How far away was he from you before he decided to stop and turn around?
The guy was a good distance away, 30 feet maybe more, but the layout of the place left no doubt that he was heading for me and only me. There was nothing else in my direction.
At that time I had not read of the Tueller Drill but it sort of made sense intuitively I guess that you don't want someone to get that close when there's no reason for it.
With no response, but knowing for sure that he heard me, I was very much on edge.
In Texas we have this nice one in the Penal Code....
For purposes of this section, a threat to cause death or
serious bodily injury by the production of a weapon or otherwise, as
long as the actor's purpose is limited to creating an apprehension
that he will use deadly force if necessary, does not constitute the
use of deadly force.
So on it's own the production of a weapon is not deadly force, just force.
Technically I don't think I was justified in using force at all,
it's hard to say. The code for that is
a person is justified in using force against
another when and to the degree he reasonably believes the force is
immediately necessary to protect himself against the other's use or
attempted use of unlawful force.
My thinking was that I believed force was immediately necessary to protect myself
from the other's ATTEMPTED use of unlawful force. It's iffy, but given the situation
again I would react the same way. I did not raise the weapon, but I think he clearly
saw what I was doing. I knew I had reacted correctly when the guy didn't freak out.
He studied the situation for a moment trying to decide what to do. If it had been some
panhandler or hitchiker I'd have expected some kind of reaction. This guy just studied me
for a few seconds and decided to break it off. I was in the car as soon as he went around
the building and out of there.
As I said, the local cops were not even interested. The dispatcher asked if I was OK,
and that was it. She didn't even ask my name or phone number.