It happens every day: Mom or Dad parks right outside a gas station convenience store, leaves the kids in the car, and ducks into the store for a minute.
In this case out of Dallas, by the time Mom got out of the store, a stranger was sitting in the driver’s seat of her SUV, about to pull away with her two- and four-year-old children.
But Mom wasn’t about to let him go. She leaped into the back seat and demanded that the man pull over, which he didn’t. Instead, he turned around and looked at her, wide-eyed, which (incredibly) gave her enough time to reach between the front armrests, grab her gun from the glove compartment, and shoot him in the head. The car crashed into a light pole, and neither she nor the kids were injured.
The man was later identified as Rickey Wright, whose long previous arrest record includes charges of unauthorized motor vehicle use, assault, and arrest evasion. He was taken to the hospital, where they were able to stabilize him, albeit in serious condition.
“I should have just have emptied the whole clip but I didn’t,” said the unidentified mother. “I’m not a killer or anything like that, but I do believe in, you know, defending what’s mine.”
The woman was questioned at the scene and then told she was free to go. It’s unlikely that any charges will be filed against her.
The gun was a recent addition to the vehicle: she’d put it in the glove box earlier that day. It’s lucky that she managed to get into the car before the Wright drove off with her kids and her gun. It’s also fortunate that she was able to gain access to it with a criminal at the wheel.
Although this incident has a relatively happy ending, the other potential outcomes illustrate why your handgun belongs on your person.
Here is a video of the news segment from CBS-DFW:
Mom is an idiot. This is why you don’t leave the key in the ignition or the car running when you go into a store.
Glad the kids are ok and the bad guy was arrested.
I don’t know the crime rate in the area, but in my very low-crime rural area, I’ve done it. It’s hot, you want to pop into a convenience store for something really quick and you don’t want the kids to get hot in the car, so you leave it running.
It’s a shame that people have to be that fearful and take so many precautions.
I don’t leave my kids, pets, guns, or guitars inside a potentially hot car, unlocked, unsecured, car running, especially not at a gas station, which by necessity forces you to rub shoulders with people like Mr felon to get gas. Pay at the pump only. As soon as Amazon does gas delivery no more gas station if I can help it…
She is very fortunate. It doesn’t sound like the glove box was locked, and my kids at 5 can get out of the car seat, so a gun in the glove box is a hazard to them, unless locked. I carry on my person, or place it in one of those locked boxes, not super secure but would keep someone from smashing and grabbing or kids from messing with. Granted, it sounds like the gun was a recent addition so she might not have a carry permit, thus in the car is the only option for her. All the more reason then not to leave the car unlocked with keys and the gun alone in it.
If I had to go into the gas station, gun would be on my person, doors locked on my car, keys in pocket, and I would be holding the kids hands or kids themselves. Otherwise not going in unless wife was in the car.
Screw Amazon and the prog bastard that owns it. Convenience does not outweigh other considerations.
There are places where I would trust that a running car with children inside would be safe for a few minutes. A a gas station in a city the size of Dallas is not one of those places.
What if the criminal decided to go into the gas station to rob everyone?
If it’s in a high crime area what is more likely to happen: car being stolen at gas station or gas station being robbed? Would it be a better idea to leave the kids in the car where you can still see them or take them into the place where the money is?
Obviously you shouldn’t ever leave the car running with kids in it. People tend to steal running cars and not notice there are kids inside. If it’s too hot to turn the car off, you should take your kids with you.
Doesn’t change the fact that this is a really bad idea. I’m a bit surprised that the Mom wasn’t cited for leaving the car running while unattended and leaving the kids unsupervised. Regardless, all is well that ends well I suppose.
So . .. you want to see mom have a record for letting her kids hang in the car for five minutes while she goes and gets whatever in the convenience store.
Nice. Nothing like over-criminalizing ordinary life. Some gun people have more in common with leftist busybodies than they care to admit. By the way, I wonder how many more kids are hit and injured as pedestrians crossing parking lots?
Mom definitely needs to get a little more serious and never leave her carry weapon out of her control in public.
Yeah, right. Try thinking this through, starting with “cited for WHAT??” Only thing I can see as a possible citation is she didn’t shoot the SOB enough.
In my state, it is illegal to idle a parked car for more than 5 minutes. Either way, leaving a running car with the keys still in it to run in to a store is very stupid and lazy. Many of the people I see do this often park in the fire lane, which again is stupid.
They do sell kits for cop cars where they can still idle in park with the keys removed, but can’t be shifted out of park without the keys in the ignition. If you have to be that lazy, at least buy one of those police kits.
As a resident of the Dallas area, I can tell you that there are
very few low-crime areas left. I consider the entire city to be dangerous and would never think about leaving my car running if I had to exit it. To do that with children in the vehicle is beyond stupid. There have been other incidents in Dallas where car thieves have taken a car with children in it. I’m glad the mother shot the POS, but this story could have had a much darker ending.
Nativeson, you are 100% right. This could have ended in disaster. I hope law enforcement told her how stupid this was of her and that she violated laws. Hopefully she is intelligent enough to understand and will never do it again.
Also the concussion of the firearm being shot inside the vehicle is unbelievably loud. I hope neither her or her kids ended up with hearing loss.
I do it all the time, leaving my dog in the car while the wife and I eat at a restaurant on trips. Car doors are locked, engine running to keep car cool. Works great, just figure out how to lock car with engine running.
Pretty simple, just carry an extra key. Probably get the tree huggers after you though, you know pollution and wasting fuel.
Jokes on you as prolong idling is hard on a engine. According to Ford, one hour of idling equals driving 33 highway miles in wear and tear. That is for police cars with engine oil coolers, normal cars would wear even faster at idle.
““I should have just have emptied the whole clip but I didn’t,” said the unidentified mother. “I’m not a killer or anything like that, but I do believe in, you know, defending what’s mine.””
Mom is also an idiot as she apparently doesn’t know the first rule of Fight Club either…
The problem is that today’s mothers are just plain lazy. Can’t bother to take the kids into the store. If they are that small, is there something you ABSOLUTELY have to have from a convenience store? People treat their pets better than they treat their children.
RedRed, not necessarily. We read almost every day about folks leaving their pets in the vehicle on a hot day, only to die. We also read almost daily of folks leaving a kid in the vehicle on a hot day, only to die. Some people are not meant to be pet owners, or parents.
i agree, this woman was far too lazy.
really, how much effort would it have taken to just pull the trigger one more time? she could have saved the taxpayers a shit load of money if she wasnt too damn lazy to just fire another shot.
I see this all the time at convenience stores. In fact, it’s unusual not to see a vehicle with the engine running outside a convenience, where I live on Long Island. Not exactly high-crime but certainly not devoid of crime, by any measure. The stupidity is mind boggling and I don’t understand it. What is the aversion to turning off the car, taking the keys out and getting in and restarting in a few minutes?
If I were a car thief, I would just hang around a 7-11. I probably wouldn’t have to wait more than a half-hour to take my pick. If I’m not too choosy, about 5 minutes.
BTW, most insurance companies will give you a pretty hard time if they know you left the key in the car or the engine running and left the car unattended. They may not outright deny the claim but they could.
What makes you think they could? Is that written into your contract? It is not in mine. When my car is idling and unoccupied, it does not have a sign on it saying “Take me! Free BMW, today only!” When I was a kid, up to when I got my first car, Chevy cars were deliberately built so that you could unlock the ignition and then remove the key, so that the key was no longer necessary to operate the car, until the key was used to lock it again. And insurance companies did not refuse to insure Chevys. Don’t be silly.
I’m not being silly. I knew someone to whom it almost happened. He openly admitted he left the car with the keys in the ignition and they raked him over the coals with the police report. They deemed him to be at fault and threatened to withhold the claim, at least at first. Then, the car was recovered quite a bit worse for wear. They covered the damages but not entirely. This was back in the ’90s.
I remember that feature in some GM cars. It was back in the ’60s, IIRC.
Let me guess – you like to leave your car running when you run into a store “just for a second”. I musta hit a nerve.
OP is a victim blaming ass. She did not leave the car running.
WTF makes you think so?
Or at least get something to let you do it safely. I installed a viper remote start for my wifes SUV to prevent situations like this. Need just a quick gas station stop with the kids? Take key out, remote start the truck, and lock/arm it. Kids can enjoy ac with the car running, but the car is also locked with alarm set. Hell, if someone smashed a window thinking they can steal it, the moment the brake pedal is pushed without a key in the ignition the whole truck turns off. Relatively low cost, not too hard to install and wire, for a much safer way to deal with Florida summers and kids in cars.
Or how about mom leaving an unsecured firearm in the glovebox of a car with unsupervised kids inside. Insanity.
He’d been arrested 21 times before.
Isn’t there a point where someone should stop getting second (third, fourth, fifth, sixth … you get my drift) chances?
his homie judge be lettin’ him out, u know – tryin’ to offset that white privilege
One thing we should all realize given the tone of news, today, is that she is a racist! When she found this guy about to drive off with her car and her kids, she should have found a white guy to shoot, BUT NO!, like so many others who shoot somebody, she decided to pick on a black guy, Mr. Dindunuffin. Maxine gonna get after her.
Every crime should be punished appropriately. There shouldn’t be a “you’re out” law. The only time a criminal should be “put out” is by the victim’s gun.
I am no fan of the death penalty, but that doesn’t mean I don’t support the penalty being death. In other words, I don’t want the government system deciding who gets killed, I rather have the victim — in the moment of being victimized — be able to kill the criminal.
I want the power to go to the people not the government.
His mom says he is a nice boy on the cusp of turning his life around. He just needed a little money to buy school clothes.
If her handgun was on her, she probably would have emptied into the windshield without a second thought instead of jumping into the car…hope she didn’t like the kid sitting behind the driver’s seat too much…
And if she had stopped to think about it after she pulled out her gun, the guy probably would have gotten away with her car and kids (and promptly crashed into a gas pump or something else).
Car-carry and off-body carry is fine as long as you have a gun on your body as well. A holster in any position behind your hips (like how most people CC) is nearly impossible to reach in a sitting position.
You sure are making a lot of ASSumptions while painting such a dire picture of this person’s supposed idiocy, someone you don’t know and have never met. I’d sure like to borrow you’re alternative dimension crystal ball that lets you know exactly what might possibly happen given any change in circumstance, can you please tell me what happens to her kids in the dimension where she isn’t armed? Are her kids OK? Are they killed to eliminate witnesses? Are they assaulted first and then killed? Which one of these scenarios is your favorite?
I said PROBABLY. It’s not a situation anyone wants to be in, but she did the right thing jumping in and grabbing her piece out of the glovebox. Jumping in the car with only a CC piece makes it harder to pull that CC piece out of your ass. Pull it out and say “stop or I’ll shoot” and anything that goes through the windshield will certainly go through the driver’s seat too. If the guy had gotten away with the chilluns, he would have most likely sold them into white slavery when he takes the car to a chopshop.
Very fortunate indeed. Many opportunities for Mr. Murphy to f*ck up her day.
If he lives , lock steel door , throw key away. Shit belongs in the sewer , not on our streets.
“The woman was questioned at the scene and then told she was free to go.”
God bless Texas!
If this was New Jersey, she would be in jail and her kids would be in foster care.
So New Jersey is under
Hitler’sTrump’s control? How dare those Nazis separate children from their parents, those bastards.Naw, NJ is under the same control it has been for decades, evil POS (D) MFs. Trump has nada to do with it.
In NJ, it is illegal to idle a car for more than 5 minutes in park.
On a few occasions I’ve left my vehicle running when I got out. But I always carry a spare key in my pocket and lock the door. And, I’m always armed. I just don’t go anywhere with firearm.
Things are what they are. These days, whatever is yours is mine, unless you can prevent me from taking it. The onus is to the owner, not the taker. No one should be required to not take that which they covet. Unfair. Obeying laws is for chumps. So, if you are a chump, you better be able to overcome the takers.
In my new position in an office a few blocks away from the center of Detroit it isn’t practical to cc on my body during work. I cc in a bag and have the zippered pocket open as I go to my vehicle (its in a pocket holster in a compartment small enough it can’t rotate). I want the weapon easily accessible. I can go to my car literally with my hand on the gun without anyone being the wiser. I just look like I’m looking for my car key. If it was in a holster, I’d have trouble accessing it from a sitting position, yet don’t want it visible through the window (eg. in a car holster as I’ve seen others do). If someone jumps me and asks for my wallet, I can either hand them my wallet (cash is replaceable) or I can pull out my revolver….
Pull wallet and nervously drop before he can grab it (you won’t have to fake this). When dirt bag looks down, pull revolver and shoot.
Otherwise you have it very well thought out.
Karma’s a bitch!
If only her handgun was in 6.5 Creedmoor… No body steals a car if a 6.5 Creedmoor is in it.
There is so much wrong with this on so many different levels…..where do I start.
1. Leaving toddler-age children unattended, alone, in an unlocked vehicle, with keys, running, in a known high-crime area of Dallas. Additionally with access to an unsecured firearm.
2. Shooting the perp while he was in control of the automobile, further endangering her children.
3. Not finishing the job and leaving him alive as a witness and further danger to society and drain on public resources; plus likely civil liability from perp’s family.
4. Talking to the press. Remember post defensive gun use Rule No. 1. STFU!!!!
This story is not over. The only reason that she will probably not be charged is that the DA will No Bill on the basis that no jury would convict a mother protecting her children – no matter how stupid and irresponsible she was. She go lucky. Poor kids having to endure her as a parent and that they will probably grow up just like her.
At least they will learn to support the 2nd amendment and protect their family themselves.
Not if they end up dead because the 4 year old is young enough not to understand guns but old enough to pull the trigger on one that mom carelessly left unsecured in a vehicle with him.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
Armchair quarterbacking level: 10/10! Well done!
“Oh lord it’s hard to be humble, when you’e perfect in every way,
I can’t wait to look in the mirror, cause I get better lookin each day.
To know me is to love me, I must be a hell of a man,
Oh lord it’s hard to be humble, but I’m doin the best that I can.”
Another woman selfishly refusing to become a victim for the sake of common good.
She must hate feminism; what a sex traitor. How dare she handle a gun in-front of her children — that’s not very lady like. She most have been infected with her husband’s or father’s toxic masculinity.
Less police, more moms with guns.
The police couldn’t stop the criminal, mommy sure did.
Sounds like the police did stop him, some 21 times or so. Sounds like the courts didn’t stop him.
I agree it is more often the courts. But I have seen arrests totally screwed up by cops to the point where no court could convict an even obviously guilty criminal
Yup, me too. But I’ve seen hardened criminals over and over who have been released by soft hearted judges. Some of these cases would literally blow your mind. IMO, this happens much more than cops screwing up the case. Of course, my experience is limited to the West.
This Mom was almost Darwin worthy – leaving the kids in the car with a gun inside the car – don’t even know where to begin. Thank God things turned out OK and her kids were not hurt or the criminal turned into an armed kidnapper with a gun she provided!
Women willingly wear high heels. It’s not very smart for a person who is more targeted and weaker than their attacker to wear footwear that doesn’t allow them to easily get away. So it’s no surprise that women will prioritize fashion over safety. They rather continue to dress the way men forced/wanted them to in the past than dress in a manner that would easily allow them to carry a gun.
How does a woman carry her Glock when she is wearing “yoga” pants and stomach revealing top? A lot of women rather stick to their style and purse carry.
How about slung over her shoulder with a 30-rd mag inserted?
Sorry mom-you’re retarded. Glad nothing happ…oh wait. Was it hot too?!? Happy my children are grown and I may whine about my fudd son but my grandkids “seem” safe. In Maryland…😖
Not trying to be a dick, but…
-Mom not in car
-Kids alone in car
-With keys in the car…
-With a gun…
-In the unlocked glovebox…
-Loaded…
-In a state with safe storage laws…
Yes this cocktail of factors led to her grabbing & using the puece quickly, but this reads just like the start of a “child kills self in accident” story, too, or a parent getting run down by gun control laws run amok.
Hopefully she gets a real storage solution.
Yeah, a 4 year old kid along in a car with a gun?
She doesn’t sound very bright given all the mistakes she made and probably habitually made. I hope someone gives her a lecture.
Seriously some parents are insane enough to leave their kids in a kitchen with kitchen knives even though stab wounds are about 30% more likely to be fatal
Yikes! That’s scary. I don’t support leaving little ones in the car alone, but I’m well aware of daily life and how it can seem harmless “just this one time.”
We can criticize her tactics forever and ever.
At least she shot the bastard.
Kudos! I’m down with that!
Perp is 36 with 21 previous arrests; I thought Texas would have put him in the slammer for some significant time. The report said he was being charged with two counts of unlawful restraint. Why not grand theft for the car and at least two counts of kidnapping for the kids.
Arrests don’t get you significant time in the slammer. Nobody mentioned convictions. But your charging suggestions sure sound right to me.
Well… I guess it could have been worse. But boy I hope she learned some lessons.
““I should have just have emptied the whole clip but I didn’t,” said the unidentified mother…”
– She will probably be okay but this was a very ill-advised thing to say. I worry that it could cost her a lot of grief later in a civil action, even if she wins in the end.
No kidding. That is about the last thing one would want to say after a self defense scenario. But let’s also respect the serendipity of events. She had just agreed to carry in her car. That is premonition at it’s finest.
Or premeditation to an over zealous prosecutor, not that she could have known this would happen
“I bet this car 🚗 jacker has a hell of a migraine headache! Might need an Advil!”
Somebody needs to tell her to stop talking to the press and law enforcement until she talks to an attorney.”I didn’t kill him, but I wish I did.” “I should have emptied the clip” Really? Put that at the top of the list of stupid things to say. She did a lot of things wrong, and continued to, but glad things turned out for her and the children. Just hope an overzealous P.A. doesn’t run with it. Just because the officer on the scene doesn’t arrest her doesn’t mean the P.A. can’t later.
You can armchair quarterback her choices all day, but in the end it’s hard to argue with the results. I have a feeling she will begin going through the trouble of taking her kids inside with her instead of leaving them in the running car.
And hopefully carrying her firearm on her person and not leaving it in her vehicle.
Whatever mistakes she made, and lots of working moms of toddlers are harried and distracted, the armchair quarterbacking here is way off base. It is not uncommon for a mom to have to run into the convenience section of grab a gallon of milk, it is not uncommon or criminal to forget keys in the car. Despite assumptions here, it apparently was not running according to the most recent account.
She made a error or too a distracted and overworked mom could easily make. the fault was in the courts who let a career criminal/super predator out on the streets and the criminal actions of the criminal himself.
And so what if she said she considered emptying the clip. You guys are not attorneys. Saying something like that could be a problem in some cases, but not this. At the point she shot him he was kidnapping her and her two kids, no jury in Texas is going to convict her of anything.
CC, it may or may not be against the law for a person, man or woman, to leave a 2 and a 4 year old in a vehicle by themselves. I’ll leave that to Texans to figure out. It is absolutely against the law to leave the children in the vehicle with an easily accessible, loaded firearm. Got nothing to do with Monday morning quarterbacking. It has everything to do with common sense.
You may think that’s common sense (I don’t), but you certainly cannot decide for anyone else that it’s against the law. There is no reason why it should be, to my knowledge there is no such law in TX, and you’re just running your mouth without engaging your brain.
Larry, Child Endangerment is not against the law in Texas? Leaving an unsecured firearm within reach of a child is not against the law? Both absolutely are. I just looked them up. I seriously doubt you are a LEO.
CC, and you don’t know mom was overworked and harried, do you? I certainly didn’t get that from the post. Could it be, in your mind, that a female has an excuse (not a reason) for everything? Most of these posts are correct about her actions. I don’t think they are mean spirited, mine certainly weren’t meant to be. As most have said, we just hoped she has learned a very important lesson.
The victim blaming posts are all horseshit. I’m in law enforcement and it is extremely hard to find a single crime victim that was not making some mistake in taking some kind of risk when victimized. The fault lies in the perpetrator. If leaving kids in a car for two minutes while running to outside payment station, or into inside station, to pay for gas was criminal, 90% of American moms would be in prison.
This only leaves question of firearm accessibility and not enough facts are public for anyone to conclusively say it violated the law. In Texas you do not need a CCL or handgun registration to keep a loaded firearm in your car. We don’t know that she did not have a small lockbox in the glove box (I do), or whether case law there says children strapped in a car seat are considered to have access or what amount of time .
There is no “handgun registration” of any description in TX (try asking yourself what it would (or even could) accomplish, the answer is “nothing except facilitate confiscation”). And pretty soon TX will be Constitutional Carry, causing wet panties throughout the wailing world. No lockbox, or license is necessary for car carry, only requirement is to keep the firearm out of sight.
One less reason to ever go to Tejas. I am very happy living in an area with 1/3 the level of gun violence as Tejas.
Okay so I agree the lady made some mistakes, no argument there. For me the important thing is to praise what she did right and to help her get more of it right in the future. She saved her babies, that’s tops with me. Now, if I was local I’d want to reach out and offer her some training and instruction. In personal security awareness, in carrying a gun and using it smartly. Getting herself that carry permit so she is less limited in self defense. Being aware of keeping little kids safe from their mother’s gun (Eddie Eagle is a good start, but of course there’s more to it). Dallas-Fort Worth is a huge metro area, so here’s hoping there is some skilled instructor out there who can give her some time, help her to be even better.
Its a Magazine…..!!!!
And go with an Electric Car = no more gasoline…..
Anyone read anything indicating this woman spent a bunch of money and time training for self-defense? Specialized for preventing carjacking?
Gotta admit she is really good with a gun; didn’t want to kill the carjacker, so she shot him in the head…and he lived.
Leaving your kids in the car with it running is just plain stupid and irresponsible. At least she was able to save the kids. Which she owed them for her original stupidity and laziness. Now if she had only used something a little bigger so we could have saved some tax money.
All she had to do is push the little button on her key fob and she could have prevented this. She might as well have asked someone to drive off with her kids. She is more than a little complicit in the death of this man.
Read it again Wash. The crook is not dead. Would have been a lot better off for the rest of Texas if he was, but he’s not.
The criticism of this mother who successfully defended her children is truly amazing sad. You people have spoken volumes about yourselves in a very negative light, and perhaps even bigoted against an armed defender.
Wow???
I’m very happy it ended well for her kids. And I wish she did empty her “clip” into this thief!!! She could use a formal training class tho.
“The criticism of this mother who successfully defended her children is truly amazing sad. ”
If she hadn’t been careless and irresponsible, there would be nothing to analyze and critique.
You actually make it seem so easy along with your presentation however I find this topic to
be actually one thing that I think I might never
understand. It seems too complicated and very
large for me. I’m having a look ahead for your subsequent post, I will try to get the
grasp of it!
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