TP,
I think you're being too hard on yourself.
A car horn starts beeping on the sidestreet next to the dentists lot. I'm walking that way to my car and the the car horn gets longer and more frequent.
as i get to my car i see a car trying to parallel park on the side street and the car he's backing up to with the driver very animated about blowing the horn.
the cars never make contact as far as i could see, but the driver backing up stops his car, gets out, runs to the other vehicle and proceeds to punch the crap out of the the other guy (still seated in the stationary vehicle!) by now im froze in my tracks next to my car, 30 ft away.
Because you just had a root canal, I'll take a selfish & cynical view of circumstances here. You see the beginnings of an altercation when you're (most likely) in no mood to do anything but relax after the anticipation of the dreaded root canal (even if it's painless, it's uncomfortable). As the driver runs back towards the horn honker, the high-speed processor in your brain expressed some concept like "oh, that damn fool!" or "he's gonna yell at the jerk with the horn." Your expectation was that it was about to become a screaming match was based on personal experience and opinion.
When Driver #1 starts beating on horn-honking driver #2, your logical processor starts looking for a plausible reason and/or is trying to determine "which of these two turkeys is in the wrong here?" Emotionally, your internal thoughts are "I just wanna go home, don't make me get involved in
your stupidity, guys!"
all of a sudden the attacker stands straight up and then falls back away from the vehicle. i didnt hear the shot. the "driver" of the parked vehicle steps out holding a poly semi auto (all i saw was a black handgun, later identified as a glock 22). the driver looks at the victim, then at me and asks me to call 911.
So during the moment when you are attempting to evaluate right/wrong; attacker/victim; good-guy/bad-guy, Driver #2 defends himself. Contrary to your expectations you do not hear gunfire but only see Driver #1 go down to apparently unknown causes. Only when the driver steps out holding a gun does it dawn on you that a gun was employed. Since Driver #2 reacts calmly and does not threaten you and asks you to call 911, you quickly assess that he's the good-guy/victim and more law-abiding than driver #1.
Opinion:
1. You did nothing wrong.
2. There was probably nothing you could have done to change the outcome.
3. You were not directly threatened, thus no reason to draw.
4. You have just discovered that events are seldom clear-cut as to who the good & bad guys are or what the fight is all about.
5. Events can happen before we're finished making up our minds what is really happening or who the real aggressor is.
By the way, I do urge you to
write down your observations before being called for a deposition or as a witness. Recall as many
factual details as you can and try to get the sequence of events straight. Then critically examine anything where you make a
presumption - such as that Driver #2 shot Driver #1 -- if you didn't hear a gunshot you don't know for sure. All you know is that Driver #2 exited his car holding a polymer-looking gun and later examination revealed Driver #1 had been shot. Likewise, unless you saw fists making contact or Driver #2 reacting to punches, all you can say is that it
appeared to you as though driver #1 was punching driver #2.
Having it written down now and stored in your desk will allow you to refresh your memory when/if called as a witness. It also allows you to refrain from "filling in the gaps" with presumptions as time goes by.