Ry and Aaron W. both sent me email on this:
Tim Patterson has no doubts he would have pulled the trigger.
He’s glad he didn’t have to.
But when a woman is being attacked by a man with a knife, Patterson says he’ll do what must be done.
“If he had not stopped what he was doing,” he says, his voice fading. “He came very close to dying. Really, really close.”
..
A man had a woman’s head pulled back with one hand, and a knife to her throat with the other.
Patterson didn’t hesitate.
He drew his Kimber 1911 .45 with a six-shot clip.
“Drop it, or I’ll shoot you,” he shouted.
The assailant, wearing a hoodie that covered his face, glanced up. He immediately let go of the woman, dropped the knife, raised his arms in the air and fled.
There are some other tidbits that are of possible interest.
Tim Patterson was one of the people Ry tried to get to do the catering for Boomershoot earlier this year. It was just too far (Patterson is in Coeur d’Alene which is probably about a three hour drive with his “The Big Yellow mobile kitchen”) for the number of people we have at Boomershoot.
Patterson has a blog for The Big Yellow Trailer.
The Coeur d’Alene police “is in process of pulling together a public presentation to honor his bravery”.
One of the comments to the story is from an old friend of Patterson’s:
Well Done Tim. I remember when you used to sing a parody of “Don’t mess around with tim” driving around GG in the Mustang II in the mid 70’s and I guess that is still true. Proud to have known you.
he’d been cut ‘n ’bout a hundred places/ and he’d been shot in a couple more
…
You don’t mess around with Slim.
The caption under the photograph is unfortunate, using the word “brandish”. According to dictionary.com, the word means: “to shake or wave, as a weapon; flourish”.
I’d be willing to guess he didn’t “shake”, “wave”, or “flourish” his Kimber; more likely he drew it, aimed directly at the criminal, and then told him to drop the knife or get shot.
Note also what good training in self-defense will produce. Had the criminal failed to cease his assault-with-deadly-weapon on the woman, he would have been perfectly justified in using potentially lethal force to stop the assault. The moment the threat of immediate danger to life/grave bodily injury to the woman was over, and the man dropped his knife and fled, Mr. Patterson didn’t shoot, didn’t attempt to apprehend or follow, but simply assisted the victim of the assault.
A superb example of how the majority of defensive pistol uses never result in a shooting.
A hearty congratulation is due Mr. Patterson, not only for his bravery in coming to the assistance of the lady, but also for his excellent sense of restraint during what must have been an adrenaline-filled encounter.
I now know where I’ll be eating on my next trip to Couer d’Alene/Post Falls. It isn’t that far from Cabelas to The Big Yellow Mobile Kitchen!
Just being picky, in a number of states the act of drawing, and especially aiming, a sidearm is considered to be use of lethal force. And in cases like this, without question justifiable. Well done.