I’m a 65 year old 5’-4” 150lb male resident of Louisiana traveling out of state with 70 year old handicapped wife and 5 year old grandson. I’m on a recent return trip, at a hotel in Tennessee, loading the back of my pick-up truck at 7:00 AM for departure, with grandson helping and wife still in ground floor room. Carrying concealed Glock 9mm inside right waistband with LA State concealed carry permit and reciprocal to Tennessee.
Being approached peripherally from left side by early thirty something 6’+ 200+ male and still approximately 50 feet away. Asked him once to stop approaching as I did not know him, he did not know me, and I did not know his intensions. He continued to approach. Asked him again louder to stop. He continued to approach saying he wanted to know if I had a charger cord he could use but still approaching. At approximately 30 feet I pulled my shirt tail, reached down to my weapon without removing, told him if he continues I would be removing my weapon from its holster, and he finally stopped.
Things de-escalated from there, we came to the agreement that he would place his phone on the adjacent retaining wall and back away, I would then retrieve and charge his phone from the back receptacle of my truck and tailgate so it was not out of his sightline, he could maybe get enough charge to make his call while I continued to load my truck, but when I was ready to leave, I’d place it back on the retaining wall for him to retrieve.
I guess my scenario question comes down to, was that an appropriate response to ‘display’ a weapon or is that considered brandishing? And, had someone else been in the parking area vicinity or looking out of a hotel window at that time, could they have corroborated from his viewpoint and also called it brandishing?
No police calls or response was made.
Yes welcome to the community. You did the right thing. You made a verbal warning and when he did not respond you showed him you were serious. I think the verbal warning is important so anybody in the area could hear and become a witness if it went violent.
Certainly I would call that “Brandishing”. That said, personal comfort zone is important, especially in the face of an unknown person that, after being asked to stop, keeps coming. To me and I believe it’s in the laws of my state, Utah, if you “Reasonably Believe” that a real and viable threat exists I can tell that person I have a gun, show that person my gun or god forbid pull my gun and point it at them.
I give this situation a 
. After all you, the little guy and the wife came away unharmed and the guy got a little juice in his phone. Win Win to me.
Sounds good to me I think you did what you had to do it’s sad you can’t trust anyone now days.
Maybe place your hand on the cover garment and announce that you have a weapon. I’m not sure what the brandishing law is in Tennessee.
Welcome to the community!
Great question.
IMO you reacted well to a perceived threat.
Who asks for a charging cord in a parking lot?
It was an actual police incident that taught me about verbal commands. A female cop with an outstretched arm pointed towards the thug, and the other covering her pistol while saying,
“that’s close enough!”
Brandishing is hard to define because a simple twist of the wrist could be considered “brandishing.” Because of that, several states don’t describe what brandishing can mean. Based on what you described, I would consider notifying the police. Who’s to say this person hasn’t called the police and described you as a person threatening him with a gun?
Additional thoughts: You mentioned nothing about trying to retreat and make sure your wife and grandson stayed safe in their hotel room. I would not have given him access to my phone charger. You perceived him as a threat and I would want this person away from me. I’m glad this was resolved peacefully!
My 2 cents are that given the circumstances I would have responded in a similar manner.
The legal definition of brandishing is in 18 USC 924(c)(4)
(4) For purposes of this subsection, the term “brandish” means, with respect to a firearm, to display all or part of the firearm, or otherwise make the presence of the firearm known to another person, in order to intimidate that person, regardless of whether the firearm is directly visible to that person.
PS Personal note: The use of the word intimidate is suggestive of intent. It puts emphasis on an aggressive stance whereas in your case your posture was defensive.
I’m curious about the other guy’s actions while you charged his phone.
Welcome!
Glad it ended well and props for having your head on a swivel.
Sadly, things could have gone badly.
As in most self defense incidents being able to express verbally your mental process is a key issue if the law gets involved.
Sometimes retreat is an option.
In the jury room the judge said it like this, “In Utah you have no duty to retreat, but if you can it’s probably the smart thing to do…”.
Still some unanswered questions on this one that would help in determining the scenario as it unfolded. I travel extensively for business, I’m dressed professionally. Thinking if this was a legitimate need the appearance of the requestor could have made a difference. If the appearance was somewhat disheveled, his intentions could have been that brandishing (will call it that for now) was a necessary response to halt his potentially bad intentions. Even though the charging took place, he still could have had bad intentions but decided to find another easier target and at least he learned not to mess with you and got a charge on his phone. Good on you for being prepared and able to defend if necessary.
Thanks for the info about definition of brandishing.
He went back to the adjacent hotel.
Dave
That’s what’s troubling about it. Couldn’t he find help there?
Good thinking you are a very smart and seasoned man. For what it’s worth I’m a 64 ( will be 65 in two weeks) 150 lbs born at Mercy Hospital in New Orleans. My uncle who lives in Covington LA had a cabin in Tennessee IDK if he owned the whole thing or what but he sold it because he as getting to old and by we’ll to travel and mess with it but they really loved it there and he said if he didn’t have his two daughters and grandkids they would just live there. Anyhow you handled that situation perfectly in my opinion and if you didn’t show him the gun you didn’t brandish anything.
Welcome David, and great scenario to present as a question.
I might have done the same thing.
According to the USCCA reciprocity app, In Tennessee "A person who is in a place lawfully and who is not engaged in illegal activity has no duty to retreat before using or threatening to use force that is likely to cause serious bodily injury or death if:
- The person reasonably believes there is an imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death
- The danger is real OR honestly believed to be real at the time, and
- The belief of danger is founded on reasonable grounds."
I think your scenario passes these tests, but I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advise.
In any case, it worked and everybody got to go home while learning valuable lessons.
I strongly recommend deleting this and not sharing any details anywhere unless your attorney has specifically approved your share ahead of time
This goes to all persons and all possible acts of self defense
I am not a lawyer or a Judge. I did play one in Elementary school. The steps that you took was to avoid and de-escalate the situation you deemed threatening.
I have to agree with, “Why did he not just go into the hotel to charge his phone?” That seems a little sketchy! The fact that you stood your ground was probably the key to changing his mind at doing anything. They (perps) want an easy target, and you made yourself a big problem to have to deal with.
I am glad it worked out for you and yours. Thanks for bringing this up. It is good to hear about situations all of us need to actually think about!
Realize where you’re coming from as anything written on internet space is subject to be found and used against you. Probably should have used plenty of ‘hypothetically speaking’ and no ‘I’s’. So for anything I may want to delete in the future, can you please direct me to the process.
…asking for a friend