GilliganTX
Newbie
I'm not sure if this is the right place to share this, but none of the other sections seemed like the right fit. Is there there a sub-forum meant for "After Action Review," so to speak?
A couple weeks ago a Family Member of mine was involved in an attempted mugging at work. She is pretty shaken up by it, and I have been helping her rationalize the incident, move past it, and be prepared for similar situations in the future. What I am hoping we can accomplish in this discussion is a review of what happened, which will hopefully lead to a discussion about the quality of decisions made by all parties during the incident, and possibly even some constructive criticism we can build on if she were ever unfortunate enough to be caught in a similar situation in the future.
Family Member [FM] has a job where she must travel to multiple client's homes or other public locations (Parks, boardwalks, trails) multiple times a day. Meaning she is in and out of "transition zones" an average of 6-12 times each day.
Wednesday, a couple weeks ago, she was pulling into a client's [Client] - Gated - driveway, when a masked and hooded man followed her car into the client's property, brandished a handgun at FM and Client, approached FM directly and demanded all her money with the weapon aimed at her at point blank.
According to her, she says she had about 5-10 seconds from the point of the assailant penetrating the property, brandishing, and cornering her at her driver side door.
It was enough time for her to get her cellphone video camera on and recording, she captured the 2nd half of this (approx 30 second) interaction on film, film which the local PD was able to use to identify, locate, and arrest the assailant.
The video clip opens with FM expressing that she doesn't have any money (Had left her wallet at home that day), but that the assailant can take her purse, with the caveat that it's empty, in quite possibly the world's sassiest tone-of-voice. At this moment on video we get a frontal shot of the perp. Masked, Under Armor Faux cammo hoodie, hood up. Plaid Sweat pants. You can roughly make out that he's holding something in his right hand inside his hoodie pocket.
FM makes a comment about keeping her BC meds, removes them from her purse, leans into her car and tosses them into the passenger seat and shoves her purse between herself and the muzzle of the gun being aimed at her. When the camera pans back up the perp is already walking away. The home owner can be heard on the film telling the man he needs to leave her property, and she already has police on the phone. You can see him holster the handgun into a OWB holster on his right hip as he exits the property through the gate he entered, empty handed.
And that was the end of the Episode for her, essentially, aside from giving her statement to the police. They found the guy at his family house 2 blocks over, in the same clothes, with 2 more handguns with their SN's filed off. He did have priors as a juvenile but not as an adult. FM is pressing charges, so is Client.
I have a lot of questions. I don't really understand the perps actions. He walked right past the Client, and had his back to her for most of this interaction. He allowed FM to reach into her vehicle where she could have potentially retrieved a weapon, and left just as quickly as he approached, empty handed. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that we're not having to deal with having her personal and work items stolen, (and even happier he was only interested in her STUFF, and not HER) but despite the empty purse she had her phone and car keys in her hand, why not demand either of those items?
As far as how she handled herself, I think she did well. She did not escalate the situation, and was (imo correctly) focused on doing what she could to get the gun pointed away from her first and foremost. Is it possible her compliant but, call it *annoyed*, demeanor threw off the assailant? As in, this is immediately not going how he planned, so he thinks it's time to bail? Anything she could/should have done differently? Better? Were there any mistakes or lapses on her part?
She does not carry. She did have a small pepper spray can in her purse, which she attempted to give to the attacker. We did laugh about that afterwards.
On the flat range I'm about a 2s draw to hitting inside the 9 ring on a b8 from concealment. If I had been there I would have had (supposedly) more than enough time from the brandish till he was on her to have drawn and put accurate fire on the attacker.
Considering this went about as well as you could hope for, would this situation have even called for action? If I would have been there and done something about it, the whole situation could likely be much worse for us both. Names in the news, having to prove self defense for a homicide charge when the most apparent threat was a simple brandish.
How would any of you have responded?
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider.
A couple weeks ago a Family Member of mine was involved in an attempted mugging at work. She is pretty shaken up by it, and I have been helping her rationalize the incident, move past it, and be prepared for similar situations in the future. What I am hoping we can accomplish in this discussion is a review of what happened, which will hopefully lead to a discussion about the quality of decisions made by all parties during the incident, and possibly even some constructive criticism we can build on if she were ever unfortunate enough to be caught in a similar situation in the future.
Family Member [FM] has a job where she must travel to multiple client's homes or other public locations (Parks, boardwalks, trails) multiple times a day. Meaning she is in and out of "transition zones" an average of 6-12 times each day.
Wednesday, a couple weeks ago, she was pulling into a client's [Client] - Gated - driveway, when a masked and hooded man followed her car into the client's property, brandished a handgun at FM and Client, approached FM directly and demanded all her money with the weapon aimed at her at point blank.
According to her, she says she had about 5-10 seconds from the point of the assailant penetrating the property, brandishing, and cornering her at her driver side door.
It was enough time for her to get her cellphone video camera on and recording, she captured the 2nd half of this (approx 30 second) interaction on film, film which the local PD was able to use to identify, locate, and arrest the assailant.
The video clip opens with FM expressing that she doesn't have any money (Had left her wallet at home that day), but that the assailant can take her purse, with the caveat that it's empty, in quite possibly the world's sassiest tone-of-voice. At this moment on video we get a frontal shot of the perp. Masked, Under Armor Faux cammo hoodie, hood up. Plaid Sweat pants. You can roughly make out that he's holding something in his right hand inside his hoodie pocket.
FM makes a comment about keeping her BC meds, removes them from her purse, leans into her car and tosses them into the passenger seat and shoves her purse between herself and the muzzle of the gun being aimed at her. When the camera pans back up the perp is already walking away. The home owner can be heard on the film telling the man he needs to leave her property, and she already has police on the phone. You can see him holster the handgun into a OWB holster on his right hip as he exits the property through the gate he entered, empty handed.
And that was the end of the Episode for her, essentially, aside from giving her statement to the police. They found the guy at his family house 2 blocks over, in the same clothes, with 2 more handguns with their SN's filed off. He did have priors as a juvenile but not as an adult. FM is pressing charges, so is Client.
I have a lot of questions. I don't really understand the perps actions. He walked right past the Client, and had his back to her for most of this interaction. He allowed FM to reach into her vehicle where she could have potentially retrieved a weapon, and left just as quickly as he approached, empty handed. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy that we're not having to deal with having her personal and work items stolen, (and even happier he was only interested in her STUFF, and not HER) but despite the empty purse she had her phone and car keys in her hand, why not demand either of those items?
As far as how she handled herself, I think she did well. She did not escalate the situation, and was (imo correctly) focused on doing what she could to get the gun pointed away from her first and foremost. Is it possible her compliant but, call it *annoyed*, demeanor threw off the assailant? As in, this is immediately not going how he planned, so he thinks it's time to bail? Anything she could/should have done differently? Better? Were there any mistakes or lapses on her part?
She does not carry. She did have a small pepper spray can in her purse, which she attempted to give to the attacker. We did laugh about that afterwards.
On the flat range I'm about a 2s draw to hitting inside the 9 ring on a b8 from concealment. If I had been there I would have had (supposedly) more than enough time from the brandish till he was on her to have drawn and put accurate fire on the attacker.
Considering this went about as well as you could hope for, would this situation have even called for action? If I would have been there and done something about it, the whole situation could likely be much worse for us both. Names in the news, having to prove self defense for a homicide charge when the most apparent threat was a simple brandish.
How would any of you have responded?
Thank you for taking the time to read and consider.
? Store clerk and no direct threat against me/family? Where's the nearest cover again?