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New here and just trying to play this out in my mind. Trying to get all you ccw Vets take on how many endings this may have had.

Police: Man Threatened To Shoot Another Man In Front Of His Child
The incident began as an argument outside of a Cold Stone Creamery

At about 9 p.m., a patron at Cold Stone Creamery saw a man seemingly urinating on the side of the building.

The man honked his car horn at the other man.

The other man -- 21-year-old Michael Spalsbury of Painesville -- seemed upset by this. He reached behind his back and said he had a gun, according to police.

Then he approached the passenger window of the man's car and threatened to shoot him in front of his 12-year-old son, who was seated in the passenger seat, police said.

Spalsbury then left the area and the man contacted police.

Police found Spalsbury at his home and arrested him.

The charged him with aggravated menacing, a misdemeanor.

Officers did not find any guns when they arrested Spalsbury.

usmcblt wrote:New here and just trying to play this out in my mind. Trying to get all you ccw Vets take on how many endings this may have had.

Police: Man Threatened To Shoot Another Man In Front Of His Child
The incident began as an argument outside of a Cold Stone Creamery

At about 9 p.m., a patron at Cold Stone Creamery saw a man seemingly urinating on the side of the building.

The man honked his car horn at the other man.

The other man -- 21-year-old Michael Spalsbury of Painesville -- seemed upset by this. He reached behind his back and said he had a gun, according to police.

Then he approached the passenger window of the man's car and threatened to shoot him in front of his 12-year-old son, who was seated in the passenger seat, police said.

Spalsbury then left the area and the man contacted police.

Police found Spalsbury at his home and arrested him.

The charged him with aggravated menacing, a misdemeanor.

Officers did not find any guns when they arrested Spalsbury.

As much as I liked fighting and bar room brawls in a past life, i would have just minded my own business and drove past, at the max I would have called the cops but I don't like calling the cops for trivial stuff
I know this probably won't be a popular option but oh well

Not honk horn. Maybe call the non-emergency police number.

If I had a child with me, my responsibility is to the safety and well-being child, not the vendor. If someone threatens to shoot me, I tend to take such threats seriously, and would respond appropriately.

I would get over seeing someone urinating. Life is to short to get entangled in a possible shooting over urine on the ground which isn't owned by me for that matter.

This could have ended in tragedy. Dead 12yo and dead father. Maybe dead BG and father in prison. As others have stated safety of child is first and foremost. Choose your battles wisely my friend.

When you go armed after a while you start to think like this.

Link to the story ?

I read the story on the Plain Dealer on-line, but it may have been linked to a Lake County newspaper site.

This would be another urine related violence?

I would have made one of two choices depending on my situation. If I were going into the place treating my son to a treat when I saw this I would have mentioned it to the manager and let him handle it however he felt the need to. If I were leaving I would have simply ignored it and been on my way. At that point the guy wasn't doing anything to me or causing me any reason to get involved. Now if my daughter were in the car instead and the guy turned around exposing himself to her then that might have necessitated me calling LE. To the OP welcome and you brought up a good discussion point. I like it.

I would have said, "I'm sorry. For a minute there, I thought you were Ozzy Osborne."

But seriously, If my family is in the car and I see stupid people do stupid things, we go the opposite direction. I might call the business he was near and tell them to watch out for him as we drove away. I do that whenever I get panhandled.

Somebody whizzing on the side of a building ain't my concern.

They don't mention if it was in a public area or the guy had stepped behind a dumpster. It was 9 o'clock at night and the guy was at the side of the building. Maybe in an alley.

There's probably more to this story that will never be known.

I can't say that I've never had to answer an urgent call of the bladder somewhere besides in a toilet.

Not excusing the behavior of the whizzer, but sometimes it seems to me that some busybody people get involved in situations they have no business getting involved with.

Should the guy have gotten all in the grille of the honker? No- just shake and zip and go about your business.

http://news-herald.com/articles/2012/08 ... 859463.txt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What we've got is a Coldstone in Mentor, OH. 9560 Diamond Centre Drive off of Heisley Road.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=95 ... CBcQ8gEwAA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Google maps shows it to be at the edge of a light commerical property.

Again, not saying it's cool to whizz in public. But it's not like this is the middle of the city.

Just IMHO....

If the kid noticed, try to explain the situation to him as well as possible.

Otherwise, leave....

Most of us aren't LEO's, and this is probably a misdemeanor anyway, which makes the fabled "Citizen's Arrest" impossible.

(OK, if you're inbound, tell the manager, or pick another McD's. There are enough of them .)

OTOH, if it's a felony, or appears to be one, at least drop the dime. As a semi-retired rent-a-cop, I generally know what the nature of an offense is, and the Township PD are usually pretty good about not telling me to stuff it ( ) if the call's any good. It's reasonably simple to get out of the immediate area and still maintain some kind of view. That should handle the "protect the family" aspects.

Many years ago, I was taking Becka to the hairdressers (she was about 12 then - 12-year-olds need a hairdresser? ) and spotted a couple of people soliciting donations in the middle of a major intersection. More of a traffic hazard to them and me, but I moved someplace safe to stop, and called it in. Really nothing I could do otherwise, but who knows what sort of vehicle could have ruined their day much more so than a PD unit.... Misdemeanor, but nasty traffic situation. That said, I did absolutely nothing but call it in. Legal, safe, etc. However, keeping the kid (who was in a hurry to get to the hairdresser ) calm was kind of interesting, and getting her out of harms way (not really a big deal in this instance) was important.

Quite a few years before that, while working mobile patrol as part of "my" rent-a-cop agency, I drove by a bar - marked car, full uniform - and while waiting for the light to change, some gal came out telling me that her husband was inside getting beaten up. I had to tell her that we couldn't get involved. But I did grab the car phone to call the City PD. So far, so good, except that this was a rotary dial phone (actually, a Ham Radio thing), and using it involved a button dance similar to texting, with the buttons on a console sort of thing on the front seat. WHILE the gal was beating me about the head and shoulders to hurry up....

(In that instance, it was the Agency's rule, actually, that kept me outside. The "government" rules were a little different in those days. Had I gone inside and hurt somebody, there would have been no question about my authority to go inside, even though the place had nothing to do with my agency. But the usual liability issues might have popped up anyway. Not a lot would have been said if the other guy survived, either ....)

Regards,