http://www.cdapress.com/news/local_news/article_21155766-d172-5cf3-8425-f047f2692a66.html?TNNoMobile
‘Drop it, or I’ll shoot you’
Tim Patterson stepped in when attacker held knife to woman’s throat
Posted: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 12:15 am | Updated: 11:53 pm, Tue Dec 6, 2011.
By BILL BULEY/Staff writer | 38 comments
*** begin quote ***
COEUR d’ALENE – Tim Patterson has no doubts he would have pulled the trigger.
He’s glad he didn’t have to.
But when a woman is being attacked by a man with a knife, Patterson says he’ll do what must be done.
“If he had not stopped what he was doing,” he says, his voice fading. “He came very close to dying. Really, really close.”
Monday afternoon was another normal day of cooking burgers and fries and hot dogs and Philly cheesesteaks for Tim and Debbie Patterson.
Then, about 2 p.m., they heard a scream.
Tim rushed out the back door of The Big Yellow mobile kitchen at the corner of Harrison and Fourth. He looked around the Goodwill parking lot full of cars, and heard another scream. Then, he heard a woman’s voice.
“Let go of me,” it shrieked.
Patterson charged around a car and stopped. A man had a woman’s head pulled back with one hand, and a knife to her throat with the other.
Patterson didn’t hesitate.
He drew his Kimber 1911 .45 with a six-shot clip.
“Drop it, or I’ll shoot you,” he shouted.
The assailant, wearing a hoodie that covered his face, glanced up. He immediately let go of the woman, dropped the knife, raised his arms in the air and fled.
*** end quote ***
“Victim disarmament is the view that it is somehow better to see a woman raped in an alley and strangled with her own pantyhose, than see her with a gun in her hand.” — T.D. Melrose
I’d like to read more stories like this. I’d imagine that bad guy had to return home for an “E quip ment change” (i.e., shorts).
An armed citizen exercising civic duty. The police can NOT be everywhere. In fact, we need “sheepdogs” mixed in the flock to keep the “wolves” guessing. Like this one today, he guessed wrong.
A measured response. He didn’t just drill him. But was ready too. imho, he was in a morally defensible place if he did. That woman was in the criminal’s “kill zone” (i.e., her vitals were within knife range). Don’t know what “the law” is there, but who cares. You have to ook yourself in the mirror in the morning.
(Personally, I like to use the “Mother” test. Would you be proud to tell your Mom what you did? I can envision an imaginary conversation. Mother: “What did you do today son?” Me: “Mom, I saved a woman’s life, but I had to kill a man to do it.” Mother: “Well, if you were sure there was no other way, a man has to do what he has to do. I’m proud of you.”)
p.s. Note, like a good well-trained gun owner, that he obviously is, to recreate the situation for the news photographer, he did NOT draw his weapon. It would have made the photo more dramatic. But it’s a tool; not a toy. Accidents happen when you use tools for “dramatic effect”. Watch when politicians do it. They’re <synonym for the act of procreation in real time> dangerous. When you draw your weapon, it’s for a specific purpose. To threaten the use of deadly force in order to stop a felony. If you’re doing that and an accident happens, well <synonym for excrement> happens. But you don’t do it for reasons as trivial as making a better picture.
# – # – # – # – #
Reinke Faces Life 