Posted on 05/21/2015 6:00:26 AM PDT by cripplecreek
A quick-thinking man who refused to become a victim hopes he taught a young bad guy a lesson.
Most people who carry a concealed handgun won't be in the situation where they have to draw and use it. That was a reality Tuesday for a Waterford man.
James Dockman refused to pull the trigger and tonight the 49-year-old explains why.
"Do you really want to (expletive) do this," Dockman said to the armed robber.
The young man holding the weapon didn't want to answer, fleeing.
Dockman said he was headed to his dialysis treatment around 4 a.m. Tuesday when he noticed someone coming out of the woods. The suspect walked up to his sport utility vehicle asking for help.
"He just goes leans in and (holds up a gun)," Dockman said.
So James who's licensed to carry a concealed pistol, responded in kind. He pulled out his 9mm Ruger, loaded with hollow points with a round already in the chamber.
"This guy had a gun on me, I got a gun on him," Dockman said. "I don't want to kill this kid. But I'm going home. He started looking both ways at me and kind of like he didn't know what to do."
The standoff lasted seconds but James says it felt much longer.
"All it would have taken was a twitch and I would've killed him," Dockman said. "He goes 'Have a nice day.' And then he backs up and as he backs up I brought my gun back down and he went back into the woods."
Dockman's quick draw which thwarted robbery and possibly bloodshed, was praised on Facebook
Andy Kinnison wrote "Good job on the good guy for carrying." But others unloaded a salvo of criticism.
Viewer Rick Smith wrote "Do not play games when threatened. When confronted with a gun in a crime, eliminate the threat immediately without hesitation."
And Grant Laskaska wrote "Don't pull it unless you're going to use it."
"A lot of people said 'I would've shot him,'" James said. "Well you know what, when you're in my shoes let me know what you're going to do. Until you're in my shoes I don't give an (expletive) what you think."
FOX 2: "Were you ready to shoot him?"
"I would have killed the man," Dockman said. "I would have killed him. I didn't want to. I don't want to live the rest of my life with that on my conscience of killing a 20-year-old kid.
"I'm 49 years old. I've been around a little while now. But push come to shove, I'm going home with that lady in that car there, that's my wife. I'm going home with her one way or the other."
More than the gun in his face, James says he'll remember the look in his would be robber's eyes. A look that was desperate but afraid - and that was before James drew his pistol.
"That guy wherever he is, he's still alive," Dockman said. "I'm glad he's still alive and pray to God he learned something from it."
BS..
And no better PR for criminals to have a few of their heads blasted.
These fluff stories send the wrong message. If you pull a gun on an Officer like
this MAN did on a civilian, do we think for one second that the officers training
told him to use the Mexican standoff defense? Hell no. He had an obligation to
shoot that criminal in the head.
Notice there is no opportunity to ask that question of the armed assailant.
We cannot know what the assailant learned from this incident. He may have merely learned how to perfect his craft.
Well you’ll never make a very good group thinker.
The bad guy had a gun on him first and he did not get shot when he drew his weapon and by completing the draw without getting shot he just evened the odds but then by not firing he gave the initiative back to the bad guy.
He got lucky a second time when the bad guy backed down. The bad guy was taught a lesson, but the lesson may have been to shoot his victim first and simply rob the body.
In this particular case life ended up both prolonged and less-complicated.
Let me give you the situation I was in, during one of the situations when I pulled out my weapon, and you tell me if you would have killed the two people or not have pulled.
I was flipping houses, a young black man knocked and wanted to talk see the house for his mother. I let him in to see the house, but I kept him at about 10 ft and he didn't know that I had a center-back holstered pistol. I kept my right hand on my hip, inches from the pistol, as I talked to him.
Soon after letting him in, he stopped making sense and it was clear that he had no interest in the house. Then the door (which I had failed to lock behind him) opened and #2 came in. They were exchanging looks and sizing me up. It was clear to me that they were on the verge of rushing me, or pulling weapons. I didn't want to be the second to pull, so I pulled and held the muzzle 45 degrees down with them at about 12 ft.
I told them to get the hell out and they ran like hell, without a word.
I could have waited and probably killed them both, but if I had waited, they may have shot me. If they rushed me, I could have shot them both, but then if they weren't armed, I would have been faced with having shot two unarmed, young black men that hadn't laid a finger on me.
My house that I was trying to sell would have been a crime scene, with the likelihood of it being trashed by the friends of the deceased quite high.
I pulled early to prevent getting behind the response curve, but in doing so created two fleeing criminals who had not yet produced a verbal or physical threat, and may not have been armed. Shooting them at that point would have resulted in prosecution for murder.
SampleMan some good lessons learned from your post, such as locking the door, keeping distance, recognizing the threat and taking actions to prevent e.scalation, AND BEING AWARE OF AFTERWARD CONSEQUENCES even if everything you did was legal.
When i first got my CHP i discussed holsters at the range and asked about center back carry like the guys on TV, say NCIS LA. I was told it’s dangerous because you could fall on your back and your back will break before the gun will. Mine is 4 o’clock IWB.
Center back was driven by the carpenter’s belt i needed and bending work I was constantly doing.
I don’t carry that way any more, but it did then.
Dockman is just plain lucky to be alive, regardless whether he shot first or didn’t. Suppose he did shoot the thug first, the thug could have shot back instantly.
I faced an incident wherein I was in a disabled car with my family and some deranged clown was pounding on my drivers window trying to get at me. I was in no position to fight this guy, he was demented or on drugs and could easily have taken me out as I could not maneuver in the car. I pulled my gun and away he went. It was used for the purpose intended but as I told him, he breaks the glass and he was dead. That got rid of him.
I certainly would have shot them if they had advanced even a step on me or produced a weapon, they just hadn’t made the move yet, and they decided not to give it a try.
I would not have done what this man in the article did. I would have shot the man as soon as my line of fire crossed his body. Mexican standoffs are for the movies. The perp may have been frightened and jittery, but that doesn’t make him less dangerous.
We must never forget that all CCW advocates are asking for is the option, because some day they may need the option so at the exact moment they can exercise it as the think best. In this case the victim was able to sufficiently protect himself without needing to exercise all the CCW option entails. Let us all hope that a young man will have had a positive life-changing realization and repent. (which means to not only realize the sin, but to resolve to not commit it again)
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