what would you do "lost"

rvd4now said:

last night at 3am i was at mcdonalds when i notice a lady thrown out a moveing pickup truck. as i sat and watch, as she gets up and runs around the parking lot while this truck tries to hit her."the truck had to guys in it". one guy gets out and grabs the lady by her hair and drags her back to the truck as shes kicking and screaming.

at that point i did not know what to do. my edc is my xdm45 with two extra 13 rd mags. but because i was just getting off of work i only had my "bug" lpc 380. with me.
I did call the police but by the time they got there the truck had left.


my questions is

1) should i have tried to stop them from putting her back in the car.
A) i did not have my xdm with me only my lpc 6+1. what if they pulled a gun
2) should i have pulled my gun in defence of the lady who was being hurt and beat on,.
3) should i have pull my car behind them to block them in intill the police showed up. "because i leave by the airport response time is great"


i ended up just calling the cops who came very fast, i feel really bad becuase if it was my mom,wife,sister ext id what some one to help. i could not sleep all night wondering what if i would of help...


just what if....

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rvd4now said:

one guy gets out and grabs the lady by her hair and drags her back to the truck as shes kicking and screaming.

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Onnie said:

Based on your description of your reaction on what was going on, I think your level of confidence in such matters is in question, I am not slamming you but Id say you probably did the right thing FOR YOU, since today you are not sure if you did the right thing or not.

If you had to think about it, you were not ready to step in which may end up getting yourself or the woman killed.

Sometimes Non-Action is the correction Action, but you have to know that the decision was the right one, and you don’t seem to know that at this time.

You cannot be second-guessing your decision in these matters at the time they are happening, you MUST assess the situation and act immediately based on what you seen and heard. If you cannot, and it was obvious you could not, then you were not ready to act. You would have been more of a danger to yourself and to her. Your non-action was the only choice you could make.

Seems you are also feeling a bit guilty for how you handled it. This is something you will need to address within. But understand, unless you all of a sudden became a super hero, you will probably be suffering some guilt. Don’t let it chew you up. Address the issue and learn from it, its how we grow!


My only question is did the truck leave with the woman? If so, you did not follow with 911 on the line?


Added: 15 to 20 years ago in downtown Detroit, i was in a McDonalds I think if I recall it was the RenCen. A woman came in and jumped the counter and clobbered a worker with a wine bottle knocking the out! The first woman jumped back over the counter and ran in-between my wife and myself. I just stood there.............I had not expected such a thing to happen and not one person ran after the attacker............Today I hope my heightened awareness would allow me to intervene if another such attack happened. I still think about that day and feel guilty that I did nothing, but at that time in my life, I was not in any position to protect myself let alone anyone else.

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rvd4now said:

my thought was a six shot, vs two men with guns id would not stand a chance. it was a bad mix, it was really late my cell phone was dieing..

as i said if i was carrying my 45 i would of steped in with out a doubt. i just felt like if i pointed my gun and a shootout occured would i have enough rounds to protect my self and her.

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Schlitz said:

Yea...I think I would have stepped in after calling the police. ****** situation to be in to have to make that call. Then again, I don't know how far away you were, were you in your car, in the building? Those would all come into play. I don't carry to defend other people, but this sounds pretty bad - possible kidnapping scenario.

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rvd4now said:

it was a kidnapping i guessing, things that went threw my mind was

1) what if this is a bf and gf that are drunk and just fighting
2) what if this is really a kid napping
3) what if they have guns , once again i only had my lil 380 i carry as a bug.

what if i have to shoot this guy, how would she react if they were just haveing a bad fight..

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sharkey said:

I would have rammed the truck with my vehicle no matter what I was carrying. I'm assuming you were in your vehicle. My vehicle can change direction and my bullets can't.

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rvd4now said:

yea.. thats just asking for it.. i do not think thats a good ideal at all

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sharkey said:

Asking for what? Two thugs are about to kill a woman and I have to act fast. If I shoot at what I gather to be an erratically moving target I may kill the victim. I can control my vehicle enough to change direction and push it AWAY from the victim. At that point the perps freak out and stand down or we go into firefight mode with the victim removed from the equation.

I've never had a problem standing in and don't recall EVER watching an unequal fight from the outside. I DESPISE bullies and welcome an opportunity to defend the underdog. It's the American way.

ETA: Option 3 sounds good if it would actually work.

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Badger Johnson said:

As I've said many times, a handgun does not SOLVE everything. I totally agree with the poster above who said he'd have used his car, instead of a firing solution to stop the event IF it was truly life and death. Insurance is for such times. Of course using your car is not 100% foolproof.

For a lesser reaction, get the license number and try to photo or ID the driver and the car. USE your cameras, folks, not your guns. Part of being a good witness, especially here, where the assault was not directed at yourself (allowing time to react and gather information).

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Shadow Bear said:

Two words-

Car Charger

Don't sweat it. Her body will turn up eventually.

Oh, and dump the peashooter.

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rvd4now said:

see once again it could be a husban and wife fighting, they driver never got out of the pick up..
it could be a bf and gf drunk out of there mind, u just dont know. i dont think raming a park truck fixes any thing.. say the police arrives and she does not wanna press charges. but guess who does the: the guy who trunk i ran into. i just dont think u should use a car as a weapon any more then a gun there both last resort..

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griffin said:

Follow with 911 on the line.

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G30Mike said:

911 discourages people to follow.
There was an incident I got into where my ex stole my car, but since she had prior access to it I couldn't make a report. I came across my "stolen car" and someone whom I've never met was driving it. I chased them and got on the phone with 911. They advised me to immediately stop following them and to go meet with an officer. The officers I met with told me if I would have chased them around I could have been arrested for stalking. What a crock huh.

I ended up having to steal the car back myself, without police assistance. That's what they advised me to do.

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