[P95Carry]

Your neighbor from three houses away appears at your front door, highly aggitated. She says her immediate neighbor (two houses from you) is under attack from her husband and things are serious - and this is far from first time. She came to you knowing you are a gun owner, hoping you'd help.

Said husband is known to you to be a gunnie - and also a highly strung individual. You establish that cops already been called but - your aggitated neighbor fears things are gonna go south real quick. She has heard shouts of ''I'll shoot you'' etc.

So - wait for cops? Hope woman does not get shot.

Go investigate? And risk armed confrontation?

(Free Advil on demand for those with headache :lol: )

 

[HollowpointHank]

This is a hard one for sure. Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows. . . oh wrong senario. . . definitely must wait on LE to arrive. Calm the neighbor that knocked on your door but wait for LE!!

 

[P95Carry]

I would want to wait for LE I must admit - but wonder how I'd feel if that wife ended up on mortuary slab!

 

[Ti Carry]

That is a tough one. I will have to say I'm going in! in a defensive position ofcourse to try and talk them through it while waiting for LE to arrive and distracting the situation. I couldn't just stand by and not help someone in need. I am in a rual area and LE would take I bet 10 - 15 minutes minimum, so alot can happen in that time if not longer. But this would be the one and only time, cause people never learn. I would give her the bennifit of the doubt only once. Taking them back for more abuse time and time again is crap.

Ti.

 

[P95Carry]

Same here - I'd reckon 10 minutes anyways - even if a car came out straight from barracks. Be matter of luck if car was on R56 in close proximity.

Thing that is so concerning is - even 60 seconds - a minute - is a long time when things are bad. The very reason in fact we carry at all - the ability to defend immediately if so required.

This is indeed a tricky one from several standpoints and I think we'd all agree, to having a basic wish/preference, to not getting ''involved'' - however - if there is a life at stake - as might well be perceived to be the case - how we do just stand by?

I guess for me - I'd play it as best I saw it, at the time. Hard to preconceive of one's actions purely on hypothetical description. Without trying to be hero's .... we'd have to do what we felt was morally responsible - whatever that may be !!

 

[acparmed]

I'll take those Advil now Chris. :1saufen:

Damn tough decision.

I think it's one of those situations that you'd have to be in to make a decision. Only because part of me says, "GO, GO, GO!!, The other part of my mind is saying, "Are you friggin' nuts?!!" :chairshot

 

[rocky]

Wait for PD. Without backup or legal capacity what are ya gonna do? In fact you could escalate the situation even more by showing up, especially once the PD does get there. As much as we like to help our dellow man, ya need to keep a straight head as to legal and tactical responsibilities.

 

[IronRanger]

This might sound wierd but I might try to get the guy out of the house. Start his lawn mower, start his car, ring the bell and yell avon , some thing to get him out of his house, but going in has legal issues.

 

[oregonshooter]

Wait for COPS. Happened before, who's fault is that? Hers. It's bad enough that COPS have to put their ass on the line for a woman that stays in an abusive relationship, they have some authority in the husbands mind (hopefully) to do so, but you have NO BUSINESS to be there.

You will only escalate the situation. Unless you are friends with the slimeball, then you might try diversion tactics to separate the two, but I did not get that was the case from your description.

Your question "if there is a life at stake how can we stand by?" is only answerable in that we must realize that we may not be the answer to saving that life. Sure we might be "Billy Bad Butt" with a gun and know how to use it, but how's you verbal judo? How are your less lethal tactics?

Don't fall into the "I got a gun and can save the world" trap! It got a guy 4 slugs at the Tacoma Mall shooting last week.

On the other hand, I can't stand to read people telling me they would let others be murdered in front of them because they have a gun only for them and their immediate family.

Stupid Brave is better than nothing, but you owe it to yourself to think it through. Posts like this allow us to do so before it happens, because without for arming ourselves mentally, we will likely be the "Fools rushing in!"

 

[Scott]

Get agitated neighbor somewhere out of the way so she doesn't escalate the situation.

Go over and ring the door bell, knock or whatever to summon someone to talk to you.

Ask to borrow something whatever. Do not ask if things are "ok" or anything that indicates you are there because of what was heard outside the house.

Discuss recipes or whatever with whomever answers the door. Basically delay things inside until the police arrive. Likely the wife will not press charges. It will be a big shoulder shrug and it will happen again. So you also need to decide how many times you are going to "do something" about the situation.

Probably sit down the agitated neighbor afterwards and explain to her how domestic abuse typically works, and that there really is little she can do aside from offering to be there for the wife if she decides to leave.

Domestic calls are hated by most cops for a reason.

-Scott-

 

[MattInFla]

Never, never, NEVER interpose yourself in someone else's domestic dispute. No matter how much they hate each other at that moment, you are the interloper. As often as not, you end up with both of them wanting to hurt you for getting in the middle of their issues. Stupid but true.

As tempting as riding in on your white horse might be, leave this one to the police.

Matt

 

[ron8903]

wait on LO
Nine time out of ten the female will take her hubbies side and then you will have two agenst 1

 

[LeatherneckOIF2]

I think I'd try something similar to what Scott said. Just knock on the door and play dumb, try to get them apart until the LEO arrive.

Tough decision for sure, half says get in there and break it up, half says stay out and wait, hoping for the best...

 

[P95Carry]

Thx guys - well - this is purely hypothetical - just something to throw into the lion's den :smile: Of course - a very possible scenario tho too.

Numerous very sound points made and let me say - I am no ''Knight on a white horse'', waiting to save damsels in distress - I am too old to have any aspirations about heroics. I would almost certainly have to play things cool as an uninvolved third party (and yeah, keep that aggitated neighbor controlled) - but still in the back of my fertile imagination, is the sound of gunshots and cops arriving to a corpse.

 

[Rob72]

As above- PD. Would suck to have the woman put a 12g load into you for shooting hubby........

 

[ibex]

Yup, definitely wait for LEOs. I would hate to tell my neighbor that I'm going to sit on my buttocks while someone next door might get hurt or killed, but intervention means walking on very thin legal ice.

Besides, you cannot save someone from an abusive spouse. Even if you succeed this time, there will be a next time, and then you might not be there to save the day... again.

The police are neither bodyguards nor babysitters. And neither am I.

 

[ron8903]

slain police officers each were shot twice and were not wearing bullet-proof vests, authorities confirmed today.

Autopsies show Brandon Breland, 23, nor Odell Fite, 48, were struck by bullets from a .40-caliber pistol, a type commonly used by police officers, said Stone County Coroner Michael Jay Lott.

"Either bullet for either one of the men would have been fatal," Lott said.

Breland was shot in the back and his right front thigh. Fite was shot in the center of his chest and in the right side of his abdomen, according to Lott.

A spokesman for the District Attorney's Office confirmed that neither officer wore a protective vest as they responded to a domestic disturbance call Sunday night on South 1st Street. Funeral services will be Wednesday for Fite and Thursday for Breland.

Please LEO's put on your vests.
This is a reprint from officer.com It did not state who shot the officers, But please let LEO's respond to domestics.

 

[Dumos]

Wait for the police to show up. If you fear for the wife's life maybe standby outside. Look through a window to see if you can see what's going on. If anything happens you can possibly distract him by knocking on the widow. make him focus on something else until the police get there. Scott has the right idea.

 

[QKShooter]

TRUE STORY & not to hijack the thread

But, it's a related story!

True Story ~ Time 2:30 AM
Middle of the night I hear female screaming & LOUD male spasmodic yelling & Constant "F" word swearing. Top Of The Lungs Swearing & yelling.
The female had locked herself in the car. The male was Yelling - and had jumped on the hood of the car & was Beating on the car windshield with his fists Yelling " Open The "F" ing DOOR Bit(h! - You BETTER OPEN that Fing door! Then he threw his cell phone down as hard as he could & smashed it on the front windshield.

That went on for Three or Four minutes & during that time I quickly located my own Cell Phone & had already called the police.

At that exact moment (and while I'm on the phone) the male yells I'll kill you if you don't open the G~Damn Door!
I'll kill you if you don't open the Fing Door.

Whereupon the Female actually Opens The Car Door!!!!

The guy PHYSICALLY DRAGS her out of the front seat of the car & starts yelling in her face at the top of his lungs & She is Combination Screaming/Crying & Yelling back..."You're Such An A$$hole! - You're Such An A$$hole! - Why are you doing this to me? Why are you doing this to me? Sob Sob ~ You're Fing Crazy!

At that point I yelled out my window..."Hey! It's 2:30 in the G~Damn Morning....You woke my A$$ UP & there is a Senior Citizen Home...right there behind you...Will you two Shut The FU(k UP!?! - I already called the POLICE."

The male then wanted them both OFF THE STREET so he grabs her by the neck & starts pulling her (by the neck) up 10 concrete steps to hurry up & get them both inside their apartment.
The female is crying & screaming to beat all Hell.

We have REALLY LIGHTNING FAST POLICE RESPONSE in my area & at that very second TWO patrol cars pull up. The primary officer & his Back Up.

The loving couple INSTANTLY BOTH SHUT OFF like turning the hot water off on a faucet.

They explained that they were having an argument BECAUSE "The Male was such an A~hole."
Where upon the Male told the cop that SHE was the A~hole & they both admitted that they had too much to drink. They were (by then) HOLDING HANDS.

At that point in time....I shut my window and went back to sleep.

They probably were doing the BREAK UP TO MAKE UP THING & likely went up into their apartment to make passionate Kissy~Face love to each other.

People are totally nuts these days.
I probably won't ever get more involved than calling the POLICE for Young People/Couple Domestic Squabbles unless the Tire Iron actually comes out of the trunk & somebody is ready to get their skull smashed in. Even then...in THIS situation...I would have (for sure) ended up being the Bad Guy....unless the females head actually ended up getting smashed in.

Be very careful how you get invoved in Lovers Spats because both perps WILL PROBABLY turn on YOU when the Police arrive.

 

[P95Carry]

Be very careful how you get invoved in Lovers Spats because both perps WILL PROBABLY turn on YOU when the Police arrive.

More I think on that - the more I'd be inclined to agree!!