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Army Vet to Knife-Wielding Man at Pathmark: 'I don't want to shoot you'
The Philadelphia Daily News ^ | Monday, October 13, 2014 | Morgan Zalot

Posted on 10/13/2014 6:04:32 PM PDT by kristinn

William Lawler didn't want to shoot the man who threatened his girlfriend and him with a 13-inch knife Sunday outside a Pathmark store near his Northeast Philadelphia home.

But even after Lawler, 38, an Army veteran and longtime firearms instructor, showed his 9mm Glock, the knife-wielding madman didn't want to back down.

"At least a half-dozen times, I ordered him to stop. The last time, I said, 'I don't want to shoot you, but I will,' " Lawler said Monday, recounting the bizarre run-in outside the supermarket, on Frankford Avenue near Megargee Street near Holmesburg. "Then, after I shot him, he fell to his knees and tried to throw the knife at me."

Lawler, a former school vice principal who still works as a firearms instructor in addition to substitute teaching, said he and his girlfriend had gone to the Pathmark about 5:30 p.m. As they were walking in the parking lot, he spotted the other man - identified by police sources as Dondi DeCosta, 37, who lives near the store - standing with his SUV door open.

"He looked odd from the beginning," Lawler said of DeCosta.

(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: bang; banglist
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To: kristinn

For a second there I thought his name was “Dodo HeShotyou”...


21 posted on 10/13/2014 7:58:07 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: MtnClimber

And we need a lot more dead perps.


22 posted on 10/13/2014 7:58:24 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (There is no collateral damage.)
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To: kristinn

“He looked odd from the beginning,” Lawler said of DeCosta.

Prolly looks even odder with a bullet hole in him...


23 posted on 10/13/2014 7:59:52 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway-Enjoy Yourself ala Louis Prima)
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To: kristinn

Dealing with someone who is mentally out of it is different, if you haven’t done it before. You really, truly want to “communicate” with them, but it’s not happening, which is peculiarly frustrating.

You don’t know if they’re even aware of you, or if they think you’re a Lizard Man from Mars. And oddly enough, it feels *less* threatening than when someone is all there.

Deciding to shoot them you hold back, because you have a lot less mental certainty. Your judgment is unclear.


24 posted on 10/13/2014 8:05:18 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
... or if they think you’re a Lizard Man from Mars.

I can't be certain of it but there may be several people who think that about me.

Cordially,

25 posted on 10/13/2014 8:13:02 PM PDT by Diamond (He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people,)
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To: 05 Mustang GT Rocks

I would have emptied all 13 rounds of my SA-45XP into his skull - only because the mag does not hold 14.


26 posted on 10/13/2014 8:13:07 PM PDT by WTFOVR (I find myself exclaiming that expression quite often these days!)
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To: MHGinTN; kristinn; B4Ranch

that Free Men Do post is entitled “Protection”
and was posted 06 October 2009. The URL is really
really long and I am not good at getting those pasted
in.

There’s more: Don’t say: If you move, I’ll kill you.
You not trying to kill him you are trying to stop his
aggressive illegal actions and if he dies because you
shoot him, it’s his fault for being there in the first
place.


27 posted on 10/13/2014 10:34:03 PM PDT by cycjec
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To: WTFOVR

Ha, ha, I personally prefer not to waist my precious metals any more than necessary. But with the 9 mm the guy was carrying you’d probably need the whole mag to stop the nut.


28 posted on 10/14/2014 4:39:00 AM PDT by 05 Mustang GT Rocks
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To: 05 Mustang GT Rocks

9 mm is worthless in my opinion ... True it has better accuracy - and perhaps longer range - than a 45 ACP; but it’s stopping power is notoriously weak. As you stated, several shots required to drop a determined attacker. Not so with a 260 grain 45 JHP ... One shot to the shoulder will rip the arm off the perp, and likely result in a “bleed-out” before the police arrive on the scene - which is the way I prefer the situation end.

A 45 JHP shot to the abdomen would tear the aggressor’s insides to shreds, and cause maximum pain - a slow agonizing death. If you are going for the “gut shot,” aim for the liver - a hit there pretty much guarantees a trip to the morgue.

Head shots are tough in high adrenalin situations, unless you are close and really good - as in having practice sufficient to make your reaction completely reflexive.

In all candor though, I am given to understand, by those who are in a position to know the “system,” that - in most states - if you kill the perp with the “triple tap,” you better have a very good lawyer, as it is tough to prove “a lucky shot” with that scenario. Apparently the authorities frown upon the ubiquitous “shoot to kill” attitude - at least when it is not their asses on the line.


29 posted on 10/14/2014 6:28:49 PM PDT by WTFOVR (I find myself exclaiming that expression quite often these days!)
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To: WTFOVR

You are right about the triple tap, Unless the perp rise to come in my house or try to assault me in my car. “Castle doctrine” in Texas, I think it wouldn’t matter how he gets shot. And the 9 mm is useless as tits on a boar hog. Did you know that the U.S. military changed over to 45 after fighting the crazy Fillipino muslims? They’d wrap themselves with vines and keep on coming even after being shot multiple times with 38 rounds.


30 posted on 10/15/2014 7:55:00 PM PDT by 05 Mustang GT Rocks
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