It Happened To Me

This article was written by me and printed in the September 1999 issue of Combat Handguns Magazine. They have a regular feature called, "It Happened To Me". In this forum are stories recounted by those of us who have had to use a firearm in self-defense.

The magazine staff gave this one the name -

Customer Service by S&W

I work in a family owned urban supermarket in central Virginia. I am part of that family and have worked in the business for many years. During that time, as part of my responsibilities at the store, I have received handgun and personal defense training (at one time being an instructor myself), and also have special police powers bestowed upon me by the city government.

As do many urban supermarkets, we see a variety of crime, and this in degrees of seriousness. On this particular day I had to deal with a very serious problem indeed. A young bag-boy in my employ approached me and stated that I might want to keep an eye on the two young males now exiting the store. They were being closely followed by two other young males who seemed more than a little interested in where the first two were going.

It was explained to me that the first two had just cashed a check for a very large sum of money and the second two had been watching this transaction attentively. As the check cashers were leaving, the two youngsters (not more than 17) left their prospective purchases on the counter and moved off behind them. My bag-boy related that he overheard one say to the other, "give me the gun".

All this took no more than a few seconds to give me an overview of what was going on. As I went to the front door and looked out into the parking lot I quickly discovered that my bag-boy had indeed been rightly concerned. Not twenty feet from the door, standing next to a car, was one of the second two youths holding a gun in his right hand and pointing it at the face of the one who had just cashed his pay-check.

The robber’s left hand had hold of the victim’s shirt at the neck. The gun was canted to the side, the right side facing up. The robber was cursing the victim and demanding the money he’d just received a few moments before. The victim was frozen in fear and just standing there, staring down the muzzle of the handgun. The victim’s friend was standing on the passenger side of the car.

I looked around for the robbers friend and did not see him. There was another car parked right in front of the door not six feet from me. As it was unoccupied and I was in need of cover I took advantage of it. I drew my S&W M459 and got down on one knee behind the car. I then challenged the robber in a loud and clear voice, "Police officer, drop the gun!" The robber did not move except to look over his right shoulder at me. The victim began to slowly move away as the robber turned his focus to me.

I again told the robber to put down the gun. He then suddenly ducked down behind the car he was standing next to. My first thought then was, "Oh s---, here we go." I took a quick look around me to see if anyone was approaching me. They weren’t. The robber was poking his head up and down and looking around, seemingly looking for an escape route. He obviously knew that if he tried to run for it he would expose himself. This standoff continued for what seemed several minutes, but was in fact just mere seconds.

Finally he threw the gun out on the side of the car where I could see it. I then told him to lay on the ground, arms out and don’t move. Before approaching I again looked around me for anyone moving toward me. I then cuffed him, retrieved the weapon, and took him inside. Fortunately someone had already called 911 so the police were not long in arriving. The gun used by the robber was some cheap 9MM of unknown make. It had bullets in the clip, but none in the chamber.

I am happy to say that this ended well for me and the victim. No one was hurt and another illegal gun was gotten off the street. My only regret is that when time came to go to court over the matter the victim never showed up and the case was dismissed. Oh well, you do what you can.