Posted on 01/12/2017 9:15:20 PM PST by JoeProBono
An armed passing motorist was credited with saving the life of an Arizona state trooper by shooting and killing a gunman who ambushed the trooper in the middle of a lonely interstate highway before dawn Thursday.
"I would just say at this point, thank you, because I don't know that my trooper would be alive today without his assistance," Col. Frank Milstead, director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, said after he met with the seriously injured trooper at the hospital.
Thanks for the thoughts and prayers this morning for our Trooper that was shot. Looks like he will be okay after some recovery @Arizona_DPS — Col. Frank Milstead (@frank_milstead) January 12, 2017
The trooper — a 27-year veteran who hasn't been identified but was reported as stable with gunshot wounds in his chest and right shoulder — was responding to reports that shots had been fired at about 4 a.m. (6 a.m. ET) on Interstate 10 about 40 miles west of Phoenix, Milstead said.
On the way, the trooper spotted a rollover accident, stopped to investigate and began blocking off the scene. A woman who was believed to have been ejected from the vehicle was later determined to have died at the scene, authorities said.
"As the trooper exited his vehicle and began to lay out flares, it appears at this point that he was ambushed by the suspect," Milstead said. "In the initial confrontation, the suspect shoots the trooper in the shoulder [and] right chest area at least one time, possibly twice, disabling the use of the trooper's right hand and right arm."
The gunman then attacked the trooper with his hands, bashing his head into the pavement, Milstead said. That's when the passing motorist stopped.
"The trooper says, 'Please help me,' and asks the uninvolved third party for help," Milstead said. "That person retreats back to his vehicle, removes his own weapon from the vehicle, confronts the suspect, giving him orders to stop assaulting the officer. The suspect refuses. The uninvolved third party fires, striking and killing the suspect."
The hero driver was identified only as a man who was traveling to California with his wife...............
“...Turning your back on a man being murdered, under any circumstance, is about as unmanly as it gets....”
Call it what you want. It’s still NOT worth going to jail for. I didn’t make their laws, you didn’t make their laws. They did. In those states, that same “man” would be throwing your azz in the slammer in a heart beat for over a year IF he knew you had the weapon. He signed up for the job knowing full well the current laws and conditions that he would have to deal with. Change the damn laws!!!
Gun friendly states: hell yeah, I’d be the first to jump in to assist. Those states? Nope...not gonna do it. Not worth going to jail over.
Solution: Nationwide conceal carry ensuring that a Good Samaritan act is not gonna get your azz landed in jail.
Wouldn't it be SO COOL to be there when some thugs are beating the crap out of a judge and be able to say to him, sorry pal but the law just won't let me lend you a hand... Too bad for you..! :)
Like I said - good thing it wasn’t California (where he was headed - a loaded handgun in the vehicle can get you in a heap of trouble in CA).
We have friends and family in Maine.
We don’t go very often, but every couple of years or so we go up there to visit em.
Unless we fly, in order to get there from Texas/Louisiana, we have to drive thru NY, CT & MA. My wife & I are both CCW permit holders in our state which are honored in every state we pass thru all the way up thru PA. We potty, top off the tank and unload/hide the guns at the PA/NY line which gives us just enough fuel to get us all the way into Maine. When we pass thru these anti-gun states, we stay completely on the interstate while maintaining flow with the traffic and don’t stop for any reason unless it’s just an outright sheer emergency....not even to potty. We don’t buy fuel, food or lodging in any of em. Only money spent is at their toll booths because we have to. Once at the Maine border, we will stop to potty, fuel up, reload, get some of those wicked Humpty Dumpty BBQ potato chips and a large, ice-cold bottle of that Moxie soft drink. Good stuff, that Moxie. We do the same in reverse on the way back.
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