Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Imagine walking through a parking lot and you become aware of someone closing in on you. You put up a hand and say something like; "That's close enough" etc but they just keep coming. You escalate to commands like "Stop there" or "back off" or similar but the person keeps coming at you...

At what point do you decide to make a pre-emptive strike? Absent any stated threat or display of weapon are you expected to simply allow them to walk right up to you?

-What if there's two assailants?
-What if they try to flank you?
-What if one or both has a hand in a pocket or behind a back, potential for a weapon?


My CCW class said we had to show 5 things to successfully show self defense...

Attacker must have:
1) Means (deadly weapon, ie gun or knife)
2) Opportunity (within shooting/lunge range)
3) Intent (verbal threats, brandishing etc)

We, as Defender, must show:
4) Duty to flee was discharged (either by an attempt to flee, or that fleeing would put us at more risk)
5) Lack of escalation (we did not cause or escalate the confrontation, and made all reasonable attempts to de-escalate)


In the case of a person who simply walks towards you in a parking lot and does not speak or display a weapon or respond to verbal requests/commands to stop... I can prove 2/Opportunity, 4/Duty to flee and 5/Lack of escalation... But I couldn't show 1/Means (no weapon) or 3/Intent

For 1/Means... Could you arguer that a hidden hand (possible concealing a weapon) or second attacker/attempts to flank are a 'Means'. If the person has you cornered and simply keeps advancing but has no visible weapon then are you expected to defend yourself with your fists rather than your gun?

And as for 3/Intent. Is there a point at which he gets close enough and ignores commands to stop that I can infer intent? What if I used commands like "I have a gun and I'll shoot you if you don't stop!" Can you argue that an assailant who continues to advance despite knowing you are armed must have intent on doing you harm?

It sounds like a stretch, but it's also difficult to believe that someone with no visible weapon can simply walk right up to you and you cannot use any weapon to defend yourself?


(If it was me, I'd OC him when he get within 5'. I'll have to practice OC spray with my left hand to leave my right hand available to transition to sidearm in case of weapon display or lunge)

Yeah, and they did the demo where one person had a gun in the low-ready position and another person stood with his hand on her shoulder. 'knife' guy set off running uprange and that was the cue for gun girl to raise and plug two into the target downrange. On shot #2 the knife guy stopped. He covered 25 feet.

I'm talking about a person approaching you, not heeding your commands to stop advancing, but is NOT displaying any kind of weapon, or has a hand in a pocket, or there are multiple attackers. Can hand-in-pocket be considered as good as a displayed weapon? Can multiple attackers not displaying weapons be considered a 'deadly weapon' by virtue of numbers alone? If they begin to flank then can that be considered a commencement of the attack?

Of course, if a knife is in view and the assailt keeps coming within 21' ignoring my commands to stop then he's going to get shot.

You know, look at it this way. Everyone deals with these things differently, and there's no way to anticipate how your going to react in a use of force, or a deadly force encounter. You may say "I'm gonna do this" and when the time comes you'll do the exact opposite due to stress.

How do you know the person advancing on you isn't a deaf/mute and just wants directions?? And at the same point, how do you know they aren't a POS who just killed a cop 20 minutes ago? You don't.

Every situation has to be handled on a case by case basis. Therefore, it's extremely hard to prepare for them in a forum. No matter how many details you give, there's always a variable that is unknown.

Once the subject approaches me and disobeys my commands then I take that as a threat and they will be dealt with accordingly. One sucker punch to to the jaw and the subject has any weapon available to them while you count canaries.

Every situation is different and it's hard to verbalize subtle cues you would easily read in person.

Single person, no weapon - hard to justify pulling out your firearm but pepper or baton justifiable if you felt threatened. The scenario could easily be slightly different and require a firearm. Nothing is ever etched in stone.

Groups vs you = a bad day. Better off not to let yourself get in that situation.