Interesting Couple Of Minutes This Morning.

I simply find your opening and subsequent posts to be contradictory. There's an adult male, knife in hand who is following you and is also closing the distance between the two of you fast enough that you need to find cover, at 30 feet, in case you need to defend yourself with deadly force.

We know that from when you first see him 'til you last saw him was about two minutes.

We know you instructed your wife not to get out of her car or leave the house if she sees this individual, also, we know that you chose not to make a police report of this incident....in part, because it was not serious enough.

We do not know if this individual has been interviewed or arrested before (criminal file) or after this incident.

We know that you asked for advice on an international website critiquing your actions during this two minute incident.

 

I can't answer whether or not the guy saw the gun, his behavior didn't change, he didn't run away. He started mumbling something about donuts and kept right on walking.

That said, I didn't put my hand on my gun to "intimidate" him or to "assure he kept his distance". Did you not read the part where he was a flipping moonbat with a deadly weapon in his hand? I was getting ready to defend myself. Had he turned toward me or brought that knife up I would have drawn. The reaction I did get is what made me question that he even knew what I was.

I don't know if you guys get this but when I say this dude was crazy I mean he was crazy. Like can't tell reality from fantasy crazy. Like wash your face with window cleaner crazy. Like he might have been 100% convinced I was the jolly green giant or just another hallucination crazy.

That's also why I told my wife to stay away from him, he's crazy and you don't know what crazy people are going to do next and that makes crazy people dangerous.

 

Again, I get that you all think I should have called the cops but the fact is I didn't and nothing that we say here is going to change that. I most assuredly am not going to call them now. If someone else called them and they happen to figure out that it was me (and they decide to go past all the crack heads, tweakers,muggers and rapists in this neighborhood and look for me) I will tell them the truth and go from there

Hopefully there never WILL be a next time but if there is I will give your suggestions due consideration.

 

But I didn't and no matter how many times you type that you aren't going to change that

 

"So now homeless people are a "threat"? Good grief."

"Crazy" homeless people with knives.

 

"But to an observer, and perhaps to the subject himself, you were threatening him with a gun. You reasonably appeared to be committing an assault. Because of the subject's demeanor and actions, you should be able to legally justify your acts, but that's taking the analysis to yet another level. "

The way I see it, that's all after-the-fact stuff. You can argue all you want . . . if you live to argue. At the time, I probably would have had my pistol drawn (but discretely behind my leg or something) because the knife comes at you too fast to react. When the threat passed, the gun would've been holstered. I think the OP showed restraint under the circumstances. Any rational observer should see the situation exactly for what it was. A reasonable person *preparing* to defend himself against a crazy, armed person.

 

I think you handled it pretty well. I used to walk 5 or 6 blocks to work in a bad neighborhood at 6 am. In the winter it doesn't get light until 7:30. I can't count how many times I was approached by nut jobs, druggies and prostitutes. I always stopped and talked to them. I usually just told them I didn't want anything they had and cautiously moved away. I saw some pretty crazy stuff, fights, drug deals, people walking out in traffic, you name it. When I got to work I had to secure my weapon in a locker for the day. Everyone I worked with knew I carried and most thought it was strange. None of them walked thru that neighborhood, they just paid the $70 a month to park in the garage because it was to dangerous to walk to work. Never called the cops, I had to get to work.

 

This incident happened in daylight

 

It can happen any time, but the druggies usually hit the streets early in the morning. The mentally ill are a problem all of the time. I used to see them roaming the streets at all hours.

 

> The sad part is that your experience is being duplicated all
> across the country since we ignore our "homeless crazies"
> until they actually hurt someone.

Until they hurt someone, they're free citizens going about their lawful affairs, exactly like you.

You really, really don't want that "official sanity card" Wayne LaPierre was bleating about after Sandy Hook. While he was probably supporting it purely for propaganda value, lot of people who should know better seem to think there's some completely incorruptible, always-correct "them" would would be in charge of such a thing. That would likely be the same "them" who run the CDC and ACA now.

Brrr....

 

Exactly Kleanbore, if I'm walking down the road with a knife in my hand cleaning my fingernails or whatnot I'm not doing anything against the law.

 

If a police officer experienced the same exact scenario described by the OP it is my firm belief that an officer would shoot and kill the homeless man. If I wanted him dead I'd call the police, if I wanted to let him live I wouldn't. All the people saying "You should have called the cops!" Would have gotten that poor soul killed if they had been in your shoes. Thank you for showing mercy OP.

 

Kleanbore, in my city a policeman who was driving along the street doing whatever policeman do saw a mentally ill homeless man who was a facsimile for the mentally ill homeless man described by the OP (knife in hand but no specific threatening action). Upon seeing the mentally ill homeless man the policeman stopped what he was doing, slammed on his brakes, jumped out of the patrol vehicle, and shot the mentally ill homeless man with the knife in his hand who was taking no specific threatening action dead. It was sad. There was another case in New Mexico where a pair of officers strapped up and went into the desert specifically to kill a mentally ill homeless man and they were brought up on charges I believe after an audio recording of the officers pre-meditating the killing was discovered. I can think of other cases where parents called cops on "suicidal" teenage children and they wound up with a dead teenage child right quick.

If you think calling the police as a response to someone who is mentally ill isn't going to strongly increase the mentally persons chance of being shot and killed by said police I think you're being a little naive. Furthermore the OP could have shot and probably not even faced charges. A mentally ill homeless man advancing with knife would likely not even draw an indictment unless you had some really unfortunate excited utterances during the after action report.

 

Maybe people are assuming this fellow is crazy because I (remember me the guy who was actually there)said he was crazy. I see the guy in the neighborhood and he is nuts. Did you not read the part where he was washing his face in window cleaner ?

You may be a THR tactical guru and resident expert of all things gun but please don't try to second guess the guy who was actually there and actually interacted with the crazy person.

 

Let's see Crazy guy with a deadly weapon who any rational person would probably agree appeared to be following me specifically just one week To.The.Day after another crazy guy walking around with a deadly weapon murdered 3 people about 5 miles away.

Don't think I would have had to try too hard to articulate a reasonable fear that my life was in danger.