What If?

[John28226]

I'm not sure if tactics and training is the right place, so if the mods wish to move this, please do. Living in North Carolina there are a number of places where I cannot legally carry concealed. Most of the time, however, I am allowed to and do go armed.

There are times when I am working in the yard and not armed; times when I needed something to complete the project and went to Home Depot to pick it up. Often I tell myself, I'm only going to be going to Home Depot; its early in the morning and all the bad guys are still sleeping; I don't need to go and get my gun. I'll be right back!

Please read the following: it may alter your tactics as it has mine.

From The Orange County Register (newspaper in California)

"Dustin police arrested Jason Russell Richardson, 36, a parolee, in Oceanside on Thursday night in connection with the killing of Home Depot assistant manager Tom Egan, who was gunned down as he pleaded with the robber to leave his Tustin Marketplace store on Feb. 9.

Police came to the San Juan Capistrano home of Egan's widow, A.J., Thursday night to say they had arrested Richardson as he met with his parole officer for a drug test about 6:30 P.M. Thursday, family members said today. Police said DNA evidence found in the Home Depot matched DNA submitted by Richardson after he was convicted in 1992 for rape. The arrest is bittersweet, said Gene West, Egan's brother-in-law, who listened in on the speaker phone from his Northern California home as police delivered the news. "I'm happy the guy is off the street," West said. "It's almost like you want the guy caught and it will give you closure. But it doesn't. I just wish I had my brother-in-law back."

Customers watched as Egan, the father to 3 year old twin girls, was shot about 10:00 A.M. Feb. 9 in he middle of the crowded store by a man disguised as a painter. His killer got away with $500. "There is only on hero here," Tustin Police Chief Scott Jordan said at a news conference this morning. "That is Tom Egan."

Tustin police detectives used surveillance video to track the suspect's movements as he made his way through the Home Depot, demanding to be taken to a safe in the back of the store. "He (Egan) pleaded with the person to just leave," Jordan said. "Don't do this. Don't hurt anybody." The man broke away from Egan and went to the contractor's desk in the front of the store and held up a cashier. Egan followed, begging him to leave, Jordan said. The gunman turned and fired a single shot into Egan's abdomen. He ran out of the Home Depot and into a silver Ford Windstar.

"He put himself in harm's way trying to protect his coworkers and people he didn't even know, the customers," Jordan said. "He paid the ultimate sacrifice." Police originally said there was a second man, also wearing a disguise, driving the getaway van but after interviewing dozens of witnesses, police now say the man acted alone. Detectives used surveillance video to find DNA evidence that matched Richardson, Sgt. Jeff Blair said. Richardson has a rap sheet dating back to 1989 with convictions for rape, sexual assault on a child, residential burglary, grand theft, possession of stolen property and being under the influence of drugs. He is on parole for a 2002 spousal conviction.

"It's not going to bring him back but at least it is something," Kris West, Egan's sister-in-law, said in a telephone interview.

There is more from other area newspapers but I think you get the picture. One thing I really have to add is the quote from Egan's widow. "I was always proud of him and if he had to do it all over again, he would," she said. "That is the kind of guy he was. He wasn't a shoulda-woulda-coulda kind of guy."

Egan had served in the Marines, and, according to the other stories was well liked by his fellow employees.

John
Charlotte, NC