Wow, Alice! So glad you and DH are okay.
You certainly showed more patience and restraint that I would have, and I'm trained and required by law to use minimal force.
Your husband's choice to carry a concealed handgun and to use it to control the situation could very well have kept it from escalating into a much worse scenario. Sure, the intoxicated man was full of bluster and lip service, but I suspect he had enough presence of mind to not test your DH's full resolve.
Both of you handled the crisis like pros. I suspect your assailant will get the help he's been needing for a while now.
I'm so very glad you're both well and uninjured.
I appreciate your input Tripp and thanks. DH and I just had a few minutes to talk about it. We commended each other for our smooth team work. Several points...
Continuing debate on best place to carry. With the clothes DH wears ankle only place. Guy was too much up in DH's face to get to it. That was first luck for assailant as I was unarmed so I had to use verbal to distract him. DH didn't pull gun until guy turned and approached me. I had already done the verbal "back off" gesture after he wrapped his arms around DH and then stepped away to continue 911 call. My call agitated him more. Several times he got 18" from my face and ordered me to hang up the phone. At that point DH, 10 ft away, had drawn on him.
If I had had a gun when he charged me I 1) wouldn't have had a free hand to slam him into wall and choke him and 2) I would have shot him. Although he was pretty unstable physically, and mentally, he outweighed me by 100 lbs. So his inebriation and the surprise element gave me a slight advantage.
DH only pointed gun on him to stop him from getting too close to him or me and thankfully didn't fire when guy came into my face space. Otherwise it wss at his side and never finger on trigger.
I was 10 minutes into 911 call when he charged me. I gave 911 description of wh a t was going on during contact. I'm sure they heard DH, in the background, saying to me, "Alice, you could seriously damage him. Stop doing that." Then I told 911 he was down from choke. And he was only down for about 60 seconds and slowly came back like a possum coming out of playing dead. That's when they asked me several times about blood, breathing, ambulance. He was up and back at his agression in little time. I said to them several times that if they didn't get here immediately someone was going to get hurt.
We were at end of hall and cornered. He was like a leach; no walking away from him.
Right before police arrived desk clerk came up and convinced guy to go to lobby with him. I begged him to wait till cops arrived because I feared for his safety. 911 said they were having trouble getting into building.
When clerk came up to move us to new room he said he had 24 years dealing with guys like this so he felt okay about leading guy away. And guy offered him $300. I guess to take him to his room instead of lobby.
We were very lucky it didn't escalate further. What a nightmare on so many levels if one of us had shot him.
We were really scared but kept in control. Our backgrounds and lives helped prepare us for this.
Two comments DH made:
On psyc ward he was alwsys surrounded by burly guys to assist if patients got violent. (And DH wasn't a frail almost 80 yr old back then.)
Pounding on doors probably would have had no response. It was loud and confrontational for over 20 minutes. Only one guy stuck his head out of door when it got quiet.
The threat was loud, confrontational like he was trying to pick a fight, and only physical a few times and luckly his anger didn't erupt into extreme physical. But we had no idea how far he would go nor how capable he was to carry out anything. He was very angry from the start.
We're both a little gun-shy, excuse the pun, but not as shaken up as expected. Just experiencing mostly incredulousnes. That did ruin my plans to do the early evening free food and beverages in lobby. Don't want to risk running into him. They took him in only for public drunkenness as we declined to press charges so his sergent probably sprang him this morning. Doubt army will reprimand him much for that.
And I thought I'd catch up on some RnR while here.
And I'm now thinking more seriously about getting Moe Doodle certified as Assist Dog so he can go anywhere with me, even air travel. Just his presence would have possibly stop this from even starting. Moe can be pretty threatening.
It's a huge responsibility having the ability to use deadly force.
Tripp, I sincerely thanked the cops for their service.
Feisty Alice
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I had the cards that Rob always inserts in purchases. My daughter even had hers. We are now out of cards. I thought the cook at Kobes was gonna steal mine .NOT!!!!
