Crime happens everywhere and at any time. In this case, the good guys were about ten miles northeast of downtown Detroit. They were attacked just before ten o’clock on a weekday night. An armed man with his concealed pistol license was headed to a delicatessen with his friend. You could go out for a snack and leave your gun at home, but they needed a firearm for self-defense that night.
The defender and his friend walked into a late-night delicatessen selling liquor. Two men followed them inside. One of the two men followed the defender as he left the store. The defender and his friend were near their car when the stranger yelled for them to stop. The attacker pointed a gun at the defender’s friend and told the defender to hand everything over. The defender had his concealed carry permit in his wallet, but he handed over his wallet. That is when the robber started to pat down the defender.
The robber stopped pointing his gun at the defender’s friend. That is when the defender presented his concealed firearm and shot the attacker in the chest. The wounded robber ran one way and the victims ran the other way. The news reports implied that the robber shot at the victims and missed them.
It isn’t clear if the defenders called 911 or if they even had their cell phones after they were robbed. Police responded quickly to the sounds of gunshots. The defender re-holstered his firearm and ran toward the officers with his hands in the air. The victims then told the officers what had happened.
The officers found the armed attacker nearby. They disarmed the wounded robber and found the victim’s wallet in his pocket.
The robber is a convicted felon who served several years in prison. He had prior convictions for armed robbery and weapons charges. It was not legal for him to have a gun, but only anti-gun politicians think that criminals obey our laws.
The police looked at the security video of the robber and his accomplice. They saw the robber point his gun at both victims. The defender was not charged with a crime. The news reports don’t mention if the police took the defender’s firearm as evidence.
Parts of this story are absolutely ordinary and some parts are unusual. This was a great example of waiting your turn which is also called tactical patience. Yes, we have every right to defend ourselves when we face a lethal threat, but the bad guy had his gun against our friend’s head. Let’s wait a moment until we have better opportunities for a successful defense. This defender acted when the robber’s eyes were looking somewhere else and the robber’s gun wasn’t pressed against his friend’s head.
This story is one of many that go under-reported by the mainstream media because it shows a positive image of a law-abiding gun owner defending their life and their family. It is our responsibility at AmmoLand to report these stories to you. While we will continue to report these stories, groups like the Crime Prevention Research Center, led by Dr. John Lott, are fastidious in studying the use of firearms for self-defense. Stay up to date with all news on self-defense by following CPRC and Ammoland.
About Rob Morse
Rob Morse writes about gun rights at Ammoland, at Clash Daily, at Second Call Defense, and on his SlowFacts blog. He hosts the Self Defense Gun Stories Podcast and co-hosts the Polite Society Podcast. Rob was an NRA pistol instructor and combat handgun competitor.
good! Criminals do not fear the police, judges or prosecutors. If we want criminals to stop committing crimes, they need to learn to fear the armed citizen.
No Americans have more need of the US2A than citizens of Detroit, Baltimore and Screw York. However, that’s exactly where generations of big city liberals have all but taken it away.
Michigan is a “shall issue” state, thank God!
Such stories are welcome, but should come with a link to an actual news site.
There was probably not a news site that carried the story.
Click on the red highlighted text that says, (shot the attacker in the chest). It will take you to the original news story. This is standard procedure in many Ammoland stories.
I think that politicians and any gun control advocate are proud winners in the game of Let’s Pretend. The game children play… So Let’s All Play Let’s PRETEND!!! For you see gun prohibitionists think that their lives are so much more important than police or military. They want THEM to protect them from bad guys even though they are never there when a bad guy is. They do not operate using reason, logic and common sense. They are IRRESPONSIBLE people who want someone ELSE to protect them rather than being responsible grown ups who are willing to learn and train to… Read more »
There are Sheepdogs, and there are Sheep. Two completely different animals. And then, there are Wolves.
I live ninety miles West of Detroit and I never heard or read about this in the news. It’s not news to the fake news media.
I found several reports of this incident using the key word “Fordham” – the last name of one of the perps. Could be there are so many crimes of this nature in Detroit that it’s just not “news”… it’s every day fare.
Assuming he wasn’t carrying a Tower pistol, the only advice I would offer him is to not be stingy with ammo, and to give a few more rounds to the poor man soliciting funds. That’s why we carry repeaters.
Bad advice. Unloading a clip on a perp who is down is how a victim becomes an aggressor (and possibly chrged with murder). One shot was good tactics. A Detroit news report I found said “three shots were fired.” Another said the perps pistol “malfunctioned”. Maybe Fordham fired two shots, maybe the victim fired 3 shots rather than just one. Regardless the victim was not charged!!! We have one primary goal when we draw, and that is to defend ourselves. The SECOND goal is not be charged ourselves with either murder or assault.
In a recent scenario based class the instructor, a policeman, made it clear that we shoot to stop the threat. Whether the perp is down after one shot or 5, that’s when we stop firing. On the other hand, recent bodycam videos I have watched shows the cop, sometimes in accompaniment with fellow officers, fire until slide lockback even though the perp was down after a few shots. I guess that privilege comes with qualified immunity.
Don’t be too hasty. Maybe the victim was carrying a Mauser broomhandle. 😉 I believe the internal magazine can be loaded from a clip.
a great way to stop a crime
Gee, if only they had laws against criminals having guns in Detroit this never would have happened. I guess the defender was a liberal and shot Fordham in the chest so that he could heal and – after getting out of jail a second time, IF he goes to jail THIS time – return to the streets “rehabilitated.” It worked so well the first time. I wonder if a shot to the temple would have been more secure insurance against Fordham’s recidivism. And more economical, too, given the energy cost-driven high price of food that the senile imbecile in the Oval Office… Read more »
The trash was taken out it appears . Arm up and carry on your life may depend on it !
Coelacanth: that’s great but with a govenor like yours how much longer do you think that will last? but we hope it’s forever. GOOD LUCK were rooting for you
Thank you. I wonder when the recall elections will happen?
This is a mildly interesting and very incomplete article. Why does your article abbreviate or simply not report names of perpetrators, not report the dates of the crime and initial court appearance, and the time of day the attempted robbery occurred? Just a little more information would both allow Ammoland readers to confirm the otherwise vague story and easily research background information about the perps and the event. As written way too much information has to be inferred or taken on faith. Failure to provide key information is a common practice of Woke media. Please do better.
Click on the red highlighted text to go to the original news article.