Armed Citizen Attacked While Mowing the Lawn

A neighborhood with tree-lined streets seemed safe enough in the middle of a Sunday morning. That’s when an irate neighbor attacked his victim with a set of garden shears. The victim retreated until he had to save his life. Neighbors called the police when they heard gunshots.

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We think we are being a good neighbor as we clean up our yard. With summer sun and rain, sometimes the grass is getting taller by the minute. This homeowner was mowing his yard at about 10 in the morning. That isn’t at all unusual in a residential area of Tulsa, Oklahoma with rows of houses in a long established neighborhood. A man approached the homeowner and shouted at him. The homeowner didn’t know the man or why he was upset. The stranger was aggressive and the homeowner asked him to leave. The homeowner retreated back into his garage as he was pursued by the angry intruder. The homeowner again asked the stranger to leave him alone and to leave his property. The stranger attacked the homeowner in the homeowner’s garage with a set of garden shears. The homeowner was cut.

The news stories said the homeowner retrieved his gun. It isn’t clear if the homeowner was carrying his firearm concealed or if his firearm was stored in the garage. After looking at several news articles, it isn’t even clear if the homeowner had a handgun or a long gun. What is clear is that the attacker turned and ran out of the garage and back toward the street, at least for a few seconds after the homeowner presented his firearm.

Most self-defense stories end there. Usually the attacker decides he doesn’t want to get shot by the armed defender. In this case, there is more to this unusual and unfortunate story.

The attacker ran back into the garage and charged the armed homeowner. The homeowner shot his attacker. The attacker turned, but this time the attacker ran into the homeowners backyard. The homeowner stopped shooting when the attacker stopped attacking. The news stories don’t give us all the information we want, but they don’t mention the homeowner following the retreating attacker into the backyard. The homeowner called 911 and asked for help.

The homeowner put his firearm away when the police arrived. He gave the officers a brief statement. Emergency Medical Services arrived and began treatment of the injured attacker. EMS declared the attacker dead at the scene. Police continued to question the armed defender. It isn’t clear if EMS also treated the homeowner’s injuries.

Police asked neighbors what they heard and what they saw. They checked the neighborhood for video cameras that may have captured the attack.

The homeowner was not charged with a crime. The attacker was later identified as living in the area.

Self-defense is about the farthest thing from my mind when I’m at home cutting the grass. This defender did a number of things that saved his life before he was attacked. I like that our defender owned a firearm. If you carry your firearm very often, then you know that it is hard to carry when it is so hot outside. It feels like you’re swimming even if you are only walking across your front yard.

Our defender tried verbal commands to diffuse the situation. He shouted for the attacker to stop. He shouted for the attacker to leave. That gave the defender a lot of ear-witnesses. Our defender also retreated from the confrontation. That makes it very clear that the intruder was the aggressor who closed the distance.

The defender recognized a lethal threat when the person who had already cut him then charged him. Our good guy defended himself. He then stopped shooting and called for help. Those are a lot of things the defender got right when he didn’t have time to think.

There is more we’d like to do that wasn’t mentioned in the news reports. As trivial as it sounds, it helps to know your neighbors. Maybe they could have called the police when they first heard the defender shout for help.

Put yourself in the defender’s place in his garage. I understand why it is hard to turn your back on an attacker. I wonder if the defender could have retreated from his garage when the attacker first ran toward the street. It is true that the attacker might have kicked down the garage door, but a locked door between us and a threat gives us time to think.

It is easy to ignore that door to safety that is right behind us if we haven’t thought about it ahead of time.

If we can’t retreat safely, then we’re going to have to shoot an attacker who is charging us. The good news is that we can react faster since our firearm is out of the holster and already in our hands. The bad news is that someone who is running at us can cover several yards before we raise the firearm, aim at a moving target, and press the trigger. As in this case, shooting someone, even with a lethal shot, does not necessarily incapacitate them immediately. The story says the wounded attacker ran past the homeowner and into the back yard before he collapsed.

At some point we have to transition from using the gun sights as we hold our gun at arms length. We would pull the firearm back into a retention position so we’re not handing our gun to the attacker. That doesn’t mean we have to stop shooting if we’ve trained from that position.

After the fight, be sure and seek medical treatment if you’re injured. The reports from the EMTs and the doctor document your injuries. Then call your lawyer and do what he says.

You want your lawyer to fill out your police report, and that is harder than it sounds. We want security, approval, and confirmation after such a traumatic event. Those feelings make it very hard to stop talking. The police will keep asking questions until we stop answering them.

There are important reasons for our lawyer to fill out the police report for us. The attacker may have been a crazy person off his meds. The odds are that the attacker was either drunk or high. We don’t know what our situation will look like. Now that he is dead, our attacker’s four ex-wifes and 10 step-children can sue us. We want to win those cases in civil court as well as in criminal court. I don’t defend people in court for a living so I plan to get help from people who do. That is why we give a brief statement to the police and then have our lawyer fill out the complete police report over the next several days.

That legal defense costs money that you might not have in the bank the Sunday morning you need it.

That might keep you out of jail, but you’re going to replay what happened to you. I’ve been told by the experts who study this sort of trauma that we suffer less psychological injury the more we think about these events ahead of time. I know I’ll wonder if I did the right thing if I ever have to use lethal force. Thinking about when you have to defend your life today makes it easier to recognize that situation tomorrow.

Recognizing the right course of action means it is easier to set those recurring questions aside in the hours and days after your attack. There are some aftermath pieces that we can deal with on our own, but sometimes it might help to see a professional who has a background in treating trauma. Some pre-paid self-defense plans include the option of going to a counselor, a social worker, or a therapist. The one caveat here is that you want to talk to your lawyer when you’re choosing a therapist. Some healthcare records are sealed and others are accessible to the court.

That gives us something to think about the next time we’re out cutting the grass.

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This story first appeared on the Self-Defense Gun Stories podcast and at Ammoland Shooting Sports News.