Man says he shot at four males who attacked him

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TSiWRX
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Re: Man says he shot at four males who attacked him

Post by TSiWRX »

^ +1. Good to hear, indeed. :)

Please do share with us your experiences (including that of media interactions, if any). Like I keep saying, I'm here to learn! :)
Allen - Shaker Heights, Ohio
dakota426
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Joined: Sun Apr 03, 2011 12:27 am
Location: Lorain County

Re: Man says he shot at four males who attacked him

Post by dakota426 »

Sorry it took so long for this but, as promised.
I attached a copy of the newspaper article with editing comments as follows;
Man says he shot at four males who attacked him

Filed on March 16, 2011 by Chronicle-Telegram Staff
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ELYRIA — An Elyria man said he shot at four males who jumped him overnight.
Police were called to the man’s Berwick Court home about 9:45 p.m. after the man’s girlfriend called to report she’d heard shots fired outside. Albert Goldsmith, 49, who has a concealed-carry permit, also contacted a dispatcher to report the shots had been him firing at attackers, according to a police report.
Officers told Goldsmith to stand outside the home with his hands in the air.
“The 911 dispatcher said this not one of the officers that arrived on the scene. Isn’t it called a LISCENSE not a permit”
Officers took the loaded weapon from Goldsmith.
Goldsmith told officers he had first observed four young black males walking around the apartment complex’s parking lot looking into cars.
“I saw them as I was returning home. I stood on my porch, from a distance, still unarmed, smoking a cigarette so the suspects knew someone was observing them looking through car windows and pulling on door handles. Twice they moved farther away and out of my sight but continued their actions. I did move so I could continue to observe them. I was unarmed due to the fact that I had just returned from a night class at the local educational facility.”

Goldsmith got his gun from his home and went out looking for the men.
“I NEVER went looking for the men this was either conjecture from the news media or from the sergeant on scene. I saw them leave the apartment complex and go south. I then went into my apartment, retrieved my firearm from my safe and continued with my plans of walking up to the local convenience store to get a newspaper and look at the ’help wanted’ section. I told my girlfriend I was going to do this while we were on our way home as it was unusually warm for a March 16 evening and I wanted to walk. I ALWAYS carried when walking in the neighborHOOD even at 2 o’clock in the afternoon.”
His girlfriend contacted police to report two of them were in the area of Berwick Court and Brunswick Drive and two others were hiding in a bush.
“I don’t even know where they got this statement unless it was after the incident and she was speculating”
The dispatcher told her to call back if the men re-entered the parking lot, the report said.
Goldsmith told officers the men attacked him, and he fired two rounds at one of the men somewhere on Brunswick Drive, the report said.
The report did not make it clear whether Goldsmith believed his shots had hit the man
“While walking up to the store I heard a couple of guys talking and I heard one of them say something to the effect of “Ok, see you tomorrow”. Within 2-3 minutes I was hit from behind by one of the men. I didn’t even hear him coming. He had me around the waist, he hit me so hard that both my shoes came off and he drove/carried me about 20 feet. I weigh about 210. As I was trying to pry his hands off my waist with my left hand, I kept my right hand on my firearm so he couldn’t get it if he felt it. As we were spinning around while he tried to tackle me, I saw 3 of the men I saw earlier, charging at us coming across the street. It was at that time that I drew my weapon and fired a shot at the male in the lead. The man that had me around the waist slipped in the wet grass and fell down. When he got to his feet I was already heading the other way but he took a stance as if to continue the attack and as soon as he took a move towards me, I squeezed the trigger again, while retreating. It was at this time that he decided that the wisest move would be to leave just as his buddies did.
I beat feet for my apartment and dialed 911 as I did. I told the dispatcher what had happened and that I was going to unload my firearm so it was in safe mode when the officers arrived. She said NOT to do anything except to put my hands in the air when the officers arrived. Before the officers got there, I put my CCW License between my lips, my firearm in my holster and immediately put my hands on my head when they arrived.
There was a memorial service going on that night for an Elyria Police officer that had been killed a year before, Officer Kerstetter. I think the whole EPD showed up along with a LC Deputy or 2, I believe. It was all a huge whirlwind of events.
Most all of the officers were very supportive and made comments like “glad you’re ok” and “maybe these guys will think twice about jumping someone again.” One of the officers gave me a ride to the scene of the incident and we even looked for the casings together. One officer, a sergeant, I believe, made the statement that he thought that I went looking for trouble. I assured him that I hadn’t and thought the men went south to a different apartment complex. I found out 2 days later that a neighbor of mine, (ex-Army) that I hadn’t seen for a few days, was in the hospital. A victim of an identical attack a few days earlier.
A detective paid me a visit the next morning, I still hadn’t had any sleep yet, and I inquired as to when they would return my firearm because these guys knew where I lived and I was still pretty shook up. He chuckled and said that it looked like I didn’t need to worry about it- him seeing the “cannon”, as he called it, as I was already changing the sites on my Dan Wesson .357mag to more visible sites. I remarked that I saw nothing funny about any of this and that I had to fire my weapon at another human being last night. I spent the next several days/weeks on the internet learning a tremendous amount of what I did right, which was very little, and what I did wrong, too much to list. I would advise anyone new to CCW or self- defense in general to read, read and then read some more. “I was in fear for my life” and be very careful what you say. Some information can be too much and it can be edited and twisted to mean something entirely different than the facts.
My firearm was returned to me on July 5, less my ammunition. An officer told me to come down to the PD and pick it up to which I responded “I would prefer to take possession of it on the sidewalk and not IN the PD Building as it would be against the letter of the law to do so. He told me it would be no problem and to just come in and get it.
I would like to ask others to be a little less critical and more open minded when responding to posts similar to situations like mine, as stated by a few of the members, you don’t really have ALL the facts yet. and until you are involved in something like this, you really have NO idea of the mental state it puts you in and the LAST thing you need is a ton of criticism from the “community” when you weren’t there.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin. February, 1775
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TSiWRX
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Re: Man says he shot at four males who attacked him

Post by TSiWRX »

Thank you yet again for coming back to fill in the blanks and to tell your side of the story with more detail.

Indeed, we should all remember that what we read/see in news reports is just that - another's telling of the story as they understand or construe it to be, and that it may well contain their suppositions and even their biases.
Allen - Shaker Heights, Ohio
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