Even in the middle of the night in your own home, positive identification of the target is necessary to prevent tragedy.
Even in the middle of the night in your own home, positive identification of the target is necessary to prevent tragedy.

Counselling Resistance

It was about 10pm on a Wednesday in November when the proprietor of a counselling service in north Sacramento, California had a routine evening interrupted by an unexpected intruder. A masked man brandishing a gun and demanding money entered the business, which is located in an office park. But the tables were quickly turned.

The business owner is a lawful gun carrier licensed in an adjacent county. He drew his own handgun and opened fire on the would-be robber. Struck several times in the upper torso, the masked gunman collapsed inside the business and the proprietor called 911. Responding deputies found the man on the floor and pronounced the scene clear for firefighters, who were unable to resuscitate the intruder. While the case was forwarded to the County District Attorney, no arrests have been made, and police spokesmen say the victim seems to have been within his rights.

SOURCE: KTXL-TV, Sacramento, California, 11/8/18

Gun Grapple

Broad daylight, mid-afternoon, on Main Street, USA would seem an unlikely time and place for danger to rear its ugly head, but it was at 2:45pm on a Tuesday in October that two men burst into Smithgall’s Pharmacy on Main Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Demanding Oxycodone, one robber brandished a gun and pointed it at the pharmacist and a customer before barging past the counter and putting the gun to the head of various employees.

The pharmacist drew his own handgun and fired once, striking the masked gunman, who proceeded to grapple for the pharmacist’s gun, pistol-whipping him in the process. The pharmacist fired three more rounds before the robber wrenched the gun from his hand and fled with his accomplice, dropping his own gun in the process. Responding officers found the wounded robber collapsed on the sidewalk, while his partner eluded capture. The pharmacist was treated and released at a local hospital.

SOURCE: WHTM-TV, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 11/9/18

Second-Story Man

A resident of Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, was awakened by the sound of breaking glass from an upstairs window of his home. Grabbing a handgun, he left his bedroom to investigate the noise. In the hallway, he encountered an intruder who was armed with what police spokesmen described as a “small assault-style weapon.”

The homeowner opened fire, striking the intruder once with decisive results. 911 was called, and responding officers found the intruder collapsed on the scene. The deceased home invader had no identification on his person and needed to be identified via fingerprints at the medical examiner’s office.

Police say he gained access to the home by climbing atop a porch roof and breaking through a second-floor window.

SOURCE: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 11/1/18

Agitated Intruder

The young couple who had rented a house in a quiet, wooded area outside of Post Falls, Idaho weren’t expecting to have their sleep disturbed by an intruder. Yet at 1:30am on a Monday in late October, the sounds of objects being smashed in the living room awakened the pair. Grabbing a handgun and moving toward the disturbance, the male resident found an intruder busily engaged in damaging and destroying property in the living room of the house.

Rather than obeying the resident’s commands to leave the dwelling, the intruder moved toward the resident with an object in his hand. Fearing for his safety, the resident opened fire, striking the intruder with fatal results.

The intruder was unknown to the couple, who had rented the home only recently, but the landlord stated that the current renters had encountered several people looking for the previous occupant.

SOURCE: Bonner County Daily Bee, Sandpoint, Idaho, 11/3/18

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