He Stayed my Hand

I switched to this Kimber 1911 a few years after the incident described here and carried it for another 17 years of duty.

The call was quickly passed to the only two officers available. I was fresh from the Marines with perhaps a year on the police department in our rural city. The other officer was older and more experienced, another veteran. It was a hostage situation in the frequently violent south end of the little city. A young woman had managed to make a softly spoken phone call telling dispatch that she was with her boyfriend and her father was holding them both at gunpoint.

The Corporal and I quickly sped south through the darkness in our patrol cars then approached on foot, and separated slightly at the front yard. Steve moved to the center of the small yard, standing almost out of the dull porchlight. I went left, to the edge of the porch. Both of us were carrying our issued stainless steel Colt Government models in 45 ACP. With our military service along with considerable practice at the police range, we were both very comfortable with the 1911. We announced our presence, I hammered on the side of the house, not wanting to get in front of the window or door. No response.

On his radio Steve asked dispatch if they still had phone contact with the young woman, and to ask her if she could safely get to the front door… After what seemed a long time, the front door opened and a frightened young woman came out, she saw Steve in the front yard and quickly ran to him and behind him for safety. Not long after the front door slammed open again and a young man came out. He too saw Steve and ran to him as well. I was feeling pretty confident that I’d somehow turned invisible over on my end of the porch.

A bit longer and the door slammed open again. This time an older man came out, rifle in hand! Steve and I switched on our big Maglights and in my big Marine command voice I started yelling at him to drop the gun. If Steve was also yelling I couldn’t hear him. The man seemed blinded by the flashlights and the porchlight. He appeared to be trying to see who was in the front yard. My cloak of invisibility was still working, though I was only about ten or twelve feet from him. He started to slowly raise his rifle, I’d ditched my Maglight and had a firm two-hand hold on the 45 I knew so well. In the dim porchlight I could see that my front sight was steady and centered on the side of his head. In the urban area I wanted a one-shot stop and was still worried about over-penetration. We were temporarily carrying 230 grain FMJ ball ammo at the time while the department sought out better hollow point ammunition. I knew the ball ammo would penetrate through him, and probably through at least the outer wall of the neighboring house behind him. Time seemed to have slowed down. I stopped yelling commands, clicked off the thumb safety and started my trigger squeeze…

The suspects rifle wavered a bit and pointed a bit away from Steve and the other two. Somehow in the blink of an eye I stopped the trigger squeeze, put the thumb safety back on, holstered my gun and hurled my 200 pounds at him instead. We crashed to the porch deck, he was disarmed and quickly handcuffed.

About this point two more officers arrived and helped take him into custody.

One of them, a deeply religious man named Paul asked me if I was okay. To this day Paul and I are close and I think it started that night. We talked for a bit then off we went to write the official reports, book the suspect, take statements and all the usual post-arrest paperwork.

Later reflecting back, I knew that our Lord had stopped my trigger squeeze. He stayed my hand. I didn’t need to kill that man, though it would have been a legally justified shoot.

I trained hard physically and at the range for the rest of my career and was involved in many high-risk arrests. I know that the Lord gave me strength and prepared me for violence but also protected me from killing men. I am forever grateful.

I’m a lifelong hunter, an NRA handgun and rifle instructor, a law enforcement firearms instructor, a USMC veteran and a retired police officer with 12 years of SWAT experience. Catch my firearms and ammunition videos on Ultimate Reloader on Rumble and YouTube.

Guy