When police in Savannah, Georgia responded to an alert about possible shots fired last Friday, they quickly encountered a man suffering from a graze wound to his arm. As police investigated, they quickly discovered that 61-year-old Alvin Dubois was allegedly the perpetrator of an assault, and the wound he received came from a woman who shot him in self-defense.
Dubois first told police he had no idea who shot him, but eyewitnesses on the scene told officers that he was assaulting a woman when she drew a pistol and shot at her assailant. The woman also called 911 to report the assault and shooting afterward, and Dubois was arrested and charged with battery.
At about the same time this woman was acting in self-defense in Savannah, another defensive gun use was unfolding about 150 miles northwest. The Bibb County Sheriff's Office responded to a report of a shooting at a gas station in Macon on Friday afternoon, and quickly determined that the shooter wasn't the aggressor, but was instead the victim of a crime.
The sheriff's office said in a release that the person of interest was defending himself when the 17-year-old male was armed and tried to rob him.
The 17-year-old was found shot inside the BP on Shurling drive Friday afternoon.
After the person of interest turned himself in to the sheriff's office, and deputies reviewed the BP surveillance system, they said that he was "not the primary aggressor in the incident."
They said that the 17-year-old was the "primary aggressor."
The 17-year-old "brandished a firearm in an attempt to rob the person of interest of a firearm in his possession," the sheriff's office said.
When the 17-year-old brandished his gun, the victim drew his own lawfully-carried firearm and ""legally defended himself against the imminent threat imposed against him," as the sheriff's office put it.
If neither of these armed citizens had been carrying, their encounters with violent offenders would likely have ended much differently. As I was looking for defensive gun uses earlier today I also ran across the tragic story of a beloved teacher in Raleigh, North Carolina who was murdered during a home invasion, allegedly by a man with a lengthy criminal history.
Zoe Welsh called 911 early Saturday morning to report a man had broken into her home. While she was on the phone with dispatchers she was brutally assaulted, and by the time officers arrived just a few minutes later she was already suffering from life-threatening injuries and would pass away at a local hospital just a short time later.
Police arrested Ryan Camacho for Welsh's murder, a 36-year-old with 20 arrests to his name who arguably should have been in jail or a mental institution at the time of Welsh's death.
In December, breaking or entering charges against Camacho in a separate case were dismissed following a mental competency examination. During the hearing, prosecutors asked to have Camacho involuntarily committed but that request was denied by a judge, according to District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, who spoke with WRAL News over the phone Sunday.
If someone isn't competent to stand trial, they need to be confined to a secure psychiatric facility until they are able to do so. The fact that Camacho was deemed incompetent to stand trial on criminal charges but was released to the streets instead of being involuntarily committed as prosecutors requested is infuriating, and I hope that lawmakers in Raleigh take an interest in this case and close any loophole that allows judges to make these types of decisions.
I'm not victim blaming Zoe Welsh, but I do wonder if this incident would have played out differently if she'd had access to a firearm and not just a phone last Saturday morning. Owning and carrying a firearm doesn't make you bulletproof or ensure that you'll survive an encounter with a violent criminal, but I do believe it increases the odds of you being able to walk away.
At the very least, Welsh's death is a tragic reminder that when seconds count, help is just minutes away. I'm sure the responding officers did everything they could to get to her home as quickly as possible, but it just wasn't quickly enough given that Welsh's attacker was already inside the home.
We can't control judges and prevent them from making dangerous decisions. We certainly can't control criminals and force them to live within the confines of the law. We do, however, have control over how we choose to live in a world where judges are making dangerous decisions and violent criminals are roaming free. I choose to exercise my right to keep and bear arms and to be competent with the gun I carry, and I hope that you do too.
