05/03/2016
Good Samaritan Gets shot for getting involved:
I read the following article from Bearingarns.com, and their ending talks about why people don’t shoot in time of crises. I have been asked as an instructor if the Good Samaritan did something wrong so I am going to change the ending of their article and talk about how he could have, or maybe should have reacted. In no way am I stating that the Good Samaritan should have been shot or killed, but as I teach in ALL of my classes, your firearm is ABSOLUTELY your last response.
From Bearingarms.com:
A man trying to do the right thing was shot and killed in Arlington, Texas today while attempting to apprehend a man who had just shot and wounded his girlfriend at her job.
As a student of armed self-defense, this is pretty much my nightmare.
An armed Good Samaritan was shot and killed outside a Walgreens in Arlington Monday, after a woman was shot during a domestic dispute in the same parking lot, police said.
Arlington police said they received the call about 11:50 a.m. about the incident, which took place at a Walgreens on New York Avenue near Southeast Green Oaks Boulevard.
The incident apparently began when a man went to the store, where his wife or girlfriend works, and the two got into a domestic dispute. Police Lt. Chris Cook said the suspect shot her in the leg or ankle during the argument.
The Good Samaritan witnessed the dispute and went to his car to retrieve a weapon, police said, confronted the suspect and tried to make a citizen’s arrest. The suspect, who had returned to his vehicle in the parking lot, got out and gunned down the Good Samaritan, police said.
Our Good Samaritan (“Sam” for our purposes) witnessed a violent crime with a firearm and decided to intervene. Not having his weapon on him, Sam went to his car and retrieved his firearm. By the time Sam retrieved his firearm, the suspect had already returned to his car and was attempting to escape.
Sam attempted to make a citizen’s arrest, but the suspect was non-compliant. Sam allowed the suspect to get out of his car, and then allowed the bad guy to raise his gun and kill Sam in front of his wife. The suspect then successfully fled, only to surrender to police several hours later. Based on all initial reports we’ve read of the incident, Sam did not apparently fire a shot at the suspect at any point in the confrontation.
Shawn’s ending:
So here is the question… Should Sam have gotten involved? First off I will remind all LTC holders that in Texas you have absolutely no obligation to get involved. Protection of third party is truly based on your own ethics and beliefs. But was he in the right for getting involved.
Protection of third party laws state that basically if you can put yourself in the victim’s shoes, and your use of force would be considered self-defense then you have the right to help protect the third party. So here is my question you all of you, during the actual argument and when Shooter shot the girl if Sam would have pulled his gun and fired to protect her, would he have been in the right? Yes. But since Sam did not have his firearm, had to return to his car, and get it, by the time he engage the Shooter was fleeing the scene. I will take a minute here to remind you that the object of using force is to neutralize the threat. Shooter was fleeing. Threat was already neutralized.
At the point that Sam got involved he was trying to make a citizen’s arrest and was no longer trying to neutralize the threat. This is where I believe he went wrong. In NO WAY does your LTC license or having a gun on you make you a police office, security guard, etc. The threat had been neutralized, the victim knew the shooter, and where police could find him and pick him up. There was no reason for Sam to get involved.
I know that this will not be a favored position, but I want to make clear to all of my students that you MUST think before you get involved. You constantly need to be thinking about those “what if” scenarios that we talk about in class and how you will respond. At the point that you are in that position, if you have not been thinking about how you might react you have already lost because of your reaction time.
This leads me to bearingarms.com ending. Many people hesitate when faced with shooting someone. Taking another life is not an easy thing for anyone to do, and there is not really any way to practice this, well legally. So once again you have to constantly be thinking what would I do? Also when you are practicing in the range, use targets that have faces on them. Why? Because it will help you in a situation where you have to pull the trigger. It will desensitize you some, and allow you that split second to pull that trigger.
One last thing I want to remind you from class and I have already mentioned. Your firearm is your absolute last resort weapon, and you should not pull it from your holster until you have made a decision that you will be pulling the trigger. Once it has left the holster you automatically raise the tension levels and you remove options that were previously available to you. So I will say this again, once you pull the firearm from the holster, you should have already made the decision that you are going to pull the trigger.
I know a lot of my opinion may seem cruel and harsh. I am not trying to cold hearted or any like that. I feel bad for Sam and his family, and in the same situation I might have very well and probably would have done the same thing. But I write this because I do not want you to be the next Sam.
