It's been several months since this happened and haven't heard anything back from the police department, so I think I can finally tell others about it.
Fall of last year, Tampa FL:
After the evening Worship service I drove to my friend's apartment who had invited me over for dinner. She lived with her boyfriend in a two-story town house near the projects. After parking just in front of their building I noticed that the blinds in the second-story window of the adjacent apartment were shaking violently. They would shake then abruptly stop, then shake again. I ignored it, put on my coat, closed my car door and started walking to the door.
Suddenly, the blinds were torn down completely and the window shunted open throwing the screen out on the pavement below. Out comes a screaming woman in torn clothing leaping from the second story window and falling into the hedges. She recovered quickly and began running towards me screaming for help.
My hand goes to my phone and as I'm dialing 911 a large, shirtless man bursts through the door of the woman's apartment. He sees her, looks at me, and runs toward us.
Quickly, I scramble back to my car while the woman takes off down the parking lot. He chases her, pins her to the hood of a truck and starts punching her repeated in the face.
I'm talking to the operator over the phone at this point telling them my location and the situation while I run over to my friend's door and bang on it. My friend opens the door, sees what's happening, and runs inside to get her boyfriend. He comes to me, knife in hand and says, "Let's get this f**ker."
I hand my phone to his girlfriend, push them both back inside the apartment and yell to the man that we are calling the police.
"We are calling the police -- stop what you are doing!"
The woman is bleeding profusely all over her face. The man stops beating her long enough to make eye contact with me. He's easily my superior in stature -- about 300lbs, over 6 feet in height. He gives her one more punch that sends her sprawling over the hood and on the ground and starts walking towards me.
"Don't bring the police into this!" he yells at me.
My friend's boyfriend is egging him on at this point with is knife -- so I push him back into the apartment. His girlfriend is hiding behind the refrigerator. Once we were all inside, I drew my weapon.
The man came right up to the door, stopped when he saw me aiming for his head and started badmouthing again.
"What, you gonna shoot me muthafu*ka?! Do it!"
I said firmly, "Don't come any closer or I WILL shoot you."
There was an awkward lull -- neither of us making a move or saying anything. Then he thinks better of it. He curses at us some more, runs to his car and peels out. My friend, her boyfriend and I take the woman he was beating into the apartment, put a blanket over her and wait for the police.
When they finally arrived some 8 minutes later (I timed it), I told them everything, wrote a statement, showed them my weapon and my permit. It turns out the woman was being sexually assaulted when she finally overcame her attacker long enough to leap out of a window. Who would have thought something like this would have been happening right next door to where we were going to have dinner. And if she didn't overcome him, we'd have only found out in the evening news the next day.
It's been more than 6 months since this has happened, and I've had a lot of time to think about it. Never heard from the police about it ever again. I don't have a blog of my own, and I don't have people shooting at me all the time like Sir William.
All I know is I am a civilian; a lawful citizen of the United States. And no law abiding citizen should have to wait 8 minutes for help to arrive. Nothing against the local PD, but I thank the Lord every day that I have a means to protect myself and my family always.
Oh, and the woman -- I never got her name. She didn't even thank me she was in so much shock. But I'm sure wherever she's goes, I'm sure she thinks about "that guy in the dark grey suit with a cellphone and a gun" once in a while.
I've tried to stick with just telling it how it happened, with few interjections on my thought process. I'm writing this in hopes that by sharing this experience, others may learn from it. Specifically, that this sort of thing could happen to anyone at any time. I'm not looking for a "grade" because you don't get "A's" for this sort of thing. Just know that it happened. In life, all that matters is what happens. Not what could have been.
And now, back to that caliber war thread I was reading...
Fall of last year, Tampa FL:
After the evening Worship service I drove to my friend's apartment who had invited me over for dinner. She lived with her boyfriend in a two-story town house near the projects. After parking just in front of their building I noticed that the blinds in the second-story window of the adjacent apartment were shaking violently. They would shake then abruptly stop, then shake again. I ignored it, put on my coat, closed my car door and started walking to the door.
Suddenly, the blinds were torn down completely and the window shunted open throwing the screen out on the pavement below. Out comes a screaming woman in torn clothing leaping from the second story window and falling into the hedges. She recovered quickly and began running towards me screaming for help.
My hand goes to my phone and as I'm dialing 911 a large, shirtless man bursts through the door of the woman's apartment. He sees her, looks at me, and runs toward us.
Quickly, I scramble back to my car while the woman takes off down the parking lot. He chases her, pins her to the hood of a truck and starts punching her repeated in the face.
I'm talking to the operator over the phone at this point telling them my location and the situation while I run over to my friend's door and bang on it. My friend opens the door, sees what's happening, and runs inside to get her boyfriend. He comes to me, knife in hand and says, "Let's get this f**ker."
I hand my phone to his girlfriend, push them both back inside the apartment and yell to the man that we are calling the police.
"We are calling the police -- stop what you are doing!"
The woman is bleeding profusely all over her face. The man stops beating her long enough to make eye contact with me. He's easily my superior in stature -- about 300lbs, over 6 feet in height. He gives her one more punch that sends her sprawling over the hood and on the ground and starts walking towards me.
"Don't bring the police into this!" he yells at me.
My friend's boyfriend is egging him on at this point with is knife -- so I push him back into the apartment. His girlfriend is hiding behind the refrigerator. Once we were all inside, I drew my weapon.
The man came right up to the door, stopped when he saw me aiming for his head and started badmouthing again.
"What, you gonna shoot me muthafu*ka?! Do it!"
I said firmly, "Don't come any closer or I WILL shoot you."
There was an awkward lull -- neither of us making a move or saying anything. Then he thinks better of it. He curses at us some more, runs to his car and peels out. My friend, her boyfriend and I take the woman he was beating into the apartment, put a blanket over her and wait for the police.
When they finally arrived some 8 minutes later (I timed it), I told them everything, wrote a statement, showed them my weapon and my permit. It turns out the woman was being sexually assaulted when she finally overcame her attacker long enough to leap out of a window. Who would have thought something like this would have been happening right next door to where we were going to have dinner. And if she didn't overcome him, we'd have only found out in the evening news the next day.
It's been more than 6 months since this has happened, and I've had a lot of time to think about it. Never heard from the police about it ever again. I don't have a blog of my own, and I don't have people shooting at me all the time like Sir William.
All I know is I am a civilian; a lawful citizen of the United States. And no law abiding citizen should have to wait 8 minutes for help to arrive. Nothing against the local PD, but I thank the Lord every day that I have a means to protect myself and my family always.
Oh, and the woman -- I never got her name. She didn't even thank me she was in so much shock. But I'm sure wherever she's goes, I'm sure she thinks about "that guy in the dark grey suit with a cellphone and a gun" once in a while.
I've tried to stick with just telling it how it happened, with few interjections on my thought process. I'm writing this in hopes that by sharing this experience, others may learn from it. Specifically, that this sort of thing could happen to anyone at any time. I'm not looking for a "grade" because you don't get "A's" for this sort of thing. Just know that it happened. In life, all that matters is what happens. Not what could have been.
And now, back to that caliber war thread I was reading...
