It happens every day: Mom or Dad parks right outside a gas station convenience store, leaves the kids in the car, and ducks into the store for a minute.
In this case out of Dallas, by the time Mom got out of the store, a stranger was sitting in the driver’s seat of her SUV, about to pull away with her two- and four-year-old children.
But Mom wasn’t about to let him go. She leaped into the back seat and demanded that the man pull over, which he didn’t. Instead, he turned around and looked at her, wide-eyed, which (incredibly) gave her enough time to reach between the front armrests, grab her gun from the glove compartment, and shoot him in the head. The car crashed into a light pole, and neither she nor the kids were injured.
The man was later identified as Rickey Wright, whose long previous arrest record includes charges of unauthorized motor vehicle use, assault, and arrest evasion. He was taken to the hospital, where they were able to stabilize him, albeit in serious condition.
“I should have just have emptied the whole clip but I didn’t,” said the unidentified mother. “I’m not a killer or anything like that, but I do believe in, you know, defending what’s mine.”
The woman was questioned at the scene and then told she was free to go. It’s unlikely that any charges will be filed against her.
The gun was a recent addition to the vehicle: she’d put it in the glove box earlier that day. It’s lucky that she managed to get into the car before the Wright drove off with her kids and her gun. It’s also fortunate that she was able to gain access to it with a criminal at the wheel.
Although this incident has a relatively happy ending, the other potential outcomes illustrate why your handgun belongs on your person.
Here is a video of the news segment from CBS-DFW:
