Twin Killers: Panic and Hesitation

If you are confronted with a self-defense situation, two things will lead you to be seriously injured or killed.  The two things are panic and/or hesitation.  In my professional career, I have confronted two armed suspects.  I am going to dissect one of the incidents to illustrate how it could have turned out differently.

I was working retail security in the early 1990s, when a young man shoplifted several sports jerseys.   My boss and I stopped him as he was exiting the store and at first he came back into the store without any argument.  He probably had $100.00 worth of shirts and being so close to Christmas, I intended to release him with a trespass warning and not prosecute him for a misdemeanor.

While we were walking him back, he suddenly turned towards me and put his hand behind his back.  Knowing nothing good ever came of such a movement, I immediately grabbed  him in a front facelock and reverse hammerlock on the arm behind his back and brought him head first to the floor.  As I attempted to secure his arm for a handcuff, my boss jumped on my back pressing us both to the floor and pulled a .22 caliber revolver from the small of his back.

She began to retreat and I told her to get the gun out of here and call the police.  He and I then began to tear the men’s tie department up until mall security arrived.  We secured him with handcuffs and took him to the office.  We found out later that he had shot multiple people in the city.  Fortunately, they had all lived to this point but no one would testify against him because he was a member of the local Crips.

If I had hesitated when he turned towards me, I would have been victim number nine and possibly my boss would have been victim number ten.  Sometimes the split seconds people hesitate in trying to determine someone’s intent is the difference between walking away from a confrontation uninjured or being seriously hurt.

When my boss pulled out the revolver, it would not be unusual to panic.  I had no idea that he was reaching for a gun, when he went to his waistband.  It could have been anything.  However, after I knew he had a gun, I was not ruling out the possibility of a second gun.

I spent the next 30 seconds to a minute keeping control of his right wrist and trying to keep him turned away from me.  Every hair on my body was engaged but I knew I did not want him to be directly facing me just in case.  Panic will cause us to lock up, so it is important to keep fighting and not succumb to panic.

Hopefully, you will never be faced with such a situation.  If you are the important thing is to remember to stay as calm as possible and react when you have to.  Do not hesitate.

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