Tuesday, March 28, 2017

A car has more striking power than a gun


It seems a gun-totin' criminal in Tulsa, OK had an argument with a police car - and lost.

A woman wanted for a string of gun-related crimes was killed Saturday afternoon when an officer intentionally ran over her in south Tulsa after she exchanged gunfire with police following a vehicular chase.

Madison Sueann Dickson, 21, was pronounced dead at 3:07 p.m., Tulsa homicide Sgt. Dave Walker said.

. . .

Officers found Dickson at an apartment at 81st Street and Sheridan Road on Saturday, police spokesman Leland Ashley said. Dickson then got into a pickup as a passenger and fled from the officers, Ashley said.

Dickson eventually bailed out of the truck and presented a handgun, Ashley said, which was when at least two officers shot at her. She fired gunshots at officers, Ashley said.

During the altercation, she was run over by a patrol cruiser, Ashley said, noting police desperately were trying to stop her because of the threat she represented. He said no one was struck by gunfire.

“She had every opportunity to stop and turn herself in,” he said.

. . .

Dickson had been identified as the suspect in a number of crimes, including the shooting of a man Thursday night that resulted in him crashing his car and being hospitalized in critical condition.

There's more at the link.

Here's dashcam video of the incident.  It avoids the gory details.





I post this, not out of voyeuristic pleasure in the death of a criminal, but as a reminder that when you're driving, your vehicle is actually a pretty potent weapon of self-defense in its own right.  If you find yourself unable to avoid a dangerous person, or in a riot situation where violence is threatening the safety of your family, your vehicle is another tool in your toolbox that might be useful in getting out of there alive and (relatively) uninjured.  Rioters and demonstrators have found that out the hard way in recent months.





Don't do what that red SUV did, and deliberately use your vehicle as a weapon to actively target protesters . . . but getting out of your car might be a lot more dangerous than using it to bull your way through a mob, as slowly and carefully as possible, and getting out of the way.

Keep that in mind.

Peter

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of one of my old reloading books. It pointed out that a Volkswagen Bug traveling at 30 MPH had more power than a 600 Nitro Express. It depicted a Bug with what looked like a lance attached to the hood chasing an elephant

Bob Durtschi

Anonymous said...

Jeff Gonzales wrote the hood ornament on a Benz makes an excellent front sight.

Gerry

Tim Newman said...

"I post this, not out of voyeuristic pleasure in the death of a criminal, but as a reminder that when you're driving, your vehicle is actually a pretty potent weapon of self-defense in its own right."

Indeed. I once, in a time when I had more balls than brains, accompanied a friend of mine for a drive into Iraq in April 2003, crossing the border from Kuwait. There wasn't quite a war on, and the insurgency still hadn't gotten going by that point, but still. My mate, an officer in the Royal Marines, handed me his SA-80 as we crossed the border and said "If we get stuck, I'm going to use the vehicle as a weapon and you start shooting at anyone who is trying to stop me."

Old NFO said...

Yep, law of gross tonnage applies...

Hunting Guy said...

Not the first time a police officer used a car to stop a bad guy.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LVByrAm0bi8

Person stole a rifle from a K Mart and was shooting it as he walked down the street.

Needless to say, there were complaints about excessive force.

The officer was cleared.

Quartermaster said...

Very Heavy Low Velocity slug.

C. S. P. Schofield said...

Extra points for every imbecile you punt onto a rooftop.

*sigh*

Footnote to history; before the 1960's riots, many metropolitan police forces were phasing put their mounted police. The they discovered that rioters who will try to overturn a police car (believing that the cops 'wouldn't dare' run them over) will shy back from a horse, because they know that if pressed the horse will lash out whether ordered to or not.

Anonymous said...

Going too slow is a bad idea, too. Once you've got a few crunchies gumming up the wheelwells, the zombies can mob your car. Best to gun it and hope they know which way to run.

Tal Hartsfeld said...

U-u-h-h-h-h-h-h ....
Isn't it rather risky to "take the law into your own hands"?
If you're just a private citizen and you run someone over with your own vehicle, even if you allege you "felt like you were in danger", couldn't you still be charged with "aggravated vehicular assault" or "aggravated vehicular homicide"?

Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I tend to be awfully leery of the authorities and the written laws themselves in terms of any kind of support I would have from them in such instances.

And societies do tend to be extremely social-rank biased and xenophobic towards those too "individualistic", enforcing laws and rules differently for them than they do for the more "normal" types.