Young carjackers learn a valuable lesson...

[Glockamolie]

From the Houston Chronicle...

RICHMOND, TX - Two teenagers who police said tried to steal a Rosenberg man's luxury car picked the wrong person, the wrong place and the wrong time.

After abducting the man, who was able to stash his own pistol in a pocket, the teens drove him to a vacant lot Friday that just happened to be a few hundred feet from the Richmond police station, where officers were changing shifts.

When McRon Thompson, 23, opened fire on the would-be car thieves, police heard the shots and came running. The teens, who were both wounded, were captured.

"Obviously, they didn't know where they were, close to the police station and during a shift change. They didn't have a clue," said Sgt. Lowell Neinast of the Richmond Police Department.

Neinast said the teens are from Brookshire and detectives do not know why they chose the Fort Bend County town as a place for a carjacking.

The two, 18-year-old Joshua Payne and a 15-year-old whose name was not released because of his age, are facing aggravated robbery charges.

No charges are expected against Thompson, Neinast said.

Thompson had stopped at a carwash in the 1400 block of Jackson about 1 a.m., after finishing work at the nearby Richmond Foundry.

Vehicles looked suspicious

Neinast said Thompson was washing his customized Cadillac when he noticed three vehicles drive slowly through the carwash parking lot. The cars left but returned a few minutes later, again going slowly through the parking lot.

After the three cars passed by the second time, Thompson retrieved a .40-caliber pistol from his car, loaded it and then put it in his pocket.

A few minutes later, one of the cars returned to the carwash and stopped.

When Thompson peered around the wall of a carwash stall, he found himself staring at the end of a pistol held by a young man wearing a bandana over his face.

The gunman forced Thompson into the back seat of the Cadillac while another person got behind the wheel and began to drive away.

Neinast said the pair drove to the 500 block of Calhoun, just a block away from the Richmond police station, an imposing brick building that served for many years as the Fort Bend County Jail.

The teens ordered Thompson out of his car and told him to lie down on the grass. While Thompson was complying, a second vehicle, one that he had seen earlier at the carwash, arrived and stopped.

Neinast said as the teens were getting ready to leave in the Cadillac, Thompson managed to pull his pistol and open fire.

Payne was hit in the back by a bullet that exited his stomach. The other teen was struck in the right shoulder.

Police officers, standing in the parking lot of the station, heard the shots and were on the scene in seconds. Officers spotted the teens running, then caught them. Police also recovered a semiautomatic pistol allegedly used by the 15-year-old, Neinast said.

Both teens hospitalized

Payne was taken by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital and the 15-year-old to Ben Taub Hospital. Their conditions were not immediately available.

Other suspects are still at large.

Neinast said Thompson's Cadillac was in "immaculate condition," and the suspects were probably just driving around town looking for a target."


This brings up the point of multiple assailants. This type of thing is a lot more frequent, along with the home invasions. Then, also from today's paper, it can end in a bad way:


"Brady Davis awoke early Friday to get started on the barbecue dinner he was to cater that evening.

The retired woodshop teacher first had to rinse down his pit and trailer. As was his custom, Davis, 61, cleaned his grill at a northeast Houston carwash in the 11300 block of Homestead near Little York, not far from his home.

When he finished up a few minutes after 6 a.m., Houston police say, two young men wearing hooded jackets and dark clothes approached. A moment later, Davis was found lying beside his truck with a single gunshot wound.

Police describe the incident as a "robbery gone bad," but his family can't imagine why Davis would refuse the robbers' demands.

"He would've gave it to him," said Davis' stepson, Whitney Jones, 21. "It ain't nothing."

After the shooting, the two men were seen running west on Guadalupe, police said. The pair motioned to the driver of a small, black four-door car, who picked them up.

Davis, who had worked for more than 20 years for the North Forest Independent School District, still had money in his wallet, said Houston homicide detective Alan Brown. It was unknown whether Davis put up a fight.

Brown said the killers had tried to rob a woman minutes earlier, but she had no money on her and was not harmed..."

[Glock 31]

Sounds like they got what was coming to them. And if anyone was to raise issue to the fact that one of the assailants was shot in the back, it's called disparity of force. +1 to Mr. Thompson for surviving what could have gone very bad had he not been aware of his situation and acted accordingly by loading and stashing his weapon.

[joab]

There was a thread awhile back about the dangers of car washes this illustrates is perfectly.


Even though he had the situational awareness to recognize a threat and arm himself to prepare for it Thompson was still caught off guard and forced to comply until he had the opportunity to catch his assailants off guard.
This scenario has also been the subject of a few threads.

Thompson survived so you can't really criticize his tactics but I don't think I would allow myself to be taken to an undisclosed seemingly deserted spot ,lie down in execution position and hope for the best.

[308Enfield]

I agree that its hard to criticize someone who survived, but I have to say that the person in the first case was suffering from a serious lack of situational awareness. You're out at 1:00 AM, you're washing your expensive, custom car, you see suspicious people circle you, leave, and return. You are suspicious enough of these people that you arm yourself, but then continue washing your car? If I'm somewhere that I think I really might have to use a weapon, I'm going to do my best to go somewhere else. A car wash isn't worth getting into a gunfight for. I don't criticize him for defending himself when he had to, but it seems like it would have been easy to avoid landing in that situation to begin with.

[mete]

Yes , he got and loaded his gun when they came around a second time !!! Clueless .

[JoshB]

He should have had his gun already loaded and on his person the first time. Fortunately, he did have it when he needed it. Why didn't he pull pistol out when he was in the back seat? That seems like a perfect way to turn the table around!
I guess we can criticize him for what he should/should not have done, but the important thing is that he defended himself and a few BG's will think twice b/f they hijack their next car!

[Double Naught Spy]

JoshB, d'uh! When you are from Richmond, TX, you don't soil the inside of your own LUXURY car with the blood of carjackers. That would be stupid.

[all above said in 100% sarcasm]

We shot a Ken Hackathorn class on the Richmond PD range along with part of their SWAT team. RPD were good enound folks, but Richmond has some very depressed areas. Right next to the range and the last few blocks before the range, in fact, we were informed was an area with one of the highest concentrations of AIDS in the country, the byproduct of heavy IV drug use and unprotected sex, related to drugs.

[silicon wolverine]

If that woulda been me id have shot both of them in the back of the head while inside the car. Blood does come out of upholstry and id rather be alive witha messy car than dead with a clean one!

SW

[JoshB]

When you are from Richmond, TX, you don't soil the inside of your own LUXURY car with the blood of carjackers. That would be stupid.

Not a fan of luxury cars, but good point though. Will LE clean your car out for you if you have to kill a BG in it? What about if you kill a guy in your house?

[Blackwater OPS]

Will LE clean your car out for you if you have to kill a BG in it? What about if you kill a guy in your house?

HAHAHA! Is that a serious question?

[Syntax360]

Originally posted by JoshB.
Not a fan of luxury cars, but good point though. Will LE clean your car out for you if you have to kill a BG in it? What about if you kill a guy in your house?

The mess you make is yours to clean up. Most sizeable cities have services that will come do it for you, for a fee of course. In any event - I, too, probably would have resolved the situation in the car.

I would rather pay professionals to clean up the mess after the fact than do it myself. I would think one would have been through enough already after the shooting, and scrapping brain tissue from my dashboard would probably be the kind of thing that would keep me up at night for awhile.

[joab]

. You're out at 1:00 AM, you're washing your expensive, custom car,

OK that part didn't register I ASSumed 1PM
I have had to wash my car during the wee hours before but I was on high (paranoid) alert the whole time.
But maybe this is his lifestyle and he is comfortable with it.

And blood does not come out of leather, I learned that watching CSI

[JoshB]

Quote:
Will LE clean your car out for you if you have to kill a BG in it? What about if you kill a guy in your house?

HAHAHA! Is that a serious question?

Yes, that was a serious question.

Syntax, thanks for the info. While I'm not a big fan of cleaning up human remains - especially in my car/house - I would have resolved the situation in the car. At least I would 1) still have my life & 2) still have my car.

[Wyo Cowboy]

Not a fan of luxury cars, but good point though. Will LE clean your car out for you if you have to kill a BG in it? What about if you kill a guy in your house?

5 words... Servepro, like it never happened!

[NBT]

Have you tried asking your insurance agent

[HiPowering Along]

You're out at 1:00 AM, you're washing your expensive, custom car, you see suspicious people circle you, leave, and return. You are suspicious enough of these people that you arm yourself, but then continue washing your car? If I'm somewhere that I think I really might have to use a weapon, I'm going to do my best to go somewhere else. A car wash isn't worth getting into a gunfight for. I don't criticize him for defending himself when he had to, but it seems like it would have been easy to avoid landing in that situation to begin with.

That last sentence really got me going. Why in the blooming **** should ANYONE need to leave, because some idiots are looking to do something illegal somewhere? WHY? It's not his responsibility to stop doing what he came there to do (LEGALLY, I MIGHT ADD) and vacate the area?

Where in the world does everyone come off giving the world to the bloody criminals? What in the heck is it going to take to change the mindset of this country and take it back from the lazy, scumsucking bottom dwelling feeders and not have to live in fear of being away from our homes?

Until the courts stop being "politically correct" and moly-coddling the "rights of the accused (read: criminals)" and give those of us that defend what we've worked long hard hours for the rights we should have (the right to not be mugged, killed, robbed, raped, etc), this country is doomed to the same place those cretins dwell - sucking scum off the bottom of the pit. I think it's called "going to %%%% in a handbasket" - and we're all gaining speed on the trip to the bottom.

Those morons got EXACTLY what was coming to them - they could only have gotten more if his aim was a bit more true.

AUURGH!!!!

[KyJim]

The part about retrieving the pistol, then loading it and then putting it in his pocket is a bit odd. One might wonder if he really already had it loaded and in his pocket without a CC license.

[threegun]

Highpowering, If you choose to stay many will see that as you looking for trouble. They will think you are trying to get into a gunfight etc. For me, I would be forced to run everyday as I conceder most everyone a potential threat. While I agree that nothing good can come from a gun fight and avoiding one should be top priority, you can't up and run from everything that looks suspicious either. Those Monday morning quarterbacks who say today that they would have left are blessed with a minor tidbit of information, that this threat was real. How many would up and leave their money in the running vacuum or a car with soap still on it? The reality is they wouldn't. They would prepare just as the victim did and finish their car. They would simply give the threat much attention just as they have done over and over. Hindsight is 20/20 in the real world other factors are at play that change things.

[tegemu]

As I read it, unfortunately he made a bad, unlawful shoot. The BG's were departing. In Fla that would constitute no threat to the victim, hence no reason to shoot. He was not even in danger of loosing his property at this point. If he had shot them while still threatened with the gun, now that would be a good shoot. Perhaps there is more to this than is printed.

[banditt007]

As I read it, unfortunately he made a bad, unlawful shoot. The BG's were departing. In Fla that would constitute no threat to the victim, hence no reason to shoot. He was not even in danger of loosing his property at this point. If he had shot them while still threatened with the gun, now that would be a good shoot. Perhaps there is more to this than is printed.

Well thats like saying the bad guy pointed a gun right at your face 2 seconds ago, but now he has the gun by his side and is looking away for a second or so. So now you cannot lawfully shoot.

The same guy that shot two robbers in the back, was the same victim that had a gun pointed at his face moments earlier. two young guys with guns vs one old guy with a gun.

If he shot them in the back of the head in the car, which i find the most sensible.... i wouldnt see it as a problem.

[tegemu]

"Neinast said that as the teens were getting ready to leave in th eCadillac," does not sound like they turned away for a second. They were going away. I stand corrected tjhough on my comment about the victim not loosing property. As much as I agree with defending yourself, that's why I carry, I would be afraid that shooting a fleeing felon would expose me to a serious felony charge. I sure hope that this man escapes unscathed. Being robbed at gunpoint is terrible but shooting anyone that is not posing you to personal harm creates a second tragedy. I think and hope that there is more to this than meets the eye that exonerates the victim. I didn't write, nor do I enforce, the Laws that determine whether a shoot is lawful, so don't castigate me.

[Model520Fan]

HP got it right, even if he is a bit of a softie. The fact that anyone on this board would think to criticize him only supports his observation that we are gaining speed.

[HiPowering Along]

HP got it right, even if he is a bit of a softie.

Nah, not a bit. That was the fourth edit of the post, and the cleanest I could come up with at the time. Don't want to get banned for letting the full cannon loose....

[Bob41081]

Not sure if it still is but defense of property after dark using deadly force is legal in Texas.

Bob

[Limeyfellow]

Just have to be careful. In South Africa for instance they learnt the lessons and decided its best to just shoot the owner first before carjacking.