The only thing that stops a evil is a good guy with a gun… or a while lot of luck.
That’s what happened not so long ago in the farm fields of Central Illinois, according to a report in the News-Gazette.
Three women were car-pooling to work on Interstate 57 up to Urbana, Illinois from roughly 80 miles south of town. They were in a Nissan Altima, driving along bright and early one morning when they, along with everyone else, passed by a Dodge Durango parked on the shoulder.
The driver of the Durango, Brian McStay, 54, took offense at something and fired up the Durango and came after the women in the Altima, catching up to them at a high rate of speed. Once on their bumper, his driving concerned the passengers enough that at least one called 9-1-1.
Of course, when seconds count, police are just minutes away.
The Altima settled between two semis in the driving lane, hoping Mr. McStay would drive on past them.
He didn’t, instead crashing his big Durango into the Altima, at which point the Altima driver lost control and crashed in the snowy ditch. The Durango ended up in the median, circled around, crossed both lanes of traffic and then drove into the ditch and willfully crashed into the Altima, and pushing the car into one of the three women standing outside of it, leaving her mildly injured. Luckily for the women, he then drove off.
When police finally arrived, they found him a mile down the road sometime later, slumped over the wheel and arrested him.
He was just acquitted by reason of insanity.
Sometimes bad things happen to good people.
Just another reason to consider getting your carry license and carrying your gun on a regular basis. While the court-appointed psychiatrist Dr. Jeckel (no kidding) opined that Mr. McStay was insane at the time, I have no doubt someone pointing a gun at him might have caused him to reconsider his potentially murderous actions, and I know that a couple of slugs in his face and/or upper chest would have ended his rampage pretty quickly.
Here’s a second road rage incident.
It’s a man blocked in by traffic, accosted by a hothead. The question is: Would it be better to be on the phone with 911 when all of this is happening or recording it on camera? There are arguments that can be made both ways.
Maybe it’s an argument for having a second phone in the car, perhaps a retired smart phone that can still record video?
Would you have drawn your gun?
How many punches could that window have taken before it broke?
I apologize in advance for sending you to World Star Hip Hop, but there’s good things to learn from the incident. Audio is NSFW.
Can’t tell for sure but it looks like he may have had room to pull away from the issue. Good lesson to leave ample room between your car and the one in front.
Get video or call the police……………….. yes good arguments are there for either. But if I’m armed and feel I was in extreme jeopardy I’d want video proof of the intense threat, but at the same time the audio on the 911 call may suffice too.
Driver tried and tried to calm him, thought he did a great job of keeping his cool under the barrage of verbal and physical threats, the POS appeared set on causing him some bodily harm by trying to punching out the glass. I believe A.O.J. was clearly demonstrated and would not have waited for him to break the glass if I had no escape he’d be looking down the pipe.
Had the glass been smashed or the window down and the perp reached in, he could (and should) have been shot dead right there. Not a jury around that would have sided with the perp. He was already 3/4 there. I feel bad for his children (he stated they were in the car with him).
Agreed on all counts.
It’s easy to have 20/20 vision in hindsight, but all in all the man in the video handled it reasonably well, given the circumstances he found himself in.
If that had been me, I probably would have drawn when I saw him exit his car, keeping the gun out of sight. I would have called a lot sooner, and sought a way out of the situation in the vehicle, even if it meant causing minor damage to the attacker’s vehicle (backing up until contact, and then turning and driving off as best I could, while on the phone with 911).
If I were truly boxed in (and sometimes, the unexpected happens), he would have been looking down the muzzle of my Glock after striking my window and trying to wrest the door open. Given the confined space, I would have been very reticent to discharge the gun until the window broke.
At which point, Mr. Irrationally Angry would have gotten a string of rounds until he was no longer able to continue to be a threat.
As for this guy from Rantoul: If I had been outside my car in that ditch, it would have been to retrieve my shotgun. I would have shot him dead the moment he gunned his engine while driving towards my crippled car in the ditch, particularly if others were still in the vehicle. By willfully crashing into a vehicle, forcing them off the road, he’s already demonstrated murderous intent. To return to further attack with his 4,000 pound weapon? AOJ exists in spades.
I’ll relate to a situation I had in north central Indiana a couple of years ago. I was enroute to teach at a survival event when some guy in a really big hurry was riding my ass waiting to get around me. I slowed down to give him a better opportunity to pass once the oncoming traffic had gone by, only he didn’t. I continued to slow down. He continued to ride my ass, not going around. This continued, and he didn’t go around, but instead laid on the horn and made all sorts of violent, less-than-friendly gestures while swerving wildly back and forth like an angry bee on my tail.
We came to a stop on the far right side of the highway, with no other traffic around. He pulled right up to my bumper and stopped. I drew my gun and my phone, knowing this wasn’t going to end well. I called 9-1-1, told the operator what was happening, including the fact that I was an armed CCW holder. I drive on before hothead could get out and approach my car.
The road rager was still on my ass as I drove about 30 miles per hour, swerving and then passed me a minute later, veering towards me as he went by. I’m sure he knew who I was talking with on the phone and he drove off.
About five miles later, I passed two cruisers, and moments later, the 9-1-1 operated called back to follow up with me to make sure I was okay. I thanked her for the follow-up and for the responding cops who came several miles outside of their small town to respond.
My fellow motorist had apparently turned off, wisely evading what he thought would be a police response to his belligerent behavior.
I have to give hothead credit. His improved decision-making upon seeing me on the phone might have saved him from an arrest and/or hospitalization.
John
See, JB! We HAVE met! Sorry, but I had a previous appointment that day. you see, I was teaching (TEACHING!) an anger management seminar!
But seriously, you guys scare the hell out of me.
WOuld you really take another human life when, really, all you had to do was DRIVE AWAY? The last second of the WSHH video shows there was a tin-can Japanese mini-suv in front of him. All he had to do was drive.
Instead, you INFER some kind of deadly threat to yourself and kill the man?
Guys! You need RUDIMENTARY re-education on the rights and obligation of carry.
Not to mention, no matter how billy-badass you are on a keyboard, I would imagine you’d be puking your guts out, LOSING SLEEP for years, and paying $1000’s in attorney fees after such an incident. Why not just drive away?
You don’t HAVE a gun JUST SO’S YOU GET TO USE IT. IT is your LAST resort.
And, though I am NOT your attorney, remember that everything you print on social media, including this site, will and can be used against you in a homicide case. Got it?
Case-in-point: ALMOST EXACTLY this scenario you have painted… TODAY. THREE HOURS AGO.
AND the guy who shot (like many of you say you would) is IN JAIL.
http://news.yahoo.com/police-man-accused-road-rage-shooting-stayed-scene-183513522.html?nf=1
and now facing $10,000’s in legal bills, and for what? Cause someone in the lane next to him (whom he flipped off, reportedly) swerved?
Rethink your choices, guys.
Ken:
Reading is fundamental.
Your ccw instructor failed you badly on the law of self-defense. Or you weren’t paying attention. Maybe you were thinking about how your mom’s cop boyfriend was slapping her ass and making her call him daddy when you were a teen at home?
Quit trying to be a troll. It’s getting old for us regulars.
And you post a superficially related story to support your flawed point? How lame.
Did you at least get a medal when you competed at special olympics?
You clowns wanna play RESUMES? Heh?
In response to Ken regarding his posting of the AZ road rage incident on Dec. 31, 2015…..the police investigation is not complete at this time, but from the Yahoo news article Ken posted ….there are NO similarities in the rage incident from the jboch article and Ken’s article….the shooter in Ken’s article was partly responsible for escalating the rage….did absolutely nothing to diffuse the situation and made NO attempt to escape….it was almost like he wanted to play hero in front of his 4 yr old daughter and save the day…..did the shooter have a valid CCW license?….do not know…the article did not say…as of the date of the article the shooter is being charged with aggravated assault with a firearm.
In the first road rage incident on I-57 …the threat to the 3 ladies in the car was what you would call an asocial threat due to the nature of the attack….there was no attempt to communicate to the victims ….attacker was brandishing his weapon (4000 lb vehicle) …had already demonstrated his intent to kill or maim with it….the victim(s) had exhausted every means of escape….no doubt deadly force was warranted to stop this threat whether it be a shot gun, an AK-47 or a high powered .338 Lapua magnum.
In the second incident the threat exhibited anti-social behavior….in this case you have to tread very carefully….the potential victim tried to diffuse the threat as he made a lot of good moves ie. video, called 9-1-1, acted calmly( as I am sure he was now in code orange and adrenaline was pumping through his body)….the threat as menacing as it was ….the “perp” was actually trying to communicate with intended victim but from the video was not brandishing any kind of weapon that at least one that can be seen…….and it looked like the driver could have had an escape route that he should have used as soon as possible….if all attempts to diffuse the situation fail, all escape routes are blocked and the “perp” breaks your window and opens your door ….he is inside of 21 feet of you….now you fear for your life at THAT MOMENT….you must now make that split second decision….your OODA loop is now in action mode.
I may have posted this before, but I was coming home from St Louis one evening. There was a loooong bit of construction along the way, giving us a single lane, it was foggy and so I wasn’t even entirely comfortable with the construction speed limit. An 18 wheeler came up on my bumper and became impatient with my pace and began to slow and lunge at me repeatedly implying that he was going to ram me. Had it not been foggy, I would have accelerated to get out of there, but it was far too dangerous. We finally came to the end, fortunately very close to Pesotum, where I exited to report my experience to the State Police there. I had the number from the trailer as he passed me, but not the cab, the desk cop told me they couldn’t do anything with just the trailer number since they switch them. Really? In other words, you don’t care.
Road ragers are generally bullies in my experience.
Usually, they want no part of getting shot.
But they won’t hesitate to call 911 and report YOU as the aggressor, so it’s critical that you call 911 early on.
He who calls firstest is the victimest, if you know what I mean.
That’s my .02.
Sam