I had to draw last week. Looking for input

[asleepatthereel]

I was just revisiting the thread, and I dont recall seeing your last post Ex. I see your point about the aggressor continuing his approach toward me from the rear. Had that happened, I would have had time to drop the bike, and stay between him and the vehicle. Assuming he continued his approach, after being warned to stop, I would probably have fired on him. The fact that I didnt see anything in his hands, in my mind, doesnt mean that he didnt have a weapon, and even if he was unarmed, who's to say he couldnt have dealt me serious bodily harm? Fortunately he deescalated, and the scenario ended well.

I dont think your ideas are dumb at all, in fact there have been many times where you have beaten me to the punch replying to threads. Judging by your posts, theres alot I could learn from you. Looking back, I had wondered about the 'freezing up' and wondered if that would happen to me. I knew dropping the bike was something I might have had to do, but when the guy got back in his car and proceeded to leave the scene, I decided against dropping my shiny Harley to the curb. However, Id rather ride a dented or scratched Harley than in the back of a hearse any day. Its still amazing to me how quickly this whole thing happened. It really seemed like a long time, but couldnt have been more than 15 or 20 seconds when I replay it in my head.

[Excaliber]

I was just revisiting the thread, and I dont recall seeing your last post Ex. I see your point about the aggressor continuing his approach toward me from the rear. Had that happened, I would have had time to drop the bike, and stay between him and the vehicle. Assuming he continued his approach, after being warned to stop, I would probably have fired on him. The fact that I didnt see anything in his hands, in my mind, doesnt mean that he didnt have a weapon, and even if he was unarmed, who's to say he couldnt have dealt me serious bodily harm? Fortunately he deescalated, and the scenario ended well.

I dont think your ideas are dumb at all, in fact there have been many times where you have beaten me to the punch replying to threads. Judging by your posts, theres alot I could learn from you. Looking back, I had wondered about the 'freezing up' and wondered if that would happen to me. I knew dropping the bike was something I might have had to do, but when the guy got back in his car and proceeded to leave the scene, I decided against dropping my shiny Harley to the curb. However, Id rather ride a dented or scratched Harley than in the back of a hearse any day. Its still amazing to me how quickly this whole thing happened. It really seemed like a long time, but couldnt have been more than 15 or 20 seconds when I replay it in my head.

I'm glad to hear some of my posts may have been of use to you.

These events usually go down very, very quickly. Your situation was very typical for a vehicular dispute, and the time frame was representative of what can be expected during an encounter like this.

I would suggest you take another look at leaning toward a decision to fire on a single unarmed person who advances on you after a warning but without articulable reason to believe he presents an immediate deadly threat. Bear in mind that not every situation where some level of force may be justified includes justification for the use of deadly force. How would you explain the required elements of ability, opportunity, and jeopardy after the smoke has cleared? Suppositions about what he does and doesn't possess and what he may or may not be able to do don't make the grade here.

The circumstances you described, without indication your antagonist was armed and without a spoken threat and/or disparity of force situation (like he weighs 350 pounds and you weigh 120), would almost certainly result in a homicide charge that would be legally difficult and very expensive to defend against.

I'd recommend reviewing the situation again for options other than deadly force.

[lanternlad]

"Maybe the guy wanted your bike. A motorcyclejacking. Use of deadly force is justified."

Where precisely does one fit a motorcycle into a BMW/Lexus? Are the trunks that big now?

Sounds like you did the right thing, Asleep. You definitely have more control than I do. I really think that if it were me I would have shot him. (I was taught "Don't draw unless you intend to shoot, don't shoot unless you intend to kill.")

Highways can be scary places at night.
Once, when driving back to TX from FLA we happened to be going through LA when a beat up pickup truck behind me started to play a game of "chicken" of sorts. Being the only two vehicles in sight at 2am on a Sunday morning (read: Saturday night - ie:drunk) in the Atchafalaya Swamp area, calling the cops wouldn't have helped. I'm thinking that this guy (or guys) wanted a little fun.

Tough. I don't play games.

They kept speeding up when I sped up, slowing down when I slowed down, and finally got in front of me and started slowing down until they came to a dead stop. So I stopped. I'm betting they expected me to get out of the car so they could have a good old time beating the crap out of me, but I didn't. I didn't own a gun then, so the only weapon I had was my car, and I was going to use it. The first guy out of that truck was going to eat bumper. But it never happened. It must have confused them when I did nothing (I didn't honk the horn, flash the lights, or anything) and just sat there with my car running in place. We stayed there like that for a minute or so, then they got bored and took off. I let them go (I took down the license plate numbers just in case).

It was then I realized that I would never travel unarmed on the highways again.

Now if I travel long distances in my car, I take my sidearm and a PLR-16 with me.