Clackamas mall shooter faced man with concealed weapon

by Mike Benner, KGW Staff Posted on December 17, 2012 at 5:18 AM Updated yesterday at 11:52 AM

PORTLAND -- Nick Meli is emotionally drained. The 22-year-old was at Clackamas Town Center with a friend and her baby when a masked man opened fire. "I heard three shots and turned and looked at Casey and said, 'are you serious?,'" he said the friend and baby hit the floor. Meli, who has a concealed carry permit, positioned himself behind a pillar. "He was working on his rifle," said Meli. "He kept pulling the charging handle and hitting the side." The break in gunfire allowed Meli to pull out his own gun, but he never took his eyes off the shooter. "As I was going down to pull, I saw someone in the back of the Charlotte move, and I knew if I fired and missed, I could hit them," he said. Meli took cover inside a nearby store. He never pulled the trigger. He stands by that decision. "I'm not beating myself up cause I didn't shoot him," said Meli. "I know after he saw me, I think the last shot he fired was the one he used on himself."

The gunman was dead, but not before taking two innocent lives with him and taking the innocence of everyone else. "I don't ever want to see anyone that way ever," said Meli. "It just bothers me."

It's not a bad thing that this is reposted, but you could have checked to see if this item had already appeared. It had, as seen by re-searching on the word "Clackamas" up in the search box on the FR Index page. Here's what that turned up:

Clackamas man, armed, confronts mall shooter
nwcn.com ^ | 14 December, 2012 | Mike Benner
Posted on Sat Dec 15 2012 15:30:31 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) by marktwain

FYI

This guy may have saved many lives.

You are quite right here, and it is why I think it is necessary to insist on -- to keep banging on -- the statistic that also has been posted here: that is, that the immediate response of a lawfully licensed and armed CCW citizen at Clackamas mall did cut short the spree, and reinforces the up-side part of the statistic that

The average number of people killed in a mass shooting when stopped by a civilian is 2.3,
as opposed to
The average number of people killed in mass shootings when stopped by police is 14.3;

which was shown in the article previously posted on Free Republic:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2967141/posts

Auditing Shooting Rampage Statistics (Private Citizen vs Police Saves)
dailyanarchist.com ^ | 31 July, 2012 | Davi Barker
Posted on Sun Dec 09 2012 13:45:34 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time) by marktwain

Of course, the down-side statistic was reinorced by the Newtown, CT incident -- sad, but true to form.

This concept needs to be impressed on every anti-gunner, every educator/teacher, and every federal/state/county legislator you can reach; as well as being in the Gun Facts talking points locker of every Second Amendment pro-gun citizen.

This also ought to be in the formulation of police response team doctrine.

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