The only thing is the article said that the guns came out after there were angry words and gestures. It doesn't say if both drivers were guilty of the words and gestures, but I'm guessing that's the case.
Well, I wish the report weren't so ambiguous, but since it is, my benefit of the doubt goes the other way towards Mr. Treptow (the shooter). I don't have kids, but if my wife were in the car and I started yelling and flipping off someone for cutting us off or whatever, I'd have a fat lip and a broken finger before the guy saw or heard anything! Just seems to me that Treptow had multiple good reasons not to act out, only the least of which would be protecting his CWP. He did have two kids and his wife in the car. It doesn't say how old the kids are, but, from the limited information we have available to us in that link, it appears that it's at least two against one in the witness department, Mr. & Mrs. Treptow's word against the injured cop's. He was released without any charges being filed, so until that changes, he gets my benefit of the doubt.
For whatever it's worth, there's a video at that link now that I didn't see yesterday featuring Mr. Treptow. Can't tell much, but he does seem fairly soft-spoken and calm.
It's critical for someone who's carrying a CCH to avoid situations of this sort. If one of us should find it necessary to employ our handgun in a self defense situation, it would certainly be of benefit to be able to say that we did nothing to escalate the situation into becomming a gunfight.
So far, it appears that Mr. Treptow
can say that. If his version of events is accurate, he only drew his weapon after one was drawn on his car and, according to him (and presumably his wife and maybe one or both kids), was pointed directly at his wife. Now, I suppose one could fault him for not turning off the road before getting up to the red light next to a guy who was already agitated with him, whether justified or not. OK, I'll go that far, he should've turned and avoided that close of a confrontation. But once you're looking down the barrel of a gun, or worse yet, seeing your wife looking down the barrel of a gun, you cease to think about what you
could've done to avoid the whole situation, and start reacting according to your training. Again, from the limited info we have, I think he did the right thing. Not a great thing, but the right thing.
I still don't get the take from the first post in this thread though, where the poster says something to the effect of, "Who cares who gets through the light first?" It didn't have anything to do with "getting through the light first," it had to do with a split-second decision to defend one's wife and kids from a man with a gun already drawn, period.
Blues
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