Early this fall on our way back from picking up some stuff for the house my wife and I were driving along a 4 lane highway with a 15 or 20 ft wide median in the center. As we drove we noted some man (on our right) ran out of a gas station and nearly got himself killed as he crossed two lanes and paused in the median. (About 350 yards away but he clearly didnt belong their)
The incident was odd because there is nothing on the opposite side of the road for a person to want to go to except for a rail road track and a whole lot of swampy river land and a very wide if possibly shallow river.
As our pickup closed the distance in fairly heavy traffic I noted this guy had something black in his right hand that looked like it might be a pistol. (I am far sighted) I told my wife that this guy was armed and we both moved the clothing out of the way of our ccw pistols and kept a hand ready to draw without actually drawing at this moment.
There was no turn off to take to avoid the situation until we would be almost even with this guy although the shoulder of the road was available as was the median.
As we closed within a 175 yards I unsnapped my shoulder holsters thumb safety and scanned the scene watching for any hostility other than the overt act of this guy standing their with a pistol in hand in public, in the median. I readied to pull my truck into the median but was also concerned with the heavy traffic and the safety danger it posed.
Out of the corner of my eyes I see red and blue lights as a police officer drove over the shoulder of the road (a second road runs parallel to the highway and their is a 4 way intersection) and onto the highway we were on with his siren wailing.
The officer pulls into the median and exits with his pistol drawn, the guy actually dropped to the ground as the patrol vehicle skidded to a stop in the median grass.
So the question I keep asking myself was what could my wife and I have done differently and how should we have reacted in this situation? I can guarntee you if we hadnt seen the police office we would have drawn our weapons in the next few seconds as prudence demands it. We would only have opened fire if fired upon or if it became obvious he was shooting up passing vehicles but we would have stopped without passing him due to the situation.
Our lives were in danger but we had no way to know if this guy was a undercover officer or a BG.
It would have been a horrible place to open fire as the environment was to cluttered with vehicles but if this BG had opened fire on the cars I would have had to pull into the median.
The incident was odd because there is nothing on the opposite side of the road for a person to want to go to except for a rail road track and a whole lot of swampy river land and a very wide if possibly shallow river.
As our pickup closed the distance in fairly heavy traffic I noted this guy had something black in his right hand that looked like it might be a pistol. (I am far sighted) I told my wife that this guy was armed and we both moved the clothing out of the way of our ccw pistols and kept a hand ready to draw without actually drawing at this moment.
There was no turn off to take to avoid the situation until we would be almost even with this guy although the shoulder of the road was available as was the median.
As we closed within a 175 yards I unsnapped my shoulder holsters thumb safety and scanned the scene watching for any hostility other than the overt act of this guy standing their with a pistol in hand in public, in the median. I readied to pull my truck into the median but was also concerned with the heavy traffic and the safety danger it posed.
Out of the corner of my eyes I see red and blue lights as a police officer drove over the shoulder of the road (a second road runs parallel to the highway and their is a 4 way intersection) and onto the highway we were on with his siren wailing.
The officer pulls into the median and exits with his pistol drawn, the guy actually dropped to the ground as the patrol vehicle skidded to a stop in the median grass.
So the question I keep asking myself was what could my wife and I have done differently and how should we have reacted in this situation? I can guarntee you if we hadnt seen the police office we would have drawn our weapons in the next few seconds as prudence demands it. We would only have opened fire if fired upon or if it became obvious he was shooting up passing vehicles but we would have stopped without passing him due to the situation.
Our lives were in danger but we had no way to know if this guy was a undercover officer or a BG.
It would have been a horrible place to open fire as the environment was to cluttered with vehicles but if this BG had opened fire on the cars I would have had to pull into the median.
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