The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - I need your opinions on having to draw my weapon.

Radiki · May 14, 2008, 09:57 PM

Okay, here is the situation.

Background, Although I am a DCJS officer and have a CCP in the state of Virginia which is legal in MI where this takes place. I am not a sworn officer. I was making a long road trip. I left VA and drove up to Michigan to deal with a very stressful issue which I won't go into detatil about here, But I state it because I want to show that I was already stressed out pretty bad when the following happened and I had just been on the road like 10 hours and had been up for close to 30. Which is why I want others opinions on what occured, since I know I wasn't thinking perfectly straight.

Around detroit I was running out of gas and My stupid GPS thing got me lost. Anyways, I didn't have time to try and risk going any further, I needed gas. So I get off the highway and find myself immediately in one of those situations where I know I need to be on high alert. Just a really ghetto area. Similar to the bad parts of the NYC where I have spent a lot of time. The area didn't look all that good, but I had little choice since I knew not where the next gas station was. It was also a Sunday morning, 9:30ish AM, bright sun, so it's not like anyone could be hiding in the shadows or anything. So whatever, I start pumping the gas. There was a worker in the station booth and a single male in the far corner of the lot. So I am pumping gas and the guy in the corner looks at me and is like "Nice Car Man". I am immediately curious. I am not in one of my hot rods or anything. I am in a rented base model, POS etc. It was not impressive in any way shape or form. Dirty etc. But I also know that I look like a little country boy up in the big city and I am out or place.

So I respond, "Thanks Man" and don't take my eyes off him. He gets up and starts walking over (maybe 40ft away) He says, " I would love to take a closer look at it" To me that is an odd thing to say. I said to him "Hey, it ain't all that... Do me a favor will you? just stay over there? okay?" He says "It ain't no big deal, I just want to look at it"

At this point I have my hand next to my hip resting on my holster, looking directly at him and he is 20 feet and closing. I tell him straight out. "Look, I have been on the road too long... Leave me alone.. and back up!" I still have the car between us but he is starting to move around the hood towards the drivers door which is open and in between us. He says something along the lines of " It's okay, I just want to take it for a ride...." As he is saying this, His right hand grabs the top of the drivers door which starts to close so he can maneuver around it, and I can't see his left. I was handling this alright to this point because since I could see both hands, I knew he wasn't armed. But now, he was withing 5ft of me and one hand was unaccounted for. I felt threatened. I drew my weapon as he was pushing the door to get around it which would have left nothing between us and him very close to me.

As I pointed my pistol towards him, I yelled" Back the F--- up. I am not in the F---ing mood." He froze, and didn't say a thing. It was probably only a couple of seconds before he turned and ran, but it seemed like an eternity. I kept my pistol trained on him until he was out of the lot and around the corner. I holstered my pistol and did not want to wait to see if he came back with any friends. I handed a business card to the gas station guy who was now outside who witnessed the whole thing and said that he should call the police and to give them my card at which point I would meet them where ever they wanted. .... As for why I didn't call the cops, my cell phone was dead, I had left my charger at home cause I really wasn't thinking straight when I left.

I drove up the highway until I saw a not so ghetto place and waited in the parking lot and tried to calm down. I continued on with my trip, called my voicemail when I got to my destination and had no messages. I have not gotten any since then. This was almost a month ago and have not had any contact with the police up there. I imagine either, the gas station dude didn't do anything or they didn't care... or whatever.

Either way, I want to know what everyone hear thinks about what I did. In retrospect, I realize I did not draw on an imminent threat to my life, and I don't know what MI laws are regarding protecting property, but I felt threatened even if it wasn't because of a visible weapon. I probably should have called the cops when I got further north, but honestly at time i didn't want to deal with it. How could I have handled it better? What would you have done?

May 14, 2008, 09:57 PM	#1
Radiki Senior Member Join Date: February 22, 2005 Posts: 145	I need your opinions on having to draw my weapon. Okay, here is the situation. Background, Although I am a DCJS officer and have a CCP in the state of Virginia which is legal in MI where this takes place. I am not a sworn officer. I was making a long road trip. I left VA and drove up to Michigan to deal with a very stressful issue which I won't go into detatil about here, But I state it because I want to show that I was already stressed out pretty bad when the following happened and I had just been on the road like 10 hours and had been up for close to 30. Which is why I want others opinions on what occured, since I know I wasn't thinking perfectly straight. Around detroit I was running out of gas and My stupid GPS thing got me lost. Anyways, I didn't have time to try and risk going any further, I needed gas. So I get off the highway and find myself immediately in one of those situations where I know I need to be on high alert. Just a really ghetto area. Similar to the bad parts of the NYC where I have spent a lot of time. The area didn't look all that good, but I had little choice since I knew not where the next gas station was. It was also a Sunday morning, 9:30ish AM, bright sun, so it's not like anyone could be hiding in the shadows or anything. So whatever, I start pumping the gas. There was a worker in the station booth and a single male in the far corner of the lot. So I am pumping gas and the guy in the corner looks at me and is like "Nice Car Man". I am immediately curious. I am not in one of my hot rods or anything. I am in a rented base model, POS etc. It was not impressive in any way shape or form. Dirty etc. But I also know that I look like a little country boy up in the big city and I am out or place. So I respond, "Thanks Man" and don't take my eyes off him. He gets up and starts walking over (maybe 40ft away) He says, " I would love to take a closer look at it" To me that is an odd thing to say. I said to him "Hey, it ain't all that... Do me a favor will you? just stay over there? okay?" He says "It ain't no big deal, I just want to look at it" At this point I have my hand next to my hip resting on my holster, looking directly at him and he is 20 feet and closing. I tell him straight out. "Look, I have been on the road too long... Leave me alone.. and back up!" I still have the car between us but he is starting to move around the hood towards the drivers door which is open and in between us. He says something along the lines of " It's okay, I just want to take it for a ride...." As he is saying this, His right hand grabs the top of the drivers door which starts to close so he can maneuver around it, and I can't see his left. I was handling this alright to this point because since I could see both hands, I knew he wasn't armed. But now, he was withing 5ft of me and one hand was unaccounted for. I felt threatened. I drew my weapon as he was pushing the door to get around it which would have left nothing between us and him very close to me. As I pointed my pistol towards him, I yelled" Back the F--- up. I am not in the F---ing mood." He froze, and didn't say a thing. It was probably only a couple of seconds before he turned and ran, but it seemed like an eternity. I kept my pistol trained on him until he was out of the lot and around the corner. I holstered my pistol and did not want to wait to see if he came back with any friends. I handed a business card to the gas station guy who was now outside who witnessed the whole thing and said that he should call the police and to give them my card at which point I would meet them where ever they wanted. .... As for why I didn't call the cops, my cell phone was dead, I had left my charger at home cause I really wasn't thinking straight when I left. I drove up the highway until I saw a not so ghetto place and waited in the parking lot and tried to calm down. I continued on with my trip, called my voicemail when I got to my destination and had no messages. I have not gotten any since then. This was almost a month ago and have not had any contact with the police up there. I imagine either, the gas station dude didn't do anything or they didn't care... or whatever. Either way, I want to know what everyone hear thinks about what I did. In retrospect, I realize I did not draw on an imminent threat to my life, and I don't know what MI laws are regarding protecting property, but I felt threatened even if it wasn't because of a visible weapon. I probably should have called the cops when I got further north, but honestly at time i didn't want to deal with it. How could I have handled it better? What would you have done?