[SNIP]
I was sound alseep when I heard the alarm chime go off (means door or window has been opened) I sit wide awake in bed and waited for the tell-telll lite in kitchen to come on from my son, I figured that he decided to come home after all. After a few seconds the light did not come on butI did notice a flashlight moving around in kitchen area.
I grabbed my glasses my cell, the flashlight and of course Big Dawg. I kicked the saftey off and started down the hall clearing the door ways as I went, with the light off(did not want to let the person knowI was up)
[Perfect response so far.]So I made it into the living room and there are a stranger in my house looking for things to take.
I quickly turned on the flashlight and raise my 1911 up and was prepared to fire if need be.
[good so far] The guy turned around and to say the least was very surprised to see me. He took a couple of steps towards me and i holered at him not to move.
[Mistake: you should have fired the instant he moved towards you with the gun. This hesitation could have cost you your life.] I quickly flashed the light to my other hand so that he could see what he was facing and then back into his face (very bright sure fire light)I noticed that he was holding a very large hunting style knife I told him to drop the knife and to step away from it.
[Mistake: flashing the light around may have warned him, but it also may have distracted you since you were devoting at least part of your thought to showing him your gun, meaning he could have lunged and surprised you here as well.]
He did and then I had him lay down on the carpet with hands up above his head and palms up. I then slowly moved over and turned on the over head light now that my eye sight had adjusted correctly.
[Good recovery of a bad situation.]
So here I am naked with light and cell phone in one hand and my 1911 in the other with a BG face down on my floor in front of me.No[w] I know that in a short distance that someone with a knife can be just as dangerous as a man with a gun, soI was not taking my eyes off of him.
[You knew, but you forgot when it mattered and he had the knife and was moving toward you. Adrenaline makes this type of thinking difficult, but it's no less crucial.]
I calleld the police and told them that I had an intruder in my house and that I did have a firearm pointed at him. I decsrcibed my self and gave instructions for police to safely enter my house, I also told the dispatcher thatI was undressed so that the police would not be taken off gaurd. I waited about 5-6 minutes on the phone with the dispatcher and then she told me that the police had arrived and was comming around to my back door.
[Excellent call to police. Letting them know which guy was the good guy, which guy was the bad guy, where you were in the house with the firearm, and where they could enter safely was perfect. I don't think you could have done that better.]
[SNIP]
They were very professional about the entire ordeal and never gave me any grief about the gun
I had, in fact one of the officers (the female officer) thanked me for being one of the Good Guys and providing the dispatcher with enough informatin where they had a good idea of what they were walking into.
[I'd take this to mean that you could have shot him when he lunged, and it still would have worked out for you with no charges filed. This is an assumption though.]
[SNIP]
Everyone one walked away and the best part is I did not have to clean up a bunch of blood from my carpet.
[I agree. Not having tolive with taking the life of another human, face a jury, and clean up blood from your carpet is priceless. I'm glad it worked out sowell for you.] I am glad that all the years I have gone through some mental excercises on what if situations that I was in a clear enough state of mind to make at least some good decissions.
[I think hesitating to shoot the instant he lunged at you and flashing the light to your pistolwere bad decisions. Thankfully the rest of your decisions were great and the encounter ended well.]
[SNIP]
Ok so now I am ready to open it up let me know where I dropped the ball