Violent crime is rampant in parts of St. Louis, just as it has grown out of control in many urban centers across America during the last eight years. In fact, according to Gallup, crime has risen to a 16-year-high. It affects everyone, too, including as of last night, the wife of Missouri’s Governor-Elect Eric Greitens. Fortunately her husband reports that she’s safe after being held up by three young males in a St. Louis parking lot in the city’s Central West End neighborhood.
She had just left a restaurant and had settled into task fixation checking her phone when one of her attackers opened her car door and stuck a gun in her face. She surrendered her phone and laptop and the trio ran off.
Police caught up with them a short time later in a stolen car and a pursuit commenced. The young thugs crashed and fled on foot, only to be nabbed by fleet-footed officers. The three stooges, ages 14, 15 and 19 now face a host of charges. Authorities indicated the suspects might well be responsible for a series of break-ins and robberies.
It probably should have been a defensive gun use of the day. There’s much to learn from the future first lady’s unfortunate experience. Then again, if the bad guys had the drop on her, discretion — and giving up her belongings — may have been the better part of valor.
This near tragedy shows, yet again, the importance of situational awareness and that violent crime can happen to any one of us at any time. Carry your gun(s) and be aware of your surroundings.
Dear Governor-Elect: There are plenty of skilled trainers out there who would be delighted to help train Missouri’s soon-to-be first lady in situational awareness and personal defense skills – probably at little or no charge. If you need a referral or three, shoot us an email here at The Truth About Guns and we’ll be happy to hook you up.
Isn’t he a former SEAL? I’m sure if she hasn’t been trained she can get all the training she needs.
Any time I venture into a large city I heighten my state of awareness because I know the odds of a confrontation are greater. I personally wouldn’t go to many parts of these cities without a firearm. A 14 year old can shoot you dead just as easily as a 30 year old can…and do it without a drop of remorse.
The Central West End neighborhood is actually a really nice area…. but crime in that area has definitely been on the rise for the past couple years.
The wife and I used to go there fairly regularly, but not anymore.
Correct, former SEAL. But he wasn’t there.
That sucks….And two out of the three armed thugs are teens and the other is legally an adult.
But I’m sure the 19 year old will be considered a “minor.”
One bets that all three of them must have multiple mile long rap sheets.
I hope the gov’s wife is okay and decides to arm up and learn to protect herself.
Nine-“TEEN”.
N-n-n-n-nineteen, nineteen.;-)
-Paul Hardcastle.
Hey Nineteen
No we can’t dance together
No we can’t talk at all
Steely Dan
You are a child until 26 now right? Good enough for healthcare why not everything else?
why not 26 is still a child according to democRATS.
When you MUST check your phone in a vehicle have the doors locked, engine running and in gear. Better yet, move to an open area (parking lot) away from other vehicles so as to afford you 360 degree observation-again…running and in gear.Code Yellow 365 24/7.
Okay, good. Post-incident-how-it-should-have-been-done man got here. Good. I guess “Captain Obvious” would just be easier to type.
He only thanks the police, makes no mention of our right to self-defense. Oh wait, this is the “Republican” who used to be a Democrat. Let’s not forget the NRA endorsed his opponent, the “Democrat” who used to be a Republican. It remains to be seen whether Greitens will be a friend of 2A.
Also, John, I noticed that little plug about “the last eight years.” Are you suggesting St. Louis City wasn’t a violent hell-hole before the Obama administration?
Spot on and what a crap pile Gov elect response. Nonsense verbiage about the cops when they were just minutes away. So none of you civilians wanting to lawfully protect yourself bother me with that infringement thing. Wonder what he would say if the young ones wanted a little more than coin. You know breaking his wife shotgun over the hood of her CUV, showing her the finer points of St. Louis’ night crawlers.
Props to you identifying a crossover as it is. I’m so tired of people calling a unibody crossover an SUV. A raised, uglified station wagon w/o a ladder frame does not deserve to be an SUV.
so is a ridgeline a pickup?
No. It is not a pickup
CUT
Crossover Utility Truck?
She’s lucky those three teenagers only had robbery on their brain that night.
I was waiting for my wife to come out of a store the other night. I was people watching, like I always do, for fun and situational awareness. About 8 of 10 people coming out had their heads down glued to their phones. I saw 3 people step out in front of cars, not look up, and just keep walking. What I took from this was the fact that none of these people would ever see a threat coming from any direction, human or vehicle. I can’t think of anything you are looking at on your phone being more important than your life or well being.
I don’t think he mentioned God enough.
Perhaps he was minutes away as well.
At the end I expected him to say that the cops got in a time machine and stopped the robbery from happening.
Their TARDIS was on the fritz.
I’m sure that the three Amish lads who robbed Sheena, Queen of Missouri, became overwhelmed by the spirit of rumspringa while turning their lives around.
I’m sure these three youths didn’t have a skin color. It’s as conspicuously missing from their physiology as it is from this article.
Would their skin color change anything? They already caught these perpetrators so a description isn’t really needed.
Had one or more of them been shot by the police, you can bet their skin color would matter! It would matter for EVERYTHING.
Mind you, I am not saying it should matter – it clearly shouldn’t. But it does.
Let’s put aside the possible riots if the police had shot one or more of them.
As TTAG is fond of saying “Should have been a DGU.” OK, so let’s play that out.
What if it had been a DGU? What if the upcoming first lady of MO had shot one or more of the three attackers, who we are presuming from the conspicuous lack of information to be black?
ie, a white, Republican, first-lady-to-be shooting one or more of youths who were just getting their lives turned around, who were applying to go to college in the fall, and who helped little old ladies cross the street when they were 12…
Can you imagine the riots that would have sparked? The Democrats would have been funding a full-scale domestic insurrection masquerading as a riot.
imagine legislators requiring judges to enforce the law. Oh the humanity
They were black. They had stolen a car earlier and were responsible for several robberies. The only reason they got caught is because before they robbed the wife they broke into a car and stole a cell phone. The owner was able to track the phone and tell police.
The nineteen year-old already had a record and was on probation.
I am, again, shocked.
Let’s see … 3 thugs to 1 target, attack by surprise taking distance immediately to 0, weapon stuck in her face. At that point I don’t think fleeing or peeing would help much. Neither does it much matter whether the predators have a gun, knife, stick, brick, or simply bad attitude.
Plus, the LEOs think this crew has been working this tactic for a while.
But, it ain’t about them; this only happened because guns. (I’m just trying to help Bloomie’s flying monkeys. Haven’t heard from them on this one, yet.)
This is what happens to people without security details.
Some people will take from this the notion that: “Maybe everybody should have the option to be their own security detail.” Others that “We gotta take the means for mischief away from everybody.”
Which way they go depends on what they believe is possible, and who they want to be in charge of other people’s lives.(The California popular vote thrashing is another example of the same thing.)
14 and 15 already pointing guns in a young ladies face.
Isn’t this the dude who “claimed” he wasn’t anti-2A ’cause he could put together an AR? Not that I pay much attention to Missouri politics but is this considered “karma”? Glad she’s OK but I guess the folks of MO. will find out if he’s OK.
Sounds like the gov’s wife got a taste of Canadian culture. Too bad she didn’t have a nice little pistol to introduce thugs to Jesus.
Thank you for pointing out again, that when seconds count, dedicated LEOs were only minutes away.
Obviously Norwegian gangbangers are running wild in St Louis again.
1. Stay out of rat infested, Democrat controlled urban cesspools.
2. If you can’t follow rule #1, keep your head on a swivel, your phone in your pocket and your hand on your heater.
I tell my wife when she gets in her car to immediately start it and drive off (after buckling up). If she has to check her phone, do it a) where she was at prior to leaving the premise (i.e. store, restaurant, gym, etc.), or b) when she gets home and inside. Don’t look at it in your car. Don’t look at it while walking to your car.
She got lucky they didn’t injure her, or worse.
On my car I explored the touch screen and discovered that I could program the locking system to:
A. Unlock all 4 doors with a single press of the remote, or
B. Unlock ONLY the driver’s door with a single press and unlock ALL doors with a double tap of the remote. (Safer, IMHO)
Also, I programmed the system NOT TO automatically unlock the doors when I put the shift lever into “Park”.
As soon as I get in I manually lock the doors with the door lock switch.
Car is a 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X MR, don’t know how common these features are.
EVO!
fistpump
I think those features are pretty common since about 2000. Most people will find it easier to ask the service manager to adjust those settings at the next oil change, rather than try to figure out just what the manual means.
I volunteer my training services for free to the next first lady of MO.
http://www.armedresponsetraining.com
Feel free to send along my info
Looks like it’s time for her to arm up.
Yeah, especially with the comment that this was close to their home. I thought that was the scariest bit of the article, that this can happen close to the home of a governor-elect! Maybe he can get a law passed that thugs have to avoid certain areas while thugging.
That third paragraph is some nice congnitive dissonance.
Fourteen, fifteen and nineteen years old. Unless their prison sentences are long enough, I doubt any of them will reach 25.
A few years ago where I live, three teens phoned in a fake pizza order so that they could rob the delivery driver. Although he cooperated with them, a fifteen year old stabbed him to death.
Last summer, three teens set up a couple of marijuana dealers, shot one to death and wounded the other. The youngest of them was only twelve.
Tom Givens says that the youngest person he ever arrested for a serious felony was eight years old. Most of the kid’s relatives had criminal records and none had ever held an honest job.
Open door – check inside – close door – press lock button. Make it one motion, always, no exception.
maybe they just needed some room to destroy, or was that Baltimurder?
So what? Are they supposed to be exempt and special because of their status? NO
Now they KNOW what the issue with crime is and what needs to be done.
sounds like Obama’s sons at it again maybe Lincoln was right.