A 20-something Houston man is in critical condition after allegedly attacking an off-duty officer Houston police officer Thursday night who was on the phone with a dispatcher attempting to report a dog fight.

An off-duty officer shot a man after he allegedly started punching him, Houston police tell Eyewitness News.

Police responded to the scene at 11600 Riderwood Drive in southwest Houston Thursday evening. According to police, the officer, identified as J. Loosmore, was walking his dog with is wife when another man’s dog attacked his dog.

Loosmore allegedly told the man he was going to file a report. He says while he was on the phone with dispatchers, the man started punching him. Loosmore told investigators that he was afraid the man would be able to take his gun.

“He begins punching him multiple times in the head and chest. At that point in time, the officer (Loosmore) tells us he actually felt his vision grey out like he was losing consciousness,” HPD spokesman Kese Smith said.

The officer had returned home with his wife and dog, then had returned alone to the home where the attack took place to file a report. As the officer was on the phone with dispatchers (presumably on a recorded call), an adult male resident of the home approached the officer, then allegedly attacked him as the officer was trying to report the dog attack.

The man hit the officer multiple times in the head and chest, to the point the officer began to “gray out” (lose consciousness). The off-duty officer then drew his weapon and fired numerous shots the suspect multiple times at close range.

If the account is accurate, and is supported by the physical evidence and whatever information may have been recorded in the call to the dispatcher, then this would appear to be a easily justified shooting, and a circumstance under which any citizen would have been justified in using deadly force as well.

One of the themes pushed by a rabidly anti-police Black Lives Matter movement uncritically parroted by their co-conspirators in the mainstream media is that unarmed people are not a deadly force threat.

That is insane.

There are more than twice as many deaths every year from the personal weapons (arms, feet, elbows and knees) of “unarmed” people than there are shotguns or rifles. This was born out again in the FBI’s just-released Uniform Crime Report for 2015.  624 Americans were kicked or punched to death by “unarmed” people in 2015. Only 252 were killed with rifles in 2015, and just 269 with shotguns.

Ye,s you read that correctly. 125 more people were beaten to death last year by “unarmed” people  than were murdered with rifles and shotguns, combined.

Unarmed people can very much be a lethal force threat, and using deadly force against them is often justified from a moral, ethical, and legal standpoint.