I was delivering pizza the other night, and as I have mentioned in previous threads, I always carry something in my car while working. It was fairly busy and I was heading out of the store with three orders to deliver. I turned a corner a few blocks from the store and passed by what looked like a party that had gotten out of hand. There appeared to be 8 to 10 people standing around watching two women fighting on the ground in a dirt lot across the street from the party house. One woman was on top of the other, and it was hard to see exactly what she was doing but she appeared to be punching the other person. I didn't see her hands around the other's throat but this happened at dusk and the light was fading so I couldn't be sure. Everyone was just standing around watching and not really doing anything.
I slowed down and tried to see the altercation better but wasn't sure what to do. I drove on and delivered my orders and came back the same way towards the store with the intention, (as I told it to myself), that if it was still going on I would get out and try to break it up and call the cops. As I approached the scene a state trooper was in front of me and stopped at the house which lead me to believe that he had been dispatched to the fight. At this time the fight appeared to have ended. The trooper got out and as he approached I pulled up and told him that when I came through earlier I saw two people fighting. But I was in a hurry to get back to my job so I moved on. Before I rolled up my window I heard a woman say, "That little b$%^h attacked me and she's underage so I couldn't do anything. I want to press charges". That's all I heard and so went about my buisness.
My question is should I have played the part of the hero and got out and intervened when I first happened upon the scene. I had my Glock 31 with me and with 8 to 10 possibly drunk party goers around watching, disparity of force would have been something to consider. On the other hand I didn't know anything about the fight or the participants and at the time it seemed the fighters where kids. I didn't want to be some crazy guy that got out of a car and started pointing a gun at a bunch of people. As it turned out one of the girls was over 18 the other wasn't, but like I said the light wasn't so great. I didn't really know if they where wrestling for fun or not but I was pretty sure it was a fight. Afterall I was in a moving car and didn't see much of anything. I feel that I didn't really do anything wrong or cowardly and that discretion in this case was the better part of valor. Yet I still feel awkward that since not alot of opportunities to defend someone comes along I don't want to second guess myself when the time comes to really act.
Should I have done more than what I did?
I slowed down and tried to see the altercation better but wasn't sure what to do. I drove on and delivered my orders and came back the same way towards the store with the intention, (as I told it to myself), that if it was still going on I would get out and try to break it up and call the cops. As I approached the scene a state trooper was in front of me and stopped at the house which lead me to believe that he had been dispatched to the fight. At this time the fight appeared to have ended. The trooper got out and as he approached I pulled up and told him that when I came through earlier I saw two people fighting. But I was in a hurry to get back to my job so I moved on. Before I rolled up my window I heard a woman say, "That little b$%^h attacked me and she's underage so I couldn't do anything. I want to press charges". That's all I heard and so went about my buisness.
My question is should I have played the part of the hero and got out and intervened when I first happened upon the scene. I had my Glock 31 with me and with 8 to 10 possibly drunk party goers around watching, disparity of force would have been something to consider. On the other hand I didn't know anything about the fight or the participants and at the time it seemed the fighters where kids. I didn't want to be some crazy guy that got out of a car and started pointing a gun at a bunch of people. As it turned out one of the girls was over 18 the other wasn't, but like I said the light wasn't so great. I didn't really know if they where wrestling for fun or not but I was pretty sure it was a fight. Afterall I was in a moving car and didn't see much of anything. I feel that I didn't really do anything wrong or cowardly and that discretion in this case was the better part of valor. Yet I still feel awkward that since not alot of opportunities to defend someone comes along I don't want to second guess myself when the time comes to really act.
Should I have done more than what I did?