very quick sequence. Humans are very good at pattern recognition and it's those first few seconds that give you that "gut" feeling that tells you something's not right. If you practice it the same way all the time when you're going about your daily business you'll do it automatically under stress.

Otherwise, good job in a dicey situation. Distance is your friend should be a mantra in self defense training.

 

[CraigJS]

Why didn't your friend tell you about the knife earlier??
Be safe.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

Why didn't your friend tell you about the knife earlier??
Be safe.

I'm assuming as not to tip of the bum that he had knowledge of the bum being armed-which may have resulted in a stabbing. And btw when I think hobo with a knife I think a hobo with a sharp, Dexter Russel knife.

 

[gunsmith]

Update

the guy plead down to assault (from ADW)
And got time served and released, I saw him Saturday night.
He was drunk and waving a quart of beer around as he was jaywalking
I had to stop short so I wouldn't run him over.
He never recognized me

Catch and release program I guess.
I called the DA and asked them "does he have to kill someone before the system gets serious with him"?

The answer was "probably":banghead:

 

[Eyesac]

Wow. What a creep.

I told you, you run into more action than the cops here in Reno.

 

[RobTzu]

Its the knife's fault, not the homeless person's.

 

[pdowg881]

the homeless man is a victim of society and it is the knife that caused him to act in such a way.

 

[woodybrighton]

mad or bad difficult to tell till he sobers up as far as he's aware you might be satan best give a wide wide berth.
lot of nutters self medicate on booze to keep the voices away.
best avoid as there no telling what reality there on and that from somebody who used to work with them. been threated with a replica desert eagle (only homeless worker who would know it was a replica)
worse was the .32acp pocket pistol who the owner of thought was a toy gun