ST Louis — A 48 year old man stepped in to intervene on the behalf of a 26 year old woman who was in the process of getting robbed by two men at 12:48 in the morning this past Sunday.
The woman told authorities that one of the men pointed a gun at her as the other man attempted to take her purse off her shoulder. The woman refused, causing the two to struggle over the purse.
At some point the lady started to scream, catching the attention of the 48 year old Good Samaritan who then came over to confront the two men. They dropped the purse and ran off to a red car. As they ran, one of the men turned and began to fire at the 48 year old man.
He drew his own firearm and shot back.
At this time no injuries are being reported and the would-be robbers got away. Two parked vehicles in the neighborhood were damaged from the gunfire.
Analysis:
My big takeaway here, is that assumption can kill. You’ve heard the saying that curiosity killed the cat, and I’m sure that you’ve heard the saying don’t assume because it makes you an ass.
While this man is certainly a hero, it seems to me, at least from my 25,000 ft view on the news as it’s reported, that he assumed he was bringing the only gun to the fight. While it doesn’t say this, I can deduce it from what is written.
Let’s deduce it together:
He heard the woman scream and went to confront the men. They dropped the purse and ran. As they ran they shot at the man. THEN the man drew his own gun and shot back.
Because he approached the fight without his gun drawn leads me to believe he had no idea the other two were armed, and that’s not a good situation to be in.
I wonder if he knows just how lucky he is that they didn’t just shoot him (<-an article I wrote about drawing when drawn upon) when he walked up to confront them?
If he suspected they had a gun, and weren’t just struggling over the purse, I bet things would have happened differently. He may have still confronted them, but maybe he would have put something (like a car) between them. Or, maybe he would have approached with his gun in hand.
Then again, maybe he would have yelled from a distance as he dialed 911 to report a robbery. We’ll never know for sure. All we can do, is learn and try to do better if presented with the same type of situation.
All is well that ends well, but let this be a reminder to the rest of us that approaching a struggle without really knowing the full details and assuming that you’re the only one with a gun can be deadly.
Be smart, train often, and keep your head on that swivel.