Welcome to Aftermath, a portion of our First Line email newsletter where Attorney Anthony L. DeWitt walks you through a real-life self-defense incident and shares his key takeaways.
Repeat Offender Loses Final Fight
Already having warrants for domestic violence and assault, a South Carolina attacker decided to go for the trifecta. According to WYFF NBC 4 news, the assailant kicked in the door to his girlfriend’s home and waved a gun at her and her two small children. Then he started firing. When he tried to chase her down the hallway, he was met by a man who had his own legally owned firearm. The man shot the attacker, who ran from the house and fell over, dead outside. The defender made sure that the shooter was down, then left the scene, calling the sheriff from his attorney’s office. He gave a statement to law enforcement and will not be charged.
What would you have done differently? Do you know which attorney you’d call (or will you be using your USCCA Member benefits and calling the Critical Response Team)?
I would have called the Sheriff’s office from the scene instead of driving off to my lawyers office. Second call would have been to the USCCA Critical Response Team.
I’m going with calling 911 from the scene, as well, and the USCCA, of course. Leaving the scene / fleeing the scene, whatever you call it adds a taint of guilt to his action.
Definitely call 911 from the scene. I’d tell someone else to call 911 if available. Then I’d call the USCCA number and tell them to get me an attorney. I want the attorney with me before I say anything.
Everyone agrees to call 911 from the scene. Perhaps he didn’t have a phone there? Definitely he didn’t do anything wrong leaving the scene looking for his attorney’s help.
The good thing was he made sure the attacker was permanently down before leaving that woman and kids alone.
I would definitely not leave the scene. There’s a risk of someone tampering with evidence, etc.
I don’t personally know any attorney, never needed one, and fingers crossed, hope I won’t ever need one.
But, in case I do, I have my USCCA card at all times so I know which number to call.
Whether he had a phone or not, someone would have. Assumption is the woman in the home had one because she had children. Even though leaving the scene is not against the law I still would not do it.
I"m with Bean Counter about someone possibly tampering with evidence.
Bottom line - Training and Legally owning a firearm possibly saved the girl and the kids lives.
If safe to do so, stay at the scene. “You catch ‘Em, you clean em” Ensure safety of family, call 911 provide concise arrival directions for LE to include your description and suspect location, if safe to do so, maintain a position of dominance with suspect in view. Ensure safe communication when LE arrives remembering that your greatest liability is the weapon in your hand, consider covering it if safe to do so. Point out evidence and witnesses to LE and call attorney making no statement. Do not fully agree with the statement “a better plan” would have been to retreat and barricade. I support establishing a point of dominance in a residence such as the beginning of a hallway, top of stairs or other to defend (not hunt).
I agree with staying on scene and calling 911, then USCCA response team. I had found a lawyer nearby that is part of USCCA response team which I wanted to meet so we had knowledge and basic info for each other. He wanted a 750 retainer just to meet and he couldn’t understand why I rejected that thought. I am retired on SSI w no pension. A retainer would make sense to me if I already needed him not prior to an event.
Hello and welcome @Marty18 .
Whenever a crime is committed there is always someone with a cell phone live streaming it on social media instead of what they should be doing like dialing 911.
As many have said I would not have left the scene. There a risk of that action being misunderstood. More importantly, he left the family he was protecting with a dead body in front of the house. LEOs and neighbors swarming all over the place. Not to mention the shock and trauma of the whole event. Protection does not end with just taking out the bad guy. Dealing with the aftermath is part of protecting your family as well.
In my case I used the USCCA benefits,no one died,but the benefits I had provided representation and as for the case above,I would have done the same thing with no remorse,at least the woman and children were not hurt as they could have been with the to who it may concern flying around
Also would like to add to my reply above:
A person really do not know how they will react to a confrontation,that is why you need to train with different scenarios to do things automatically with out thought and to also watch the persons eyes,they will telegraph what the person is thinking and also do concentrate on just the person,but also utilize the use of your spherical vision of what is also happening to your sides.if you train,then you will act and not react to any situation with out thought
I will be using the USCCA’s help line for that. I cannot afford to arrange an ongoing contract with an attorney that is about an hour and a half away from my home.
Even though the defender left, isn’t that the same leaving the scene of crime. Or does some one have to arrested to be considered a crime ? I think if it wasn’t a 100 % clear case of self defense it would be used against him. There needs to be more good self defense actions put on the news to send a clear Message to criminals that law abiding citizens will fight back.
Still don’t see anything wrong. He reported the incident to Sheriff’s Office. If he did this from attorney’s office that was even better.
It’s not a crime to do something differently than other would expect to be done.
