RoostRider
Member
- Joined
- Mar 28, 2008
- Messages
- 670
After reading several stories about peoples experiences with self defense... You know, it seems to me that I shouldn't be afraid to tell my story of self defense (actually I have several, but this one was the most 'troubling' to me).... At first there were a lot of police, attorney's, reporters, and courts involved, my gun had been confiscated in a town not known for being gun friendly (St Paul MN) and keeping my mouth shut seemed like the best possible thing I could do.... I did just that for a long time, even after it was settled....
I made a lot of errors and this kept me from publishing it here for a while (I have no desire to be castrated for making mistakes under stress)... It's also pretty 'personal' in an odd way.... but I make reference to the incident here and there and always get the "tell me more" from someone... and why shouldn't I? Why should I be afraid to let someone else learn from my mistakes and the things I did right?
I did enough right to be here telling the story.... and in this stories case, that's better than the last guy who tried before me.... sad as that is to say...
This was written by me the day of sentencing.... quite a while ago now, but I don't feel like editing it, and some of the desperation/relief might be lost if I did anyways.... it's a bit raw, but here it is....
_____________________________________________________
I have lived in my duplex in St Paul for about 9 years or so. It's not in a great neighborhood but it's decent, much better than the neighborhood I moved out of in south Minneapolis. There have been a couple of incidents here over that time, mostly accidents on the road in front of my house, but one of my tennants had her car stolen from the driveway once, and another had her purse jacked out of her car.... here and there, there is a scuffle on the street.
I recently moved out from the upper unit into the lower unit, so I could have access to an office in the basement. I rented out the upper unit to a close friend who had been living next door. She is a single mother with an 11 yr old boy, and 5 year old girl. They are good friends with my son, and it's a nice arrangement.
Several months ago I was up playing a video game in my basement office at night. I was playing America's Army, because I like First Person Shooters and what the heck, it's free... lol... Anyways, I hear some crashing around upstairs from me and I think to myself 'it must be the tennant upstairs' and I keep playing... I hear another crash from upstairs and I checked the time.... it was about midnight or so and I thought to myself 'the tennant wouldn't be up right now', so I went up to see what was going on.
As I walked into my kitchen I could see an arm reaching through my kitchen window, a black persons arm. Now I have a lot of friends who stop by at odd hours or on spur of the moment without calling, but I don't know any black people well enough for them to be crawling in my kitchen window unannounced at midnight.... but it does occur to me that it wasn't more than a few months ago when my friend Tracy climbed in an open window in my house at night unannounced... but I do know several black people in the neighborhood... it also occurs to me that the former tennant in this lower unit often had black friends over... so, who knows what the story is, right?... so I decide not to take too drastic of action and I simply open the kitchen door and shout "WHAT THE **** ARE YOU DOING" at this guy trying to climb in my window...
He immediately, without so much as a word, takes a wild swing at me hitting me in the side of the head on the upper skull.... this put me into 'All Bets Are Off' mode.... I grabbed him by the collar of his shiney white T-shirt (the local gang regalia) and throw him to the ground. I sit down on his torso and start beating him in the head.... really clocking him good... he doesn't say a word the whole time even though I have him down and I am pummeling his head with my fists, he just keeps trying to get up.... So, I finally decide it's going to take a little more to dissuade this guy from robbing my house. I clock him a couple more good ones and then hastily make my way to my room, and the pistol locker on my nightstand. I enter the access code and take out my 9mm semi-auto handgun. I chamber a round as I exit the bedroom into the kitchen, release the safety and enter the porch (where I had taken him down).... it's empty... I look into the yard from the porch and I can see my gate door hanging open on my 6' privacy fence.... I enter the yard and clear left and right and then go out onto the walk in front of my fence... the door was busted open from the inside and the latch was hanging....
…. There he is, staggering down the sidewalk... I confronted him with a loud verbal command such as “stop right there you stupid f***head!” or something (I was really pissed)... at this point he turns and comes back at me.... I raised my handgun and dropped a round in the dirt just in front of him... he seems to finally realize that leaving quick is his best option and sprints off around the corner and down the alley.... I rounded to corner to see him going down the alley.... I walk back to my house calling the cops....
The cops encase my entire neighborhood in a matter of 10 minutes... I had never seen response like that... probably 15 squads... no one comes to talk to me.... about an hour later I call the cops back and ask why no one was coming to talk to me and she informs me that someone will be there very shortly... sure enough a cop walks up to get my story... I told my story, just about as I did here....
Turns out they have the guy in custody already, and he was on a rampage... he left my house (the way I escorted him out.. lol) only to go try to break into another house in the alley (after I left him)... well, that neighbor had heard me shoot and shouting at this guy and was watching out his window as the perp tried to break in.... this neighbor chased him off with his 12ga shotgun, and also called the cops and chased the perp down the alley... when the cops showed up for my call they were just getting inundated with calls about burglaries and shots fired from my neighborhood... including calls from this neighbor, who was chasing him down the alley with a shotgun.... the perp fled onto the main street, and this neighbor was coming back down the alley with his shotgun when the squads arrived... naturally, they arrested him until it was sorted out... When they go out to find the perp on the main street, a citizen on the street says a black guy just came out of the alley bleeding from the head (my punches ) shouting about how "some crazy white mother****er just shot him in the head" and ran off down the street.
About this time, they get another attempted burglary call from my neighborhood... a 74 year old lady down the street caught a guy meeting this description creeping around on her bedroom floor.... she flees the house and the cops arrived quickly (they were in the hood and all)... she thought he was still in there, so the cops sent in the dogs.... apparently he didn't cooperate with the dogs either, so it went poorly for him and he was arrested and brought to the ER for treatment of his many wounds (heres to hoping some of them were from me )...
The cops came and dealt with me after all the hub-ub.... they confiscate my gun as evidence, tell me I should have killed the guy and that I will get the gun back after the case is settled.
Well, the next day I have reporters in my yard and calling me at home... They want to know if I know who it was I got into it with last night... naturally I know nothing.... turns out this guy was a well known thug and he had just been released on a suspended sentence after serving only 167 days (or something like that) on a MURDER during a robbery, which he had plead down to manslaughter, even though he had killed the man who's house he had been robbing when he was caught in the act... so 167 days served on a 86 month conviction for a crime that was not as bad legally as it was morally (he should have been tried for murder during the commission of a felony!!!)... and he was back on the street on the understanding that he would not have any violations of probation in 7 years....
This caused some media uproar, and the dead mans family was in the paper talking about how the criminal justice system had let them down.
He sure messed that up... lol... When he was caught, he was drunk, disobeyed the officers (wouldn't come out of the house), had committed attempted burglary 3 times that night, and was in clear violation of his probation.... he was released in less than 24 hours pending probation violation hearings!!... When the news hit the wires and outrage ensued they went and picked him back up and held him for trial...
He plead guilty to 1 count of 1st degree attempted burglary (in a plea down from the 3 he was being charged with) and was set for sentencing TODAY....
I went to see how it would go and to give a 'victim impact statement' to the court.... As to his violation of probation, he was sentenced to 86 months incarceration by the state with his time served (the days waiting for trial both times count towards his sentence)... the prosecutors told me to expect his 1st degree attempted burglary sentence to run concurrent with his other sentence (meaning no extra time, just the conviction)... but, after hearing the impact statement, and seeing the full courtroom of former, or current victims, as well as the press.... he was issued 19.5 more months to run consecutive to the other sentence... meaning he gets another 19.5 months for having done those crimes as well... also, a bunch of compensation will be billed to him for his deeds, which he can work off while in prison...
When I walked out of the courtroom I was congratulated by the prosecuting attorney, victim advocate for the state, and the whole family of the murdered man each came up to shake my hand and tell me how glad they were that someone told the court what this type of thing does to our community. They each said they finally felt that at least some justice was finally delivered to the man who killed their son, brother, cousin, and friend.
I don't think much would have stopped a criminal like this aside from putting him in prison... he wasn't dissuaded by having committed his first crime, nor by having his ass kicked, nor being shot at, nor chased off with a gun later... he went until he found someone who couldn't defend themselves (a 74 year old lady living alone)... the only thing I might have been able to do better to stop this guy was to put 3 9mm rounds in his chest when I had the chance to do it legally... had I had my gun when he hit me, I would have killed him on the spot... had I known at the time I fired the warning shot what I know now about his behavior, I might have done it....
All things considered, it turned out pretty well... He got caught, he is serving his time for his previous crime (which should never have been stayed), he is serving time for this crime (not as much as he should), and I didn't have to kill anyone.....
Yay for me!!!! today is a good day
_________________________________________
To anyone who goes through this after having read this, or anyone having trouble dealing with a similar issue... The violation/fear/anger issues subside some over time... it all changed my life and how I look at things... a known murderous felon broke into my home and assaulted me... how can I ever think the way I did when I felt safe in my home?
While I managed to defend myself and sentencing day was a good day.... no day since that robbery attempt has been 'the same'... I learned a lot that day... some of it not so nice... but some of it I am glad to know anyways... some of it might save my life some day (I carry always now... even in my home).... some of it I hope gets passed on to you (however you choose to use it)....
I made a lot of errors and this kept me from publishing it here for a while (I have no desire to be castrated for making mistakes under stress)... It's also pretty 'personal' in an odd way.... but I make reference to the incident here and there and always get the "tell me more" from someone... and why shouldn't I? Why should I be afraid to let someone else learn from my mistakes and the things I did right?
I did enough right to be here telling the story.... and in this stories case, that's better than the last guy who tried before me.... sad as that is to say...
This was written by me the day of sentencing.... quite a while ago now, but I don't feel like editing it, and some of the desperation/relief might be lost if I did anyways.... it's a bit raw, but here it is....
_____________________________________________________
I have lived in my duplex in St Paul for about 9 years or so. It's not in a great neighborhood but it's decent, much better than the neighborhood I moved out of in south Minneapolis. There have been a couple of incidents here over that time, mostly accidents on the road in front of my house, but one of my tennants had her car stolen from the driveway once, and another had her purse jacked out of her car.... here and there, there is a scuffle on the street.
I recently moved out from the upper unit into the lower unit, so I could have access to an office in the basement. I rented out the upper unit to a close friend who had been living next door. She is a single mother with an 11 yr old boy, and 5 year old girl. They are good friends with my son, and it's a nice arrangement.
Several months ago I was up playing a video game in my basement office at night. I was playing America's Army, because I like First Person Shooters and what the heck, it's free... lol... Anyways, I hear some crashing around upstairs from me and I think to myself 'it must be the tennant upstairs' and I keep playing... I hear another crash from upstairs and I checked the time.... it was about midnight or so and I thought to myself 'the tennant wouldn't be up right now', so I went up to see what was going on.
As I walked into my kitchen I could see an arm reaching through my kitchen window, a black persons arm. Now I have a lot of friends who stop by at odd hours or on spur of the moment without calling, but I don't know any black people well enough for them to be crawling in my kitchen window unannounced at midnight.... but it does occur to me that it wasn't more than a few months ago when my friend Tracy climbed in an open window in my house at night unannounced... but I do know several black people in the neighborhood... it also occurs to me that the former tennant in this lower unit often had black friends over... so, who knows what the story is, right?... so I decide not to take too drastic of action and I simply open the kitchen door and shout "WHAT THE **** ARE YOU DOING" at this guy trying to climb in my window...
He immediately, without so much as a word, takes a wild swing at me hitting me in the side of the head on the upper skull.... this put me into 'All Bets Are Off' mode.... I grabbed him by the collar of his shiney white T-shirt (the local gang regalia) and throw him to the ground. I sit down on his torso and start beating him in the head.... really clocking him good... he doesn't say a word the whole time even though I have him down and I am pummeling his head with my fists, he just keeps trying to get up.... So, I finally decide it's going to take a little more to dissuade this guy from robbing my house. I clock him a couple more good ones and then hastily make my way to my room, and the pistol locker on my nightstand. I enter the access code and take out my 9mm semi-auto handgun. I chamber a round as I exit the bedroom into the kitchen, release the safety and enter the porch (where I had taken him down).... it's empty... I look into the yard from the porch and I can see my gate door hanging open on my 6' privacy fence.... I enter the yard and clear left and right and then go out onto the walk in front of my fence... the door was busted open from the inside and the latch was hanging....
…. There he is, staggering down the sidewalk... I confronted him with a loud verbal command such as “stop right there you stupid f***head!” or something (I was really pissed)... at this point he turns and comes back at me.... I raised my handgun and dropped a round in the dirt just in front of him... he seems to finally realize that leaving quick is his best option and sprints off around the corner and down the alley.... I rounded to corner to see him going down the alley.... I walk back to my house calling the cops....
The cops encase my entire neighborhood in a matter of 10 minutes... I had never seen response like that... probably 15 squads... no one comes to talk to me.... about an hour later I call the cops back and ask why no one was coming to talk to me and she informs me that someone will be there very shortly... sure enough a cop walks up to get my story... I told my story, just about as I did here....
Turns out they have the guy in custody already, and he was on a rampage... he left my house (the way I escorted him out.. lol) only to go try to break into another house in the alley (after I left him)... well, that neighbor had heard me shoot and shouting at this guy and was watching out his window as the perp tried to break in.... this neighbor chased him off with his 12ga shotgun, and also called the cops and chased the perp down the alley... when the cops showed up for my call they were just getting inundated with calls about burglaries and shots fired from my neighborhood... including calls from this neighbor, who was chasing him down the alley with a shotgun.... the perp fled onto the main street, and this neighbor was coming back down the alley with his shotgun when the squads arrived... naturally, they arrested him until it was sorted out... When they go out to find the perp on the main street, a citizen on the street says a black guy just came out of the alley bleeding from the head (my punches ) shouting about how "some crazy white mother****er just shot him in the head" and ran off down the street.
About this time, they get another attempted burglary call from my neighborhood... a 74 year old lady down the street caught a guy meeting this description creeping around on her bedroom floor.... she flees the house and the cops arrived quickly (they were in the hood and all)... she thought he was still in there, so the cops sent in the dogs.... apparently he didn't cooperate with the dogs either, so it went poorly for him and he was arrested and brought to the ER for treatment of his many wounds (heres to hoping some of them were from me )...
The cops came and dealt with me after all the hub-ub.... they confiscate my gun as evidence, tell me I should have killed the guy and that I will get the gun back after the case is settled.
Well, the next day I have reporters in my yard and calling me at home... They want to know if I know who it was I got into it with last night... naturally I know nothing.... turns out this guy was a well known thug and he had just been released on a suspended sentence after serving only 167 days (or something like that) on a MURDER during a robbery, which he had plead down to manslaughter, even though he had killed the man who's house he had been robbing when he was caught in the act... so 167 days served on a 86 month conviction for a crime that was not as bad legally as it was morally (he should have been tried for murder during the commission of a felony!!!)... and he was back on the street on the understanding that he would not have any violations of probation in 7 years....
This caused some media uproar, and the dead mans family was in the paper talking about how the criminal justice system had let them down.
He sure messed that up... lol... When he was caught, he was drunk, disobeyed the officers (wouldn't come out of the house), had committed attempted burglary 3 times that night, and was in clear violation of his probation.... he was released in less than 24 hours pending probation violation hearings!!... When the news hit the wires and outrage ensued they went and picked him back up and held him for trial...
He plead guilty to 1 count of 1st degree attempted burglary (in a plea down from the 3 he was being charged with) and was set for sentencing TODAY....
I went to see how it would go and to give a 'victim impact statement' to the court.... As to his violation of probation, he was sentenced to 86 months incarceration by the state with his time served (the days waiting for trial both times count towards his sentence)... the prosecutors told me to expect his 1st degree attempted burglary sentence to run concurrent with his other sentence (meaning no extra time, just the conviction)... but, after hearing the impact statement, and seeing the full courtroom of former, or current victims, as well as the press.... he was issued 19.5 more months to run consecutive to the other sentence... meaning he gets another 19.5 months for having done those crimes as well... also, a bunch of compensation will be billed to him for his deeds, which he can work off while in prison...
When I walked out of the courtroom I was congratulated by the prosecuting attorney, victim advocate for the state, and the whole family of the murdered man each came up to shake my hand and tell me how glad they were that someone told the court what this type of thing does to our community. They each said they finally felt that at least some justice was finally delivered to the man who killed their son, brother, cousin, and friend.
I don't think much would have stopped a criminal like this aside from putting him in prison... he wasn't dissuaded by having committed his first crime, nor by having his ass kicked, nor being shot at, nor chased off with a gun later... he went until he found someone who couldn't defend themselves (a 74 year old lady living alone)... the only thing I might have been able to do better to stop this guy was to put 3 9mm rounds in his chest when I had the chance to do it legally... had I had my gun when he hit me, I would have killed him on the spot... had I known at the time I fired the warning shot what I know now about his behavior, I might have done it....
All things considered, it turned out pretty well... He got caught, he is serving his time for his previous crime (which should never have been stayed), he is serving time for this crime (not as much as he should), and I didn't have to kill anyone.....
Yay for me!!!! today is a good day
_________________________________________
To anyone who goes through this after having read this, or anyone having trouble dealing with a similar issue... The violation/fear/anger issues subside some over time... it all changed my life and how I look at things... a known murderous felon broke into my home and assaulted me... how can I ever think the way I did when I felt safe in my home?
While I managed to defend myself and sentencing day was a good day.... no day since that robbery attempt has been 'the same'... I learned a lot that day... some of it not so nice... but some of it I am glad to know anyways... some of it might save my life some day (I carry always now... even in my home).... some of it I hope gets passed on to you (however you choose to use it)....
