Situational Awareness-thanks to the forum!

[Homeseller]

I am reluctant to post this, but I thought I needed to goad members to WATCH OUT, where ever you are in your comfort zone.

My wife and I were invited to a friends retirement party from Uncle Sugar! LOL! He is a GMan that worked under cover as well as on the border.

Anyway, we stopped by the local mega liquor store to buy him some good cheer.

The parking lot was packed, and we had to wait for a spot in this mixed use parking lot. We finally got an open slot directly across from the door, one row over.

My wife and I get out of the car-different sides. We both carry-my wife off-body.

Anyway,

I look towards the door of the store, and this really big guy-dressed completely inappropiatly for the cold weather-t-shirt and jeans-stares directly at me and walks toward me between my car and the adjacent car-very fast. I immediately swipe my suit coat out of the way-put my hand on my ccw-swipe the safety off-thrust my leg forward, where he cannot help but to see it-ready to draw. He does a 90 degree turn and goes down another lane 4 cars over! Wife did not notice until we were inside store, and I told her what just happened! By the way, I watched him closely, as we were walking to the door 50 feet away, and he kept on keeping on-did not turn around!

I know that I messed up by not having a cue to alert the wife. Just so you know, even in a
"safe" neighborhood, things can go wrong, if you are not vigilent!

MERYY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

[strambo]

Since I can't possibly know all the cues that perhaps only your subconscious picked up (in addition to conscious ones) I'll assume going for the gun was prudent in that instant (i.e. you were in fear for your life/ serious bodily harm). Expect some comments questioning your starting to draw with no weapon showing, but I wasn't there, good awareness.

I would re-examine your stepping forward to show him your gun. It has no tactical value and is actually a tactical dis-advantage putting your gun closer to him. I'm sure the sweeping of the jacket and the draw-stroke is enough for him to understand your drawing a gun...if he ignores that, he'll likely ignore seeing it too. Put another way: If I was closing distance to take someone out and they started a draw stroke, I would increase speed to intercept and strike to injure them before they could get the weapon into play. I would love it if they stepped forward on the weapon side to meet me in the middle/make it easier to jam the draw and injure them.

If you didn't call the police, you probably should have. Report a suspicious/menacing person who put you in fear of serious bodily harm so you started to access your CCW to protect yourself. He was wearing ____, last seen ____ . That way if a witness calls in about a guy who started to draw a gun you are covered. More importantly, they may catch this guy and be able to arrest him (outstanding warrants, find something on him) and that will protect his next victim (until the system spits him out again, but it's something).

Anyway, just some helpful tips, I realize you weren't fishing for a critique. Glad your awareness paid off and you are safe. Thanks for posting this and Merry Christmas to you!

 

[buck00]

I think you did well. Your radar went off, you summed him up as an incoming threat, and you were proactive instead of waiting for him to make a move, harass you, or close the distance, etc. Not to assume your age, but by the sound of the post you aren't 22 yrs old, so most likely this guy approached assuming you were an "easy mark."

It's funny, in the world of THR, I hear mall-ninjas talking about "never showing a perp your CCW" as there is no "tactical advantage" and how they should only see the pistol if you draw it. However, in the real world (just like this story illustrates) letting a perp know you are armed often repels them pretty quickly. I know of several incidents where friends revealed a pistol (or brandished) and by doing so actually completely de-escalated the situation and made a perp retreat, run, or simply go off to find weaker prey.

Again- good awareness, disregard the previous criticism!

 

[ravencon]

If you didn't call the police, you probably should have. Report a suspicious/menacing person who put you in fear of serious bodily harm so you started to access your CCW to protect yourself. He was wearing ____, last seen ____ . That way if a witness calls in about a guy who started to draw a gun you are covered. More importantly, they may catch this guy and be able to arrest him (outstanding warrants, find something on him) and that will protect his next victim (until the system spits him out again, but it's something).

Great advice--if, at best, you want to spend a lot of time filing a pointless police report. At worst, if you want to be charged with brandishing or maybe even assault (depending on how your jurisdiction defines these crimes).

In the real world, what you did may have saved you and the likely goblin from having a really bad conclusion to your day. Well done.

 

[MostlyGenius]

Strambo is right about calling the police. If the situation was scary enough to merit firearms then the police probably deserve a phone call. I am not going to make the same assumptions he did about the situation.

I agree that the stranger was acting strangely, but I think verbal commands would have made a lot of sense (if nothing else it would have let your wife know that there might be a gunfight in the next couple of seconds.) it would have made any further actions you might have needed to take a lot more justifiable.

A guy a approaching you in a busy parking lot doesn't make for a deadly force encounter on the face of it. It sounds like you could see his hands and wasn't apparently armed. I am sure the situation seemed more threatening than your post made it sound, but I think this was an over-reaction.

The problem with deescalating by brandishing is that you are making a threat of lethal force, where one is not called for. You can deescalate with a draw stroke, but it is only justified when shooting is justified.

Buck00 & Ravencon:
The only reason that the 'pointless' police report/risk of being charged exists is because it is against the law to threaten people with guns, without proper justification. If you flash a gun at everyone who makes you nervous you are asking for trouble.

 

[ZeSpectre]

Nobody died, nobody got hurt, everybody went home. Best possible ending.

I've certainly seen my share of situations that didn't sound especially threatening when recounted later...but sure felt that way at the time, so I'm reserving any judgment since I wasn't there and I know firsthand how difficult snap judgments can be on the scene.

 

[Geno]

Most of the items have been addressed.

What I can add comes from my Tactical and Advanced Tactical shooting courses: you and your wife need a code-word to send you both into collective-emergency-mode. This is especially true if you have children.

Doc2005

 

[strambo]

At worst, if you want to be charged with brandishing or maybe even assault (depending on how your jurisdiction defines these crimes).

Taking reasonable steps to protect yourself against imminent bodily harm isn't a crime in any jurisdiction. What steps are viewed as "reasonable" may vary (i.e. using a handgun isn't "reasonable" in DC, they're outright illegal) but since he lives where he has a CCW it is reasonable to get ready to use it when in fear of serious bodily harm.

As a general statement: If you wouldn't feel comfortable calling the police for fear of a "brandishment" charge...then you probably shouldn't have felt comfortable going for the gun.

 

[ashgee]

letting a perp know you are armed often repels them pretty quickly

Personally observed this to be true, even in a seriously troubled big city in an industrialised nation not that long ago, where the thugs were hardened by several years of near-anarchy, and - like everyone else there - pretty desperate.

On a side note: I hate parking lots nowadays. People tend to come out of nowhere; you're likely to be in some disadvantageous position and/or holding something; and (at least for me) due to its public nature, there's quite some hesitation involved in revealing what one might be carrying. Although I no longer live in the city I was referring to, the local mall here and its lot are called "The Far West" by the (non-English speaking) natives. This is near a prosperous W. EU town of 600k inhabitants with good police coverage, yet I regularly see employees from the mall stores escort single female and elderly customers to their cars only to scan the lot for nastiness - in broad daylight.

you and your wife need a code-word to send you both into collective-emergency-mode

Absolutely. My wife and I have a few basic phrases like 'get kids away', 'lock door', 'lie down', etc. And to make sure we can use 'em even with someone uninvited present, they're in a language only ~250k people in the world would understand. Got the idea from a schoolmate many years ago, whose parents used German to keep God knows what private stuff from their kids...

 

[TallPine]

And to make sure we can use 'em even with someone uninvited present, they're in a language only ~250k people in the world would understand.

Or how about a language with <100K speakers ???

A bheil Gàidhlig agaibh?

 

[esq_stu]

Calling police before the bg does may help prevent repercussions (accusations of brandishing).

Putting the weak side foot forward while clearing your coat with the strong side still signals you are armed without actually showing your weapon. And creates less opportunity to disarm you. FWIW - that's what I was taught, and actually did once3 under similar circumstances.

Regardless, your alertness and decisiveness were a winning combination.

 

[ashgee]

Or how about a language with <100K speakers ???

A bheil Gàidhlig agaibh?

Even better, I'm sure... But my wife would probably think I was secretly on the booze again before I could get to the first vowel

 

[ravencon]

Calling police before the bg does may help prevent repercussions (accusations of brandishing).

This may be so if you are fortunate. However, if the responding officer(s) are hostile to civilian carry you'll be having a parking lot discussion of what constitutes brandishing and if your actions were reasonable under the totality of the circumstances. This is makes for an interesting discussion from the comfort of our homes/offices via the Internet but I wouldn't want to have that discussion in a parking lot with a possibly hostile LEO. YMMV.