Thanks for the input, and I'm taking your criticisms exactly as you intended them, without rancor. I'll address them as unflinchingly as I can.Excaliber wrote:I think it's worthwhile to use each and every one of these as an opportunity for after action review to tune up everyone's understanding, planning, and ultimately, performance when the chips are down, which fortunately they weren't in either of these cases.
Once again, I wasn't there and it isn't my intent to criticize any individual person for action taken or not taken, but I think there are a few questions that are worth considering without beating the subject to death. They're not aimed at the member who generously shared his experience with us, warts and all, so we can learn, and they're just as useful for folks who weren't there that night but might be faced with noises in the night and similar decisions tonight or the night after:
I did not lock the door on the way out, and frankly, it didn't even occur to me to ask myself whether I ought to or not. Neither did I consider if the BG had a team mate. I acted on the assumption that it was one person, because my wife described the sound of one person going over the fence. That was foolish of me, and it's not a mistake I will make again. As to my wife's safety while I was outside, the only unlocked door was the one I had just come out of, and she stayed in the back bedroom, with another pistol within a few feet of her. However, another problem for me might have been getting shot by my wife if I did not properly announce my return. In any case, you would have to see the layout of my back yard, but it would not have been possible for someone to slip into the door I had just come out of without my being aware of it.1. Remember that BG's often work in pairs or teams. When you went out, did you lock the door? If you did, you closed off your potential escape route if you needed one. If you didn't, you left your family potentially vulnerable to an intruder who now had an easy, nonforcible, quiet and extremely quick way to enter your now unsecured home. If that had happened, how would your wife have managed it? How would you have known it had happened? What would have happened when you got back inside?
The corner was to my left in front of me. I stayed about 15' out away from the wall toward my right, and I described a slight leftward arc as I crossed my back lawn. By the time I got to the point where I would become dangerously exposed to someone around the corner, I had interposed a tool shed between me and whatever was around that corner. Again, you would have to see a layout of my yard, but I calculated that I would only be exposed for a second at the very most. So, I was exposed, but I wasn't exposed for a very long time. In hindsight, perhaps I should have left the light off. I don't know. But, I did know not to hug that left wall as I approached the corner, for exactly the reasons you stated.2. You were aware that your flashlight gave away your presence. That's a bad thing. He doesn't have to see you directly once he knows you're there. If he wants to take you out, since he knows you're approaching, all he has to do is conceal himself and wait until you enter his kill zone. Not survival friendly for the the good guy.
3. When you came around the corner, were you right up against the wall like most folks do it on TV? If so, all an unarmed BG would have had to do is wait just around the corner on the other side and wrestle you for your gun when you came around. That's why the tactical guys stay away from the corners.
I kept my focus going back and forth between the front sight, and whatever was in out in front of me. My sight picture problem was partly because I kept raising the pistol to the full ready, and then lowering it just a tad, and then raising it again; and partly because my hands were probably a bit shaky from a pounding heart. However, I definitely exercised good trigger finger discipline, which I did very deliberately because the safety was off. Had I had an ND or a missed shot, the most likely impact zone would have been a retaining wall made of railroad ties (my house is built on a bit of a hillside, and my neighbors' properties, both to that side of the house and to the rear are higher than mine).4. You mention you kept the pistol raised and at the ready and tried to maintain a decent sight picture. What target was the focus of that picture? Was your finger on the trigger? (See the implications of the reflexive startle response my first post below.) Where would a projectile have gone if the weapon had gone off in that adrenaline charged moment?
I stupidly did not think to bring my cellphone with me, and I did not think to call the police before going outside, although my wife would have most certainly called 911 if she had heard a shot. Also, we have a home security system with built in panic buttons. I honestly don't know how long it would have taken for a police unit to respond and show up. I've never had to test this before. As to whether I am comfortable if the answer is minutes when the need is seconds, no, most certainly not. I will do what I have to do, even if that means acting without a police backup. I may not have the luxury of minutes to wait. We have an outstanding police department here in Grapevine, but I live in a suburban area, and I am certain that a response would take at least several minutes, and that might be way too long.5. What communications provisions did you take with you so you could contact either your wife or the police if you needed help? How long would it have taken help to arrive if it hadn't been called already? Are you comfortable if the answer is in minutes and the need is in seconds?
Honestly? No. I would not have thought to look for a 2nd or 3rd BG that night, but thanks to your questions, I will remember to think of those things if it should ever happen again. As to what I would have done, well, I set myself up to be about 25-30 ft away from a BG if there was one back there. My intention was to loudly command him to lay down, and tell I would shoot him if he did anything except comply. If he acted aggressively, I would have shot him. I had that little conversation with myself as I first went out the door, and I was resolved to do whatever had to be done. If he had complied, I would have kept my distance, and kept the gun on him until the cops got there, but I would not make any attempt to get close to him or physically restrain him. As to shelter, I did put a shed between me and that back corner alongside the house, but I'm pretty sure that a bullet might just go whistling right through it. It's just one of those aluminum storage sheds you can buy at Home Depot, although there are are shelves inside with heavy tool boxes full of tools on them. So, let's say it gave a modicum of cover, but not really adequate enough. The only real advantage it gave me was that it would make it hard to see me.6. If you had come around the corner and found a bad guy crouching in the bushes, would you have remembered to look for the second or third BG's? What was your plan for dealing with him / them? Do you advance / retreat / challenge / shoot? (The "now that I've got the tiger by the tail, what do I do with it" question.) If he decided to open the action by shooting at you, were you behind anything solid enough to that it might have given you a fighting chance and a second or to to react?
Well, for one thing, all of this was happening inside the confines of my back yard, which is surrounded by high fences. A neighbor would have had to climb up a tree to see what was going on in my yard. Even the police would not have been able to (legally) access my yard without knocking on the front door and asking for access. My wife would have naturally told them I was out there and armed. If my wife had called the PD, she would have warned them that I was out there with a gun in hand. If a neighbor had called the PD, when they showed up, I would have set the pistol on the ground and stepped away from it with my hands in the air until they could ascertain to their satisfaction that I was not the perp. If my neighbor had undertaken the same action as I did, I'm pretty sure I would have recognized him. He's pretty distinctive looking. I don't know if he would have recognized me or not, but this was all happening on my side of the fence, not on his. Plus, our houses aren't all that close together. his house is about 20' back from that side of the property line, whereas mine is only about 6' back from the property line.7. If there was a prowler in the neighborhood and another neighbor had called the PD, what would have happened when / if they saw you outside with gun and flashlight in hand and no prior notification you were out there?
8. If there was no prowler, but your neighbor heard the same noise and took the same course of action, how would that have turned out if you each caught a glimpse of each other?
I am certain that they are better at it than I am, but you asked if I was comfortable waiting minutes if the need was in seconds. At the time, I felt like the need was in seconds, not minutes. In retrospect, there actually was no need at all. But my wife, who does not jump at every little noise she hears, was agitated about this one, and so I took heed to deal with it. In retrospect, it may not have been the smartest thing to do, but I also would have had a hard time just sitting and waiting for the PD to show up, and a lot can go wrong in just 5 minutes.9. Last but not least, what could you possibly have accomplished by going outside that wouldn't have been taken care of much more safely for both you and your family by asking the PD to investigate? They do that with shotguns, rifles, and radios, in groups that use tactics they've trained together with, and they're really good at it. That's why most of them bring in lots of bad guys and live to collect retirements.
Thanks very much for the advice.As you may have guessed, IMHO, going outside to investigate noises in the night is not generally a good idea. In areas with reasonable police response times, if you stay inside and call the LEO's and let them do their work, an intruder would have to come to you, working against the defender's very strong advantages on his own turf, to do you any harm. There's a lot to be said for that, and it's very survivable even when there really is a bad guy with a fairly simple "secure your family behind cover in the safe room with your defensive tools, stay in contact with the LEO's, and make the BG come through the fatal funnel to get to you" plan. The risk picture in the outside option isn't nearly as sunny.