Let me set the scene. Its 9 PM, and you’re walking from your car to your doorway after a long day. Your two month old son is in his car carrier, dozing off as you try to get him into his crib before he wakes up. But before you get to your front door, out of nowhere an armed robber puts a gun to your head and demands everything you have. What do you do?
From the Dispatch:
Smith was carrying his 2-month-old son in a car seat at the time. He knelt down in front of his son to shield him as the robber held the gun to Smith’s head, police said.
While Smith was handing over a small amount of cash, he pulled his gun out of a holster, said detective Brian Boesch of the Columbus police robbery squad. Smith is a concealed-carry permit holder, Boesch said.
The robber fled, police said, but then pointed his gun back at Smith as he ran.
“When I pulled my pistol he took off running and I shot and it hit him,” Smith later told a 911 dispatcher.
The dispatcher asked Smith how he knew the man had been shot.
“Cause when I shot he started crying and he fell to the ground,” Smith told the dispatcher.
A short time later, a man matching the description of the robber came into Mount Carmel West hospital with a gunshot wound. He was taken to surgery and is under police guard tonight.
Technically, the guy was in the clear to plug the robber the second he brandished the gun and put it to the guy’s head. The robber had demonstrated the ability to kill the man, he had the opportunity to make the shot, and he had performed an overt act against the man’s life. As the Call of Duty crowd would say, the guy was “cleared hot” all over the robber’s ass. But he didn’t fire.
When the robber turned back, though, he acted. There have been an increasing number of robberies that have ended with the criminal shooting the victim EVEN THOUGH they fully complied and gave them everything, since leaving no witnesses is easier that going to court. There was one such case in San Antonio recently. So when the robber turned, there was no other reason and the man decided to fight.
This story had a happy ending. The good guys walked away alive, and the bad guy wound up in the hospital. Another man and child’s life saved by a legally owned and carried firearm. What’s the saying, if you can save the life of just one child…?