Sorry for the length but I had a recent encounter that I thought might be worth sharing. TLDR at the bottom.For background, my job has me checking wetlands/lakes/ponds for the county since flooding is a serious issue where I live. I was working on a pond that was rather secluded when a girl, maybe about 20, walked off the nearby road and sat down by the pond about 30 yards from me. We both smiled and waved and didn’t mind each other at all. After a few minutes I saw her get up briskly and start walking down the road. I looked in the direction she had looked at and a young man, maybe early 20’s, dressed in all black appeared walking at a steady pace towards her. This got my attention, so without drawing attention to myself I observed them as I worked. They appeared to be talking as if they knew each other so I assumed they could be friends meeting up for a walk or something.After about a minute, I heard her scream and when I looked over they were both running away from me. I didn’t know if there was trouble at this point so I ran toward them. Oddly, after running a few dozen yards I saw in the distance them both briskly walking back toward my direction about 40 yards away from each other, with him in front and her behind. He didn’t look up at me as he passed, and I walked closer to the girl. She appeared stressed so I asked her if she needed help. She looked at me like she was holding back tears and managed to gasp out yes, that the man had taken her phone and other things. I asked her if she wanted me to call 911 for her and she said yes. At this point I felt my uneasy feeling about the man was vindicated and I felt worried that he could be dangerous. With this in mind I tried maintaining awareness of his location, which was a little bit down the road at this point. I saw him indicate with his body posture that he noticed her talking to me so he doubled back and started walking briskly towards us. My gut was giving me bad feelings about this guy so I asked if she felt he was physically dangerous and she said yes. My first instinct was to create as much distance between her and this man so instructed her to run to this doctors office I knew about 50 yards away and to ask them to call the cops. I didn’t dare call them at that moment because I wanted 100% of my attention on the potential threat. I felt that if I looked down for a moment, I’d look up and he’d be on top of me.I didn’t know what he wanted but I knew I couldn’t let him near that girl so I hoped for the best and started walking toward him. I hoped at the very least I could further the distance between the two of them if I was unable to stop him, maybe give her time to get away. He was about 40 yds from me when I shouted at him to stop. Around then I stopped moving toward him because by then I was near my work truck. In the moment I felt that if he pulled out a gun I could hopefully dash behind the truck, pull my CCW and fire from cover or use it to create a barrier between us if he pulled a knife. But at this point I had seen no weapons and understood I was working on the accusations of one stranger so I decided not to escalate by drawing ccw. I asked him what he wanted as he continued toward me and he replied with screams, saying the girl was with him and I needed to stay out of it. I told him that she was scared and just wanted to be left alone and that he needed to leave. He started screaming accusing her of calling the cops on him and he started acting erratic and reaching in his pockets while screaming. I couldn’t tell if he was having some manic episode or a drug related frenzy but at this point he was power walking toward me and I was praying he didn’t pull out a weapon. By now my mind recognized that the second I saw a weapon I’d have to draw on him and potentially be forced to shoot him or else risk dying by his hands and having my family never see me again.As he continued to make his way toward me, I thought I’d either have to use some serious verbal judo to convince him not to pursue this woman, or things would likely turn physical. What happened next I could not have been prepared for in any defense class. As he closed the distance between us, a car on the nearby road came along going about 45 mph. He saw this car and just froze, then gave a final scream as he ran and dove in front of it. There wasn’t even time to yell stop. It struck him full force, sending him twirling in the air and destroyed the front of the car. My mind didn’t process what had happened because I had tunnel vision of only two potential outcomes, that I’d have to talk things out with a crazed man or engage in some form of physical combat with him. I could not understand that what had happened had happened. After a few seconds I came back to reality and realized the girl that had ran off was screaming a few dozen yards behind me. She hadn’t made it to the office yet and was still close enough to have seen what had happened. I yelled at her to stay back and pulled out my phone to call police/paramedics. The people in the car that had struck the man had pulled over onto the shoulder and started approaching them man. At this point I still didn’t know if he posed a threat to anyone so I shouted at them to stay back. Meanwhile the commotion had caused some people to show up from nearby so I tried to focus on speaking with the 911 dispatcher.As I struggled to give the dispatch our exact location, the girl approached me asking what happened and I explained he had jumped in the street (she heard the noise of the car hitting him and didn’t know if he’d been shot). She then explained through sobs and tears that he was an ex boyfriend that had been harassing her, calling her nonstop, and knew she liked to walk by the lake to clear her head. She collapsed, panicked, unable to understand why someone would jump in front of a car like that. I tried my best to comfort her, assuring her it wasn’t her fault, that he clearly wasn’t in the right headspace. Soon after dispatched confirmed officers and paramedics would be there shortly. The entire time I stayed watching the man in the street not knowing if he was still a threat, or even alive. I didn’t feel he was safe to approach and I felt our safety took precedent over an attackers.After maybe 4 minutes, by some miracle, the man started to stir and eventually rise. As he got up, everyone kept their distance and slowly one of the onlookers approached him, asking if he’d like an ambulance. He mumbled no and hobbled off. Perhaps we were all still in shock but no one felt inclined to restrain him. I’m not a cop and felt it wasn’t my place to act like one by pursuing him. Additionally, I felt staying with the girl to ensure her protection was my priority, so he just left without resistance.Eventually police came and were able to get enough info to put out a search for him, but I don’t know if he’s been found yet. I’m not too worried because after seeing the hit he took, if he never made it to the hospital that day then he’s probably dead from internal bleeding. And if he was alive, he’d be in no physical shape to go after anyone.Sadly the police and paramedics were a bit condescending to the girl. When paramedics found out the girl that had been stalked wasn’t the one hurt they said “why are you crying? You weren’t the one hit by a car”. Later the police, who knew her and it seemed were aware she had bad boyfriends, condescendingly said “remember how we told you to get a restraining order on guys like that?”. I felt the comments were out of place but I didn’t see it helpful to pipe up so I stayed with her and gave her shade from the sun while they spoke to her.After their questioning finished, an older woman volunteered to take the young girl home, who thankfully accepted. As she parted she kept thanking me for helping her. Within a few minutes the emergency vehicles and driver of the damaged car left, the people that had heard there commotion started returning to their homes/buildings, and soon I was alone again, still absorbing all that had just happened as I got back to my work with the pond.TAKE AWAYS: I’m incredibly thankful I did not have to draw my gun. In hindsight this would have been the perfect scenario for pepper spray being that my needs were to maintain distance from a potentially dangerous but otherwise unarmed threat. My GF once had to use the POM spray I gifted her and it proved highly effective, so I feel this would’ve provided better, more appropriate layer of defense than open hand fighting would and also negate the risk of death that a firearm would pose. Worst case scenario, if it turned out to be a situation I misinterpreted and he was never a threat he’d still be alive, and I wouldn’t have an innocent persons life on my conscience. I will definitely be purchasing a few POMs to remove any excuse of not carrying one.I’m glad I did not disclose to anyone that I was armed. I feel any mention of a gun would’ve escalated the interaction and possibly made the man more likely to act aggressively towards us being that he clearly had no apprehension to self harm. In the event of the girl being a threat, as sometimes faux victims are used to lure targets, I’m also glad I didn’t make a potential threat aware of my firearm either. In my state I don’t have to inform police of being armed and I felt it wasn’t relevant to the encounter so I didn’t mention it with them either.Last, I want to recognize that the police could not have been relied upon for protection. This isn’t a criticism of the police, more a recognition of the limitations of emergency services. Even if the woman had gotten the restraining order that the cop had condescendingly mentioned, that wouldn’t have prevented this man’s attack or made the police respond any faster. I’m glad I was around to help this girl and I’m thankful that when he chose to commit egregious violence it was only to himself. I’m also glad I didn’t play cop and try to capture the guy, I feel like that could’ve resulted in someone getting hurt.Hopefully this also acts as a reminder to anyone in the dating world to be cautious of the people they meet/let know where they live. This guy knew a spot she liked to walk around and that’s all it took. If you know someone who makes comments about someone being creepy or being possessive, please tell them to listen to their creep alarm.Hopefully you can learn from my experience, bits of what to do, maybe some of what not to do. I’m hoping to reflect on the encounter and perhaps learn what could be done in the future to handle such a situation better. Stay safe everyone.TLDR: Mentally unstable stalker harassed girl and when confronted decided to jump in front of a speeding car. Make of it what you will. via /r/CCW https://ift.tt/3cMU0pE
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