So i'm taking a lunch break.....

sgtmac_46

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I was working the overnight shift one night, and i'm taking my lunch break at my house. It's about 11:45pm and I go to leave. I had parked my patrol car on the east side of my house, so it was obscured from the road that runs along the southside, which will be important later.

Anyway, i'm walking out my front door and down my walkway, when out of the corner of my eye I catch sight of movement. I turn and there is a guy running toward me through my yard with a BASEBALL bat in his hand! The world kind of slowed down, and i'm looking at this guys face and I realize i've NEVER seen him before in my life. I'm kind of having this mental conversation with myself about why this guy is running at me with a bat.

Fortunatley for me not all of my mind was engaged in this mental conversation, because my GLOCK 22C was out of my holster, and I was moving behind the large tree in my front yard to buy me some time. This guy was less than 10 feet from me, when I yelled at him to 'DROP THE F'n BAT' and get down on the ground! Well, I guess he was close enough at that point to actually see

A) That I was a uniformed police officer
B) That I was pointing a gun at his chest
and
C) I was taking up the slack on the trigger

So he SLAMMED ON THE BRAKES and slid to a stop on his face about 4 feet in front of me!

At any rate, I jump on this guy, handcuff him and ask him what the HELL he's doing coming at me with an aluminum baseball bat! He launches in to a paranoid diatribe about folks with guns chasing him, and I realize pretty quick that this guy is METHED OUT to the GILLS!

I track him back to his sisters house down the block, where he's been staying for a few days. He still wasn't saying exactly what he was doing, but i'm confident that he was looking to jack someone up to take their car, when he happened to see me walk out of my house. It was dark enough that he didn't see I was a cop, he just saw a shape walk out of the front door, and remember my car was parked around the side.

So, his intent was to charge in, wack someone a few times with the bat, jack them up, and steal their car! He was just stupid enough to pick ME to do it to!

At any rate, it was an interesting experience, and it goes to show how fast these things can happen, and how surreal they are when it happens to you!

For those that do scenario training, put that one in your goody bag.....what would you do if you were walking out of your house in the middle of the night and some guy came charging across your yard with a baseball bat without saying a word?
 

Carol

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:eek: :eek: :eek:

Holy **** Sarge, that sounds incredibly surreal. Glad you are OK and that you were able to accost him without incident.
 
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sgtmac_46

sgtmac_46

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:eek: :eek: :eek:

Holy **** Sarge, that sounds incredibly surreal. Glad you are OK and that you were able to accost him without incident.
That ones in the 'now it can be told' department as it actually occurred in 2002....and all possible legal proceedings are over and done.

As for being surreal, it's very interesting just how surreal those type of incidents are, at least for me. I mean i'm having this almost calm conversation in my head about who this guy is and why he's running at me with a baseball bat, almost as if i'm no longer in control of my body, but just a passive observer.....meanwhile, my mid-brain has hi-jacked my arms and legs and they're doing what they were trained to do....drawing a gun and stepping off line preparing to repell boarders!

I do remember drawing an invisible line on the ground where I had decided if he crossed it, I was going to shoot him where I was aiming....dead center of his chest....he actually dropped and landed on that line!

If there's a training lesson I can impart it's this.....train in odd environments. If you're used to training in a brightly lit dojo, pick a dark park one night to train in. Change the lighting conditions and the environment. Mix things up. My training kicked in, fortunately, but had I trained for a situation more like that, I wouldn't have had all the background 'chatter', the 'WTF' moment! Moreover, I walk out my door now more expecting something like that. Never find yourself in condition white!
 

Cryozombie

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LOL! What a dumbass.

Good job man. I think I would have shot him, and then been like "Halt!"

Probably good I didn't follow in my dad's footsteps and become a cop. :D
 

Topeng

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Thats scary. Though I'd like to think my reaction would be appropriate, its one of those situations you unfortunately have to be in to know.
I'm just a newbie when it comes to the arts so freezing up instead of going into a fighting mode is a real possibility.
Glad to hear the outcome went the way it did for you.
 
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sgtmac_46

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LOL! What a dumbass.

Good job man. I think I would have shot him, and then been like "Halt!"

Probably good I didn't follow in my dad's footsteps and become a cop. :D
You'd likely have been justified too...I darn near shot him myself...he stopped and dropped less than 1/2 second from me adding some after market vent holes.
 
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sgtmac_46

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Thats scary. Though I'd like to think my reaction would be appropriate, its one of those situations you unfortunately have to be in to know.
I'm just a newbie when it comes to the arts so freezing up instead of going into a fighting mode is a real possibility.
Glad to hear the outcome went the way it did for you.
Train for it....get a feel for what it's like to have someone coming at you from the dark. That's how these things actually happen! Have a buddy put a ski mask on in a controlled environment and come at you out of the dark with a wiffleball bat! THAT's REAL!

I've started training my officers by having them walk in to a dark environment. You'd be surprised the psychological difference when all you've trained in is brightly lit dojos and training halls....and you walk in to the DARK!

The statistics show that most police shootings occur at night, and most street crimes occur at night. Odds are if you're going to get mugged or robbed it's going to be at night, in a dimly lit location. The optimal step is to avoid those situations altogether, but sometimes you just end up there. If you're going to train to defend yourself, prepare psychological for those low-light ambush type incidents, because THAT is the form it's likely going to take when the flag flys!
 

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..what would you do if you were walking out of your house in the middle of the night and some guy came charging across your yard with a baseball bat without saying a word?

If I was YOU, I'd have probably shot him. Why didn't you?
 
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sgtmac_46

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If I was YOU, I'd have probably shot him. Why didn't you?
He hadn't crossed that invisible line i'd drawn in my mind on the ground.....and to be perfectly honest? I only gave him that for the bizarre reason that i'd never seen the guy before and the event was so surreal as to have me second guessing what was even going on. I've reviewed the situation over and over again in my mind.....and I feel I made the legally, morally and ethically right decision not to shoot before he crossed that line....which, technically, was twice the distance he was able to bring the baseball bat to bear from.....I REALLY think he only got that because I had a large tree to take cover behind, and I knew if I had to shoot him, shooting him once he crossed that line would still give me time to put NUMEROUS shots center of mass for effect!

If it happened again and I didn't have that tree for cover, I really thoroughly believe he'd be a dead man!
 

hafoc

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Train for it....get a feel for what it's like to have someone coming at you from the dark. That's how these things actually happen! Have a buddy put a ski mask on in a controlled environment and come at you out of the dark with a wiffleball bat! THAT's REAL!

I've started training my officers by having them walk in to a dark environment. You'd be surprised the psychological difference when all you've trained in is brightly lit dojos and training halls....and you walk in to the DARK!

The statistics show that most police shootings occur at night, and most street crimes occur at night. Odds are if you're going to get mugged or robbed it's going to be at night, in a dimly lit location. The optimal step is to avoid those situations altogether, but sometimes you just end up there. If you're going to train to defend yourself, prepare psychological for those low-light ambush type incidents, because THAT is the form it's likely going to take when the flag flys!

Good idea.
 

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Quite a story, Mac. Thanks for sharing.

It was one of those tales that serve to remind me just how different my life and general environment is compared to that of some of my fellows here at MT :tup:.

The worst I have to put up with is a near-neighbours manically barking dog :eek:.
 

arnisador

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I'm glad it ended well!

For those that do scenario training, put that one in your goody bag.....what would you do if you were walking out of your house in the middle of the night and some guy came charging across your yard with a baseball bat without saying a word?

Back/run away while looking for a barrier and/or equalizer (weapon)--hit 911 on the cell phone as soon as I can do it while staying away from him. Thriow anything that's handy in his face in hopes it'll slow him down (not likely if he's high on meth as you say). There's not much margin for error with a bat.
 
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sgtmac_46

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I'm glad it ended well!



Back/run away while looking for a barrier and/or equalizer (weapon)--hit 911 on the cell phone as soon as I can do it while staying away from him. Thriow anything that's handy in his face in hopes it'll slow him down (not likely if he's high on meth as you say). There's not much margin for error with a bat.

The barrier (tree) that I found to put between us was the only thing that saved this guys life.......it's the only thing that bought him the fraction of a second to realize I was wearing a uniform and pointing a gun at him.

Honestly, without that three, he was taking two in the chest in another fraction of a second......it was a foregone conclusion.

So yes, a barrier then an equalizer would be on the list of priorities if someone is unarmed facing that situation, I agree whole-heartedly.....put something between you to slow him down!
 

tellner

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Good job, man! I'm glad you didn't have to shoot him. But I have no doubt you would have dropped the hammer if it had gone that way.

Myself? I usually carry and would have probably shot him. If I hadn't had a pistol, I carry a knife. If I didn't have time to draw the knife, well, there are obstacles and a number of tricks I have stored away for things like that.
 
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sgtmac_46

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Good job, man! I'm glad you didn't have to shoot him. But I have no doubt you would have dropped the hammer if it had gone that way.

Myself? I usually carry and would have probably shot him. If I hadn't had a pistol, I carry a knife. If I didn't have time to draw the knife, well, there are obstacles and a number of tricks I have stored away for things like that.
You know, it's kind of strange......honestly I probably would have shot him, if the whole situation hadn't been so damn surreal......I just kept looking at this guys face, and wondering what the hell he was doing running through my yard with a baseball bat!

Bottom line is I made the mistake of walking out of my house in a near state of condition white, and he almost caught me off guard......LESSON LEARNED!
 

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