This fatal shooting happened near my home. WWYD??

Well, it is a really hard call but in a lot of situations you just don't know what is going on. A case in point would be that famous photo from the VietNam War of a cop with a pistol up against the side of the head of a young, punk, commie- blowing out his brains. That photo was used as propaganda against the war - government brutality against the people-but I found out years later the punk had just killed this guy's wife and children- sort of makes a difference.
In any event-you probably won't know what is going on- hard as it may be I'd call the cops but stay out of it.
 
I really don't think anyone would know what they would do if it happened to one of us, you don't know unless your there at the time, It's easy to say "I would do this or that" after the fact.
 
Our front doors are literally 2-3 feet apart. I can often hear my neighbors through the wall, and easily see their cars in the driveway. I can tell if theyre home or not when I let my dog out to go to the bathroom. I also have a peep hole that I could look through if I wasnt sure of what was going on. That being said, if gunshots are going off right outside my door it might not be a good idea to stand in front of the door and look through the peep hole. Buuuttt, I do know the family well enough, and the lady next door reminds me of how my grandmother was when i was a little kid.
If i knew that they were home and saw him shooting through their door and if i had previous knowledge of the guy causing problems, and i had already called 9-1-1 and armed myself and yelled through the door to warn the guy, and the police hadnt shown up yet, and i could still hear the guy kicking in and shooting through the neighbors door, then I would reasonably assume that he had intentions to kill, kidnap, or seriously harm my neighbor(s), and i would probably intervene w/ my shotgun through my cracked front door w/ the finger on the trigger yelling at him to leave.. and if he started to raise the gun towards my door, i'd reasonably feel like my life was in immediate danger, and i'd probably shoot.
I dont know if i would do that if i had kids and a wife. I pray that Im never in a situation like that. I just dont think that i could not intervene if the situation got to that point. good people live next door to me.
 
I would have to be VERY familiar with the history/leadup to the event if I were going to do anything besides call 911 and stay out of the line of fire.

If I were, for sake of argument, going to intervene, it would be from the farthest distance (as in not point blank, 20, 30 yards would be nice, from cover) I could reasonably get, with a rifle and an attempt at a head shot if possible. If not a head shot, a 204 to the center of the back would ruin his day, for sure.

But it's highly unlikely that I would intervene directly. Even though I would feel compelled to do so, the possible ways that it could go bad for me and my family are too numerous and too likely to risk. Everything from dying in a shootout to having the "victim" turn on me for shooting her precious husband. You just never know.
 
tape said:
I really don't think anyone would know what they would do if it happened to one of us, you don't know unless your there at the time, It's easy to say "I would do this or that" after the fact.
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But this is before the fact. The value of a forum like this is that it gives us a chance to consider the possible consequences, good and bad, of various courses of action, before we're confronted with a given situation..

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread..." I'm not a fool, I hope, and I'm certainly not an angel; but perhaps the reason angels are more cautious is that they've been around a bit, have had a chance to think things through, and perhaps even discuss things among themselves -- as we're doing here.

As others have noted, cops hate responding to these incidents, because they are risky and unpredictable -- and the police are paid to respond. I wouldn't ever intervene in a situation involving domestic violence between third parties if I knew that's what it was -- and in a situation in which I didn't know what was going on (someone trying to break in a door who might be a husband/boyfriend/ex, or might be an unrelated home invader), I'd be even more reluctant -- just because I didn't know.

The chances of making things worse in such situations are just too high, IMHO. I'll call 911 (and have done so in the past when neighbors' fights seemed to be escalating past the verbal), and I'll stay alert to what's going on, but I'm not remotely qualified to intervene in such disputes, and I'm not about to start shooting at anyone when I don't know what's going on.
 
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Scenario: You're on your couch watching TV after midnight/before bed and suddenly some crazy guy starts yellling and gunshots start goin off right outside your doorn on the front porch and theres a guy w/ a pistol shooting the front door of the family's home that lives just on the opposite side of the wall of your duplex, trying to force entry into their home. What would you do?
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If it's the kind of neighbors I have, they'd be own their own.
 
And to actually answer the question the OP did ask, I would go with the "dial 911 and hunker down" line of thought. I think there is just too much liability for everyone involved to get involved with a firearm without knowing more... for all I know the guy shooting at the door is an undercover officer in pursuit of a dangerous felon.

I'm reminded of Joe Zamudio's story of the Giffords shooting. He was nearby when it happened, had a handgun, and ran towards the sound of the shots. When he gets there, he sees a man standing with a Glock with the slide locked back and wounded/dead people lying all around this man. Mr. Zamudio, having a presence of mind that I hope I could show in that situation, decided not to draw his concealed handgun since he could see the Glock was empty and grabbed the man from behind. It turns out the man was one of the bystanders who had helped subdue the attacker and gotten the gun away from him.

It just goes to show that intervening in a third party situation can be tricky business.
 
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I hear shots all the time, we (My neighbors and myself) often go outside and rip off a mag or two. I have a target right off the deck on the side of a dirt berm :) OH I live in the country so the closest is 1/4 to 1/2 mile away so I couldnt just run over gun drawn in a heroic type of idiotic behaviour. Best to hunker down avoid strays and call 911.

I was a bouncer, a guy hit his gal upside her head wit ha beer bottle. She was bleeding out the ear and nose. I hit the guy and busted his face up. She went after me, jumped on me tried to tear my face off. Hadda throw her off.

My sis was getting whupped by her now ex, I hit him, knocked him out he hits his head going down and starts bleeding she cradles his head and tells him she loves him bleh.. Stay out of domestic crap, you will end up the bad guy no matter how it ends up.

Never go outside if someone is shooting a gun, it isnt a good idea.

Sounds like the cops ended it.
 
That photo was used as propaganda against the war - government brutality against the people-but I found out years later the punk had just killed this guy's wife and children-
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The man that was shot in that photo (Nguyen Van Lem) was accused of killing police officers and their families, but not the family of the man that shot him (Nguyen Ngoc Loan).
Loan was the one that, after the fact, accused Lem of being an assassin.

There are very few facts known about Lem besides that he was a member of the Viet Cong.
 
Call 911.

Move the family to the other side of the house and stay low until LE arrives.

Since, more than likely, I'm not a credible witness, only having heard the

shots, stay out of it after the authorities arrive.
 
Two of the three neighbors on my floor are friends of mine. I think I would of grabbed my 20 gauge coach gun and took the dude out. It is loaded with rifled slugs, so I would certainly stand a chance of surviving, what is clearly a dumbass move. Living in Baltimore, I bet I would be prosecuted.
 
Joe Horn shot and killed 2 robbers in Pasadena Tx for robbing his neighbors house while they were on vacation. He didnt get charged with anything.
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he shot them only after they made their way onto HIS property.

he went through two grand jury indictments, and luckily they refused to prosecute. want to press your luck like that?



save the hero stuff for the movies, just take care of your own. unless you prefer to put yourself at risk for major legal hassles.




call the cops if you think your neighbor's place is being robbed, and let them handle it.
 
Tough call, for the most part, i'd have to follow the hunker down and call 911. I do however have one neighbor that could alter that.

She's an older lady who was widowed a year ago december. But the whole time we were growing up they'd kinda keep an eye on us since my parents both worked.

So even though we're not related, she's family.

Even then I'm gonna be real careful to try and understand the whole situation before I barge in.
 
I'd call my neighbor and see what's going on.

If my neighbor says there's a guy shooting into my front door and trying to knock it down, I think I'd have to stop him.
 
skoro said:
I'd be a good witness when the cops arrive.

General rule: stay the heck out of 3rd party situations with your firearm. You don't know with any certainty what's going on. And certainty is a requirement for you to intervene with deadly force.
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I 100% agree. This is basically what I was thinking as I read down this thread. There are scenarios you could shoot the good guy or get yourself killed.

I'm all for helping ppl out but if I haven't seen the situation unfold and the ppl involved are not family or VERY close friends I would not stick my head into it.

A guy with a concealed handgun tried to be a hero in Tyler Texas a few years back and it got him killed. For people he didn't even know. Sorry but I have a family that depends on me.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_courthouse_shooting
 
Hydrostatic Shock,

The good samaritan got killed, which was tragic; many of us have to make decisions that impact our own loved ones, so that is something to think about.

Otherwise, the problem with the Tyler, Texas example (as far as this thread goes) is that Wilson's intervention is considered to have saved the life of the shooter's son. (For those who haven't read the link or don't know the story, shooter attacked his ex-wife and their son from ambush, using a MAK-90 rifle. Killed the ex-wife with a head shot, and wounded the son in the leg.) Wilson died in the attempt, but he succeeded, too.

An additional lesson from Tyler is that sometimes the BG is wearing body armor. Wilson got two good torso hits on Arroyo (shooter) with a .45; problem turned out to be that Arroyo was wearing a vest.
 
I gave this a lot of thought and consideration, trying to put myself in the situation, especially since I have a neighbor who has fought or argued with just about everyone in our community.

My very first obligation is to my family...to keep them safe and to keep myself alive to provide for and protect them for my given time on this earth. As several people have pointed out, these type of scenarios can turn on a dime and you can be the bad guy in an instant for meddling in someone else's affairs.

Indeed 9-1-1 would be the first order of business. I would move my family to a safe side of the house, away from any kind of gunfire to protect them from that random, out of control stray bullet. I would then guard the entry to my house from the inside. I have a balcony that gives me a clear sight to the front door and at the same time can see out the upstairs windows to the front yard and as to what is going on outside. I would probably use my shotgun to ensure no entry was gained to my house.

I know that being armed does not entitle me to act as a LEO. I do not want to get involved in someone else's fight. I do not want to get killed by someone who might think they were helping the "victim" only to see me with a gun and think that I am the fuel to the fire. I don't mean to sound uncaring but I have fought my wars. My family now comes first and it is up to the police to end gunfire.
 
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