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“Investigators said the man shot first pounded on the door and then forced his way into the house near 16th and Drexel streets around 11:30 p.m. Thursday.” That was in Omaha late Thursday night, where Paul Rivas decided he needed to see the woman on the other side of that door. Bad. “(Douglas County Attorney Don) Kleine said when Rivas entered the home, the homeowner ran upstairs to grab his gun. Rivas then grabbed the wife and was threatening her, saying he wanted to fight her husband” . . .

Pro tip: ‘home carry’ doesn’t just mean getting the groceries in from the car. Anyway, according to ketv.com, when the woman’s husband got back downstairs with his heater, he warned Rivas to let his wife go. When he didn’t, he shot the intruder in the leg. Rivas refused. Still.

The homeowner told investigators he felt him and his wife’s safety were threatened, so he shot him a second time in the chest.

OK, pedants, so grammar isn’t exactly job one at KETV. It doesn’t change the fact that Rivas is now occupying a drawer in the morgue rather than the home at 16th and Drexel Streets. And the two homeowners are alive and in one piece.

Hubby may have some ‘splainin’ to do, though, when the the little woman has a minute to think and asks him how he could have been so sure he’d hit Rivas when he was holding her, but all’s well that ends well, right?

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57 COMMENTS

  1. Are we sure he wasn’t looking for the thurs night prayer mtg? I am positive his family will tell us what a good guy he was

  2. …she may also be a bit pturbed that hubby left her in the hands of the perp (who could have killed her) in order to get his heater that he should have already had in his hands. Yeah, all ended well…the POS is out of the gene pool…but serious lessons learned in this one.

  3. As someone else on TTAG said. 100% of home invasions happen in the home. As for what your wife would say, marry the right woman. If the bad guy had gotten close enough to have grabbed my wife she would have been yelling at me to take the shot. And bad guy had better not dare to bleed on my little woman’s floors. If he was still alive when he hit the floor I’d have to lock her in the closet to keep him alive til the calvary arrived.

  4. “Hubby may have some ‘splainin’ to do, though, when the the little woman has a minute to think’

    Thats nothing. I knew people in San Francisco and Berkeley that, hypothetically, if you were forced to shoot a dangerous home intruder to save them from the bad guy they’d probably afterwards have a politically-correct emotional meltdown later in front of the cops accusing you of over-reacting and killing a gentle soul even if the intruder had a gun/knife/crow bar/ etc was threatening to use it.

  5. I give the guy credit for what has got to be a hard shot under stress. I mean having heat in hand doesn’t make the chance of hitting her in the chest any less. But, marry the right woman and it’ll be a perp shot before I get in the room. Last lady I was with kept heat with her just like I did and would’ve taken a broken door the same way.

    • Same here.
      My wife shoots as often and as well (or better) than I do.
      We train together and support one another. She is my backup and I’m hers.
      But it wasn’t that way when we married.
      It took some work.

  6. Me and the wife almost always home carry, still looking for a holster that will work with flannel PJ bottoms and a 3 year old toddler. Chances are that’s when you will need it most.

    • clip-on iwb and draw string PJ’s (or sweats). or how about some old, comfy jeans until you climb in bed?

      i home carry all the time (well, okay, not in the shower).

    • I’m a robe guy myself.
      Home carry a .38 snub in an Uncle Mike’s pocket holster.
      Just transfer it from my pants pocket to my robe pocket.
      If I get up in the night I put on the robe and its there.

        • You’re welcome Chris.
          I’m not sure I need to but perhaps I should clear something up.
          The .38 is not kept in the robe during the day.
          I put it in the safe every morning and take out my EDC.
          When I no longer expect to leave the house I put my EDC in the safe and the .38 replaces it in my pants pocket.
          The .38 stays in the robe from shower to morning.

      • Any one who breaks into my house during the hour I’d likely be wearing PJs is likely to get shot by someone butt naked. And how embarrassing would that be? Just a little bonus to sleeping in the buff.

    • I make sure my pants have a draw string. When around the house I typically use my serpa holster OWB. It is comfy and no worries about retention.

    • I was in a pinch one time and I don’t have any inside waistband holsters. On a lark, I simply grabbed my belt and holster and put it on over my sweatpants. It was actually quite comfortable and stayed on just fine. I suppose that may not work well for certain physiques but it is another option.

  7. “OK, pedants, so grammar isn’t exactly job one at KETV. ”

    “when he was holder her”

    pot = kettle = black, 😉

  8. Tip: Install your doors “backwards”, to open out instead of in. It’s nearly impossible to kick in a door if you’re kicking it into the doorframe, instead of away from the frame. Also, big dogs are awesome for a situation like this one, with no worries about accidently putting a bullet in your wife’s skull.

    • That should allow you to get out of the house just a little faster, too. For example, when leaving the house due to a fire.

      On the other hand, it is impossible to block the door with a heavy piece of furniture when it opens outward, but there aren’t many situations when that is appropriate anyway.

      GOOD TIP.

      • The hinges and striker plates on my steel entry doors are secured with 4 1/2 inch screws (and in the door too). They go through the door frame and then through the 2 butted 2x4s that hold the frame. No one is going to break that in. At least not fast enough that we will not be completely ready for them on the other side of the door.

      • Um, no.

        Exterior door hinges are not loose-pin, and even were the wrong hinges used, the hinge loops protrude such that it takes some serious prying to get a door off that way – unless it’s stupidly, leakily loose. Certainly it’ll take longer than kicking in an inward-opening door, and is hardly stealthy.

        As to yanking open a locked door, that’s pretty much impossible.

        ‘Course, in a snowy climate the idea might prove problematic, but…

        Russ

        • Considerably. The seams of inward-upending doors are concealed by the jamb.

          Then again, one can insert the thin portion of a bar between the door and jamb.

          That said, it’d still take (very noisily) longer to force an outward-opening door than to kick in an inward-opening door.

          Best of the best is an inward-opening steel door with reinforcing coverage plates and a steel-reinforced jamb.

          Gods and Thunders, I’m glad I live in the sticks!

          Russ

        • The hinges and striker plates on my steel entry doors are secured with 4 1/2 inch screws (and in doors themselves). They go through the door frame and then through the 2 butted 2x4s that hold the frame. No one is going to break that in. At least not fast enough that we will not be completely ready for them on the other side of the door.

    • Interesting idea, except it would cost quite a bit to replace our doors and frames, and its still pretty damn easy to break through a window. You could put “South Central” metal bars over your mirrors, but that is pretty damn ghetto. We went with the dogs, flashlights, and hardware. The wife also has a Taser as a less lethal option. Metal doors and door frames will take quite a beating.

      I have kicked straight through wooden doors with deadbolts. I wake up pretty quickly, and so do the dogs, so we’re still in good shape. If CA requires safe storage, most people won’t obey that law anyways.

      Fortunately, I don’t live in South Central.

      • Hmmm…

        Methinks leaving my li’l helper in the (centrally located) safe, but “oops,” I forgot to lock the sodding thing.

        I remember when Daryl Gates said that while he couldn’t advise concealed carry, he’d much rather the cops caught you with than that a bad guy caught you without.

        Pretty strong language for the top cop in L.A, and I suspect he’d not approve of required lock-away.

        Russ

    • I prefer the 2 door system with the outer door swinging out and the inner door swinging in. Both doors should be locked when someone is home. Or set up the outer door with a key.

    • Outward opening exterior doors are building code for single-family residences here in Florida. Hard for a bad guy to kick in = hard for a hurricane to kick in.

  9. Sounds to me that the wife, who knew the intruder, may have been messin’. Or maybe it was infatuation run amok. Why else the challege to a fight?

  10. Makes no sense to take your gun off when you’re at home; at least outside some one might hear or see you being attacked and call 911; at home, there’s no one to hear you scream.

  11. My wife answers the front door with an LC9 in her left hand. Sure has kept down repeat visits from salesmen and Jehovah’s Witnesses.

    • I was cleaning my AR when Jehovahs showed up, I actually had it in my hand when I opened my door. I’ll never forget the looks.
      I put it down and politely told them I wasn’t interested in other religions at this time. They left rather quickly.

        • I had a son going thru the heavy metal mosh pit stage. Doc Marten boots, green spiked mohawk on an otherwise bald dome, studded collar and wristlets. You get the picture. He was 6’2. Whenever I would see jehovahs witnesses working the neighberhood I would tell him to answer the door.

          A couple of times of that and people quit coming to our door.

  12. I am from this area. The “perp” was quite possibly romantically linked to the wife. There is more to the story than what is posted here. Homeowner may face charges.

  13. Lookin’ for Thurs night prayer meeting, better not bleed on the little woman’s floor . . . excellent. The poor guy won’t have time for prayer meetings or bleeding now, as pushing up daisies should keep him busy for the next . . . eternity. Justice has been served.

  14. Your all missing the point. If you have to shoot a BG holding your wife, make sure her life insurance is up to date. This is just in case you sneeze during the shot.

  15. Seriously, there are only 3 moments when one should not have their pistol on their hip.

    I call them the three S’s

    Sleeping, showering and sxx.

    If I am not engaged in one of those three activities, my piece is on my hip. There is no other excuse for not carrying 24/7/365.

    • 24/7/52, or 24/365. 24/7/365 sounds too much like a Seven Year Plan.

      There’re also swimming, skiing, SCUBA; well, maybe during skiing…

      • i carry while skiing (pocket holster w/zip pocket). if for no other reason than i’ve seen plenty 0′ mountain lion prints crossing the snowshoe trails in the same area.

  16. we have numerous riot shotguns placed by every door (hidden) and one on each side of the bed. It is a minimum thirty to forty minute drive for any LE to get to our door. All the dirty work will be done by then. My wife and granddaughters all do pretty well with shooting. We have drawn down on stupid people before, and will likely do it again.

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