Posted on 08/02/2012 5:15:50 AM PDT by marktwain
Edited on 08/02/2012 5:19:07 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
It’s not every day that you hear the police give a civilian a warm “thank you” for entering a lethal shootout, but that’s exactly what happened in Early, Texas on Sunday. But before we get into the heroic civilian shooter, let’s back up a bit.
See a Man About a Dog
It all began, innocently enough, “as a squabble over dogs.” David Michael House, 58, and Iris Valentina Calaci, 53, were both residents at the Peach House RV Park in central Texas. They were also dog owners, and their pooches allegedly had a nasty habit of relieving themselves on the lawn of neighbor Charles Ronald Conner, 58.
According to eyewitnesses, Conner approached House about his dog, and an argument broke out. Rather than dealing with the confrontation like a normal human being, Conner allegedly went back to his RV, got his gun, returned to House, and lethally shot him.
The gun shots prompted Calaci to run screaming from her trailer home, but she didn’t get far. Conner chased her down, shot her once and then fired another shot into her, execution style.
Amazingly, Conner’s shooting spree didn’t end there. He also shot and killed the two dogs that, in his confused mind, started the mess.
Fatally shooting your neighbors over an issue of dog doo might seem absurdly over-the-top to normal people like you and us, but it might have appeared perfectly sensible to Conner. Conner’s family explained that he had “mental problems.” Police later found a notebook in Conner’s trailer with nearly incomprehensible “ramblings.”
Conner might’ve been able to get a lenient sentence in court due to his troubled mental state, but that day will never come – there was to be one more shooting on that tragic day, this time in the name of defense.
Shots Fired
Sgt. Steven Means of the Early Police Department came rolling onto the scene, but he had barely gotten out of his car before Conner began opening fire on the officer. Means took cover behind his police car and returned fire with an AR-15, but Conner maintained cover behind a tree. Eyewitnesses report that this positioning gave Conner the upper hand over the out-gunned police officer.
A Helping Hand
Means and Conner weren’t the only two people with their attention riveted on the gun fight. Vic Stacy, another resident of the RV park, saw the gun fight break out as he was watching TV in his mobile home and thought to himself, “I’m going to see what’s going to happen here and if I need to I’ll, you know, get in on it.”
Stacy, who had a seen Conner around his trailer park and described him as "off the wall", watched the gun fight for a few moments and concluded, “I think (Conner) is gonna take (the officer) out if I don’t help him out.”
So, that’s when Stacy decided to act. Conner may have had excellent cover against the Officer Means, but Stacy was in a flanking position that gave him the perfect vantage point. Stacy recalled, “I had a side view of that man the whole time standing there, and I thought, I’m fixin’ to put one in him, if I can.”
Stacy raised his gun, fired, and landed one hell of a shot – by his estimate “a good 165 yards” – with a pistol (we do not know the make or caliber at this time). Stacy wasn’t even sure if he could make the shot at that distance: “I hope this magnum bullet’ll hold up, you know, this distance. And sure enough it did and I hit him in the thigh.”
At that point, Conner returned fire against Stacy with his AR-15. He missed his shot, luckily, but that gave dead-eye Stacy another opportunity to pull the trigger. Stacy “hit him again and put three more in him … The patrolman got two shots in him with that AR-15. And it seems like he’s all over with, then.”
Conner died on the scene, but if it wasn’t for the aid of Vic Stacy, the body count might have been a lot higher.
Thanks for the Help!
More police arrived on scene an promptly threw Stacy in cuffs, but after Officer Means cleared up what had happened they released Stacy. Brown County Sheriff Bobby Grubbs later said, "The citizen that fired these shots did a tremendous job out there. Had he not had a gun and the presence of mind to do this, we don't know what the outcome would've been.”
It is currently unclear as to whether it was Stacy's shots or Officer Mean's shots that delivered the killing blow. Either way, the police are not planning to press charges against Stacy. If anything, they should give him a medal.
Police and RV park residents alike have been calling Stacy a hero, but he’s rejected the label. He said that he’s just an “average workin’ person” who was just “trying to help an officer out.”
Stacy told Brownwood Bulletin that he wasn’t able to sleep at all the night following the shooting, but the following day was a different story. Stacy was able to get a good night's sleep after police convinced him that he had acted appropriately and saved lives.
Stacy added, “I hate that it happened. But I’m glad that we got him down. I felt sorry for those people.”
We might have a new role model. Vic Stacy was not overeager to pull the trigger, he felt the appropriate weight on his conscience after taking the life of another person, and he hasn’t let the media attention get to his head. If you ask us, the world could use a few more Vic Stacys.
Some people believe the distance was 65 yards, not 165. It has also been reported that Conner was using a lever action rifle, not an AR 15.
Vic Stacy was using a .357 magnum revolver.
Quite a contrast to the outcome in Colorado.
Good shooting, Citizen! And a bonus of saving a LEO’s life, too. That’s real ***Gun Control***!
I too wonder about the larger picture.
Where did all the rounds that missed go? ... In an RV park.
Even at 65 yards...that is a hell of a shot with a handgun
More details at the link:
RV Park witness shooter, Vic Stacy, recounts shoot out with gunman
Wow, consistent hits at 65 yards take some range time. Good shootin.
This link shows a photograph of Peach House RV Park
http://www.brownwoodtx.com/news/local/article_357cf56c-da92-11e1-8c37-001a4bcf887a.html
Stacy is a hero, since he risked his life by simply having a gun in hand during a dangerous situation. too many cops’ would have shot him for that’s alone, and never given thought that an innocent person simply wanted to live as much as they do.
Seriously, stop shooting everyone for the “crime” of being prepared to protection themselves. Verify there is an actual threat before killing someone.
I honestly might have let the cop deal with it himself, since they are so scared of anyone else having the means of self defense while in a cop’s presence.
This man is a real hero of responsibility.
With iron sights?
.357 with iron sights at 65 yards (195 feet) isn’t impossible. Notice he said he hit him in the thigh. At that distance, aiming for the head on iron sights likely would’ve resulted in a hit below the waist. It’s not natural to aim over a target, but at that range with a revolver, he could make a kill shot. He’d have to understand physics though, and in a shootout situation, most people aren’t busting out a scientific calculator.
Got that right.
I lived in a trailer court for twenty five years. I’m glad I got out. Fortunately, there was no gunfire in my twenty five years. Just a few objectionable neighbors who I was glad to be distanced from when I finally moved.
IMHO, the “165 yards” quote was due to not understanding “good ol’ boy speak”. Listen to the second video at the link. I think he says “A hundred or 65 yards”. Even 50 yards would be a hell of a shot! God bless this guy, and I hope it doesn’t cause him too much anguish.
It is for me. Anything outside of 6 meters is unlikely with a pistol. ;)
Give me a rifle, and that's a different story.
/johnny
I thought I was doing good a couple of weeks ago with my .357 to keep all my shots on the steel at 40 yards, with about 50% at COM. This was SLOWFIRE, with no adrenaline and no shots being fired, other than mine, LOL.
He did very well given the circumstances IMO.
Best I’ve shot was 12 shots of .40 cal. from a Springfield in the 8 ring at 30 meters from prone with a rest. I couldn’t do it again if you paid me. I normally train at 3 - 5 meters max.
Gun ranges—practice, practice, practice.
They’re working on shutting those down also, I’m sure.
No gun ranges around where I live that’ll give you more than 25 yards, let alone 50 or 100.....
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