A Floridian with a concealed carry permit shot a man attacking a police officer in the Sunshine State. The officer had stopped a driver for extreme speeding. One witness said the vehicle was traveling on the shoulder past full lanes of slow moving traffic at 120 mph. The chase and shooting occured at about 9 a.m. in Fort Myers.
After both cars were stopped, the suspect jumped the officer and managed to get on top, beating the officer severely. From winknews.com
Bardes and the suspect exited their vehicles at the Corkscrew Road exit and a fight started, sources said. The suspect was armed, Bardes told his supervisors, according to sources.
The passerby, who had a Concealed Weapons License, exited his vehicle and told the suspect he’d shoot him if he didn’t stop beating the deputy, sources said.
After noncompliance from the suspect, the passerby shot the suspect three times, sources said. The suspect later died.
Here is a bit more information from a witness at the scene. From leoaffairs.com:
Another woman wrote: “I watched the suspect jump out of his car and run toward the officer and tackled him.”
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office told local news media that the deputy who was involved, 12-year veteran Deputy First Class Dean Bardes, is expected to be okay. The suspect who was fighting with the deputy was killed during the struggle and WINK is reporting that a passerby is the one who shot him.
“The passerby, who had a Concealed Weapons License, exited his vehicle and instructed the suspect to stop beating the deputy…after noncompliance from the suspect, the passerby shot the suspect three times,” sources said.
Though rare, incidents where legally armed citizens assist police are more common than permit carriers attacking law enforcement. Perhaps that’s why the police attitude toward permit carriers has improved considerably over the last 20 years. Experience has taught cops that Americans who carry legally are seldom a problem, and sometimes render assistance to endangered police officers.
Despite anti-gun rights antagonism from many if not most big city police chiefs, the average cops overwhelmingly favors the rights of legal firearm carriers. From policeone.com:
More than 91 percent of respondents support the concealed carry of firearms by civilians who have not been convicted of a felony and/or not been deemed psychologically/medically incapable.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch
Good shoot glad Officer is ok
ditto
The discrimination and vilification of the law abiding armed citizen needs to end.
And the “mainstream” media should honestly be dissolved. Too much bias and agendas. At what point will disinformation have consequences if the narrative endangers lives?
The mainstream media is a direct result of free market capitalism. You have about as much chance of ‘dissolving’ it as you do replacing the dollar with the oak leaf as the national currency.
No. The mainstream media is a direct result of extensive government regulation combined with a purposeful takeover by an ideology inimical to capitalism.
I’m now wondering if oak trees produce more leaves than the Fed’s increased the money supply.
I would say, solely on the basis of what I have seen since 2000 when I first entered the working masses, that the Federal Reserve Band (a privately owned enterprise) may be winning the race against the oak trees.
At any rate, currency is going to .
Leaves used to be the national currency, an attempt at preventing counterfeiting that Ben Franklin thought up. Google it.
No regulated or licensed industry has anything at all to do with free market capitalism.
Data says you are wrong. Mainstream media are mostly money losers and heavily subsidized by large donors usually with leftist political tilt. They have also places themselves in the position of corporate welfare recipients — and favorable government regualtion. They are anything but a free marekt
Hope the reimburse him for the ammo… maybe give him a gift certificate for more in case he ever has to do it again!
I’ve set out flares when I’ve been first on the scene of a traffic accident. Cops have always replenished my personal stock. Should be the same here!
Update: “Shoot Straight, a Fort Myers gun dealer and firing range, gave the unidentified bystander who shot and killed a man assaulting a deputy on I-75 Monday a replacement handgun Tuesday.
“We reached out to the Lee County Sheriff,” said Mark Williams, who has managed the Fort Myers Shoot Straight location since it opened in 2010 off Colonial Boulevard. “He had to impound the gun for evidence. We wanted to donate a gun so this man’s not unarmed.”
Put that in your cultural patriarchy & smoke it.
Gutsy move.
I bet he’ll be drinking for free in cop bars for life.
The only bars I’ve ever seen cops own are the ones on their uniform and the ones in their jail cells.
Learn to read. Do you even know what a cop bar is? It is a place friendly to cops. these tend to be the safest bars as well since the thugs tend ot avoid them.
Couldn’t have happened. We deplorables lack the proper training for such actions.
And, “Everytown” will add the shootee to their gun-violence victims list in 3…..2…..1…..GO!
Glad it turned out well, but that scene carried an awful lot of friendly fire risk. If you’ve seen two men locked in hand-to-hand combat before, essentially fighting for their lives, you know its nothing at all like a Las Vegas boxing match. It is messy and violent and pure chaos.
I wouldn’t want to fire a shot, or three, into that maelstrom, but like this guy, I’d have to figure something out and go for it, too. That suspect was just too much of a raging deadly threat to everyone around just to stand by.
I’d probably try to get to point blank range. Last thing I’d want is to hit the officer and become Everytown’s poster boy for “Rambo wannabes” everywhere, or whatever slander they’re calling regular guys these days who aren’t looking for trouble, but who are sometimes forced to act.
News reports say the armed citizen first demanded that the bad guy stop beating on the cop. Obviously, the BG didn’t stop. The cop was yelling, “Shoot him! Shoot him!” The armed citizen did just that, and did it well. Three times.
Shoot him, shoot him, shoot him.
And so he did. Apparently all three rounds on target.
We always say that nobody is obligated to assist in such situations, but does the fact that this was an officer change that? That is, once the officer instructed the 3rd party to shoot the suspect, could that actually impose an obligation on the 3rd party to shoot? In essence, is he being instantaneously deputized?
As I recall reading, when a sheriff formed a posse, participation was legally compulsory. Could a regular officer exercise such authority, formally? Howsoever, I wonder whether the officer’s qualified immunity then attaches to the 3rd party, in the event the rounds cause other injury or damage aside from the suspect.
I think the big difference here is that you can actually tell at a glance who the good guy is and the bad guy is. That’s not often the case when encountering violent situations with people in plan clothes.
Wait a minute, isn’t this exactly the same scenario Zimmerman was in, in Florida! The Anti-2A crowd should have the same field day with this one. It’s not like the guy was trying to shoot the cop, he was only punching him. Both the cop and the civilian should be charged with manslaughter! (/sarc)
Of course that all depends on whether or not the perp was “African-American”, doesn’t it? And if Obama even gives a damn any more now that he’s looking at the rear door of the White House.
If the bad guy was on top and staying there it may not have been a very difficult three shots. At least one of the witnesses made it sound that way.
You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Free society and all that. I’m willing to bet that cop is grateful the bystander took the chance and saved his life.
Duh.
A contact shot is a good solution to the problem but since the guy found something that worked I’m not gonna criticize his tactics.
it would be nice for people to RTA (read the article) before chiming in with their “expert” opinion.
BTW, “point blank range” simply means close enough that the round hits where the sights are pointing without need for windage.
I wonder if, after the attacker was shot, the deputy pulled his gun on the man who saved his life, disarmed him, ordered him to the ground, and cuffed him. Seriously.
The armed citizen demanded that the BG stop his attack. When the BG didn’t, the cop pleaded with his rescuer to shoot the BG.
So I’m thinking that the cop thanked his savior and shook his hand.
Good Grief….seriously.
Word.
Why? I couldn’t see that being department protocol. Even if he wasn’t arrested and was just politely detained while statements were taken, following protocol makes it a whole lot easier to close the books without questions getting raised later.
Wait, wait, wait..
‘Concerned American’ claims that kind of thing *never* happens.
Next, you’re gonna feed me some BS and tell me a reality TV star billionaire (claimed) is about to be President of the Freaking United States of America!
Concerned American is just upset that he’s too old to be on Daddy and Mommy’s insurance and is going to have to pay for Obamacare until it gets rolled back.
Meanwhile, safely behind the guarded gates of an exclusive suburban community, Shannon Watts, upon hearing this news, bites the head off of a small animal in her rage…
Actually that was reported incorrectly. It was Hillary.
DH…..That was my first good laugh of the day!
Guns Save Lives….Who knew?
Result!
So cops aren’t using their weapons in self defense because of trumped up media outrage, and are instead relying on armed citizens to defend them?
Sounds about par for the course these days…
For the Win!
Think of the money saved on a trial and peison.
To those who say you don’t have to do anything when a police officer asks for assistance, here is the Virginia Code. I’ve charged people with it after fighting their stupid drunk friends…other states probably have similar laws. Beware of street lawyers and keyboard commandos.
§ 18.2-463
Refusal to aid officer in execution of his office
If any person on being required by any sheriff or other officer refuse or neglect to assist him: (1) in the execution of his office in a criminal case, (2) in the preservation of the peace, (3) in the apprehending or securing of any person for a breach of the peace, or (4) in any case of escape or rescue, he shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.
So, as a Virginian (transplant anyway), if cop is beating the snot out of someone, and his friend (the attacker not the cop) is about to intervene, if the cop tells me to hold the guy at gun point (or shoot him, mace him, bludgeon him with stuffed animals?) I’m legally *required* to do so?
If I feel that the officer is 100% in the wrong, based on the evidence I have on hand, am I not as an individual protected from prosecution?
Good. Hope the cop is ok.
This article simply CANNOT be true! After all, HuffPo, Salon, DailyKos, the New York Slimes, and Pravda on the Potomac – er, I mean WashPost tell me that armed civilians never stop crime……
I have a strict gun comtrol policy…it is my policy to be in control of a gun at all times.
Badda boom….badda bing.
Just taking out the trash!
Comments are closed.