I was on my way to work, not six blocks from my home. I was the third car stopped at a light in front of a stop & shop, when, from in front of a grey van parked on the right side of the road, some guy appeared. He stood in front of the lead car and pointed a silver hand gun at the person in the car. The carjacker pointed the guy in the cliched “gangster” style so I thought it probably wasn’t an undercover cop ad began to panick.
Something crazy happened then (well, crazier), It looked like the person in the car gunned it and went right for the carjacker. It was a gutsy move, but if you go ahead and decide to pull off such a stunt you might as well go all they way! He didn’t, he only hit the carjacker a bit and stopped. The carjacker did a roll on the hood of the car and went around the side to the dirver’s side window. That’s when I reacted and cut accross the road into the Stop & Shop parking lot and made my exit, hastily reaching for my cellphone.
Thinking back on it, seems surreal. I can almost imagine it never happenned. I’m really weirded out by the whole thing. I can’t even be sure if it was a carjacking. It could have been a crazed ex who knew the driver, or some lunatic or thief just robbing people, who knows? I do wish the driver had ran the scumbag over though. I can only hope the person or persons in the car are ok.
It really makes me worried for the safety of my loved ones and myself! Anyone been witness to anythign scary like this? What was it like?
Yep I called the cops and gave them the location and a description of the guy, told them what I saw.
I don’t really know what the other cars did. The guy behind me started backing up, but that’s all I noticed before I took off through the parking lot. I wish I would of gotten a better look at the guy too. But it all happenned so damn fast… And doesn’t it always?
I’m wondering of the legality of this. If someone is pointing a gun at you and you run him over with the car, is that considered self-defense or excessive use of force?
Just curious, not making a moral judgement on the actions of the driver.
IANAL, but I have a hard time imagining a court having a problem with you claiming self defense in that situation. If there was some prosecutor insane enough to go after you, what’s he going to tell the jury?
“Oh, come on now. The defendant couldn’t possibly have thought her life was in danger, could she? It was just a gun, people.” :rolleyes:
I think that if I were the driver in that situation, I would have done the same thing. I have no desire to be the cause of ANYONE’S death, but if you’ve put me in a position where there might be a “it’s my life or yours” situation, you can be very sure of which side I’m going to choose.
Wasn’t there a case where a cabbie used his taxi to pin some criminal up against the wall, and wasn’t he foung guilty of something or other?
Granted, the cabbie was just a bystander and was trying to help the police, so he wasn’t the “victim” in that case. The situations are not quite the same, and I could be remembering it all wrong, but I would imagine in an attempted car-jacking, you are allowed to defend yourself as necessary.
