Woken up by someone screaming for help

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I was woken out of a sound sleep early this morning to someone outside screaming “Help Me! Someone Help Me! Oh My God Help Me!” I jumped out of bed, threw my shorts on and grabbed my gun and cell phone from my night stand. I ran outside while dialing 911. As I got outside I told the dispatcher my address and as I did I realized that the screaming was coming from inside my neighbor’s house. I informed the dispatcher who said she could hear the lady screaming too and asked me to go into the house and see what was happening! I was shocked that she asked me to go in the house, but I was already on my way anyway. As I was going through the gate of the fence I yelled into the house “Are you OK?” (A dubious question but that’s what I said). My neighbor yelled back to me “Help me, my sister died overnight!” I relayed to the 911 operator who told me that she heard. I proceeded into the house to find my neighbor standing in her kitchen frantically trying to dial her phone and screaming. The 911 dispatcher told me to tell her ‘”everyone is on the way”. I did, and then asked my neighbor if she was sure about her sister. She screamed YES! She said she needed to call her mom. Just then her mother answered her phone (at the other end) and my neighbor was screaming “Mom are you sure! Where is she now?” That is when I realized that her sister that passed was likely not in the house. Once she hung up the phone I asked where her sister was and she told me she was in Florida. When the police arrived I updated them. At this point I went back home. The police stayed with her until her boyfriend arrived.

So, in the end it turned out to not really be an emergency, but that’s how my morning started today. I was mostly surprised about the 911 operator: Such as asking me to go into the house when she could here what sounded like a lady screaming bloody murder. Also strange to me was that the 911 operator hung up after she told me to tell the lady that “everyone is on the way.” She probably realized that she didn’t need to be on the phone with me anymore but it was still not what I expected. I’m not criticizing, it’s just my reaction.

I am not sure why I am telling you guys, guess I just needed to vent it. Thanks for listening.

/John

ETA: although I grabbed my gun before I went outside, it was concealed the whole time.
 
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What the 911 operator is saying, man up, grab a rifle and go investigate.

Read between the lines, sir. [rofl]

LOL, I was already running to the house fully intent on going in when she said that. I just figured she would have told me something like "stay in your house and hide until the police get there".
 
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they can call your phone right back if they need to--i had to call 911 once on my old phone and it was like it got taken over and put into "emergency mode" and wouldn't make or accept calls until the dispatcher called me back for further information. it was weird.
 
-i had to call 911 once on my old phone and it was like it got taken over and put into "emergency mode" and wouldn't make or accept calls until the dispatcher called me back for further information. it was weird.

That is interesting. Didn't notice that happen to me but it's good to know. Thanks.
 
Was she hot? Grieving chucks are easy. ;)

Well... I guess they're kinda cute if you're into that sort of thing.

woodchuck1.jpg


This guy seems to have a different idea on how to pick them up, though.

joeri-woodchuck-2009-blog.jpg
 
There are some things that I don't particularly like about the actions of the 911 operator. I hope that you gave a description of yourself so that the police knew who you were and didn't mistake you for a BG. Did the operator ask?

If I were you, I would raise the question of why you were told to investigate by the 911 operator. This is something you may wish to discuss with a dispatch emergency services supervisor.
 
Nice job running to help! Shows your truly a caring human being.

Sucks to be woken up like that but it did prove you could unlock your pistol and equip yourself quickly [wink][wink][wink]

Glad it was concealed when LEO showed. Might have made for a tougher start to day.
 
Nice job running to help! Shows your truly a caring human being. Sucks to be woken up like that but it did prove you could unlock your pistol and equip yourself quickly [wink][wink][wink]Glad it was concealed when LEO showed. Might have made for a tougher start to day.

Everything turned out all right in the end, but there were potential multiple points of failure in this whole scenario. What if there were multiple armed assailants in the house and this was not a grieving sister? What if the comms became garbled and the police mistook the poster as a threat (an armed threat) ? Clearing a house especially by just one person who may or may not have the right training to do it, is imprudent. I realize fully well that the OP was doing what he was instructed to do and commend him for his courage, but that 911 operator potentially put someone in harm's way.

I know that when seconds count, the police are only minutes away but imagine this scenario: OP goes into neighbor's house, finds armed assailant, shoots armed assailant, kills armed assailant. What happens? If this were Texas probably nothing, maybe even a commendation from the Police Dept. This was in Mass, however, so at the very least arrest and suspension of LTC. Depending on the circumstances and depending on the DA, either no charges filed, or go before a grand jury. Odds are that grand jury would issue a no bill, and OP is released, still without his LTC which is still up to the mercy of the local chief. This is how bad Massachusetts has gone.

Other scenario: OP enters neighbor's house and is shot and killed by assailant or assailants.

Other scenario: OP enters neighbors house and when police arrive is shot and killed along with neighbor's dog because of mistaken identity and because of garbled communications between 911 dispatch and responding LEOs (of course this s**t never happen [hmmm] and if you believe that I will sell you the Brooklyn Bridge).

So kudos to OP for being a good guy and all of that, but....IMO he was damn lucky...damn lucky...
 
@mark056.....Yup I agree he was lucky and it could have gone many other ways. BUT......God forbid each of us ever have to be challenged to a panic call for help. If it does happen we all have personal decisions to make on how we act. I would like to think I would follow the OP lead and have done the same. I'm not sure if I could live with myself if it was my neighbor and I stood outside on phone or in my house while God knows what was happening inside and I could have helped prevent it.

It is your personal decision to decide how you react or not and I respect that. I also respect you pointing out to those that might not think about the negative outcomes (which I for one do often living in MA). But in the end, it is up to the person and what they feel is right.

SQUELCH:::: Feel free to move to my neighborhood..... Mark056.....feel free to move further down out of helping range.
 
So your neighbor was screaming for someone to help her because her sister down in Florida had died?

Yup,,,,,,,,people handle bad news in many different ways. I am always curious to see the different ways people I know react to various situations. Really helps in where they land in my Google circles [wink] [smile]
 
i have a question:
lets say you go in there, you see a guy throwing a punch and then you see a woman that is bleeding on the floor, you cant see if he has a gun or a knife, but he clearly bet her up. At this point, the guy sees you (lets asume he grabs a knife) and tries to come after you and you shoot him, you take a few shots and kill him.

The guy didnt break into your housek, he was in someone elses house, so it wasnt self defense anymore when you went over there with a gun, but the 911 dispatcher told you to go take a look.

what would happen to you?
 
i have a question:
lets say you go in there, you see a guy throwing a punch and then you see a woman that is bleeding on the floor, you cant see if he has a gun or a knife, but he clearly bet her up. At this point, the guy sees you (lets asume he grabs a knife) and tries to come after you and you shoot him, you take a few shots and kill him.

The guy didnt break into your housek, he was in someone elses house, so it wasnt self defense anymore when you went over there with a gun, but the 911 dispatcher told you to go take a look.

what would happen to you?

Defense of another.
 
Anything could have happened. Looking back on it I realize there are a couple things to consider.

First of all I was hyped up on adrenalin (I can’t overstate how blood curdling the screaming was). So, I must consider the possibility that memory distortion could have caused me to remember things a little out of sequence (maybe, maybe not). For instance, perhaps the 911 operator told me to go in the house when she heard the response from the neighbor that her sister died overnight? I remember it the way I stated in the OP, but memory distortion being what it is.....

Second, if when I called to her from outside at the gate she responded with something like “my boyfriend has a gun” I am pretty sure I would not be stupid enough to go in after him or try to “clear the house”. But that didnt happen and I cant say for sure what I would do. Maybe I would have gone in. I was reacting. Its too dynamic to say what I would do in any given situation. I am not a trained police or military person. I don’t know how to “clear a house” like on TV. I am just average Joe reacting to a situation trying not to make it worse by my actions OR by my inactions. I also have a wife that I would like to go home to.

Third, NO ONE else came out of their house. NO ONE. Not even to snoop after the cops arrived. But maybe they all get up way earlier than me to go to work? In any case I was alone to react to the situation.
 
Defense of another.

this is MA, would that work as a defense in court?

In this state you can barely defend yourself, let alone your neighbors.

I am just asking, becasue it could have been a very possible scneario, so maybe someone has a link to something similar that happened in the past.
 
this is MA, would that work as a defense in court?

In this state you can barely defend yourself, let alone your neighbors.
If a third party can use deadly force to defend themselves, then you can use deadly force to protect them. That is just as true in MA as it is in other states.
 
...would that work as a defense in court?...

Depending on the circumstances. Case law supports defense of another as justification for use of force...

Mass. SJC in Comm. v Martin (1976) said:
.....An actor is justified in using force against another to protect a third person when (a) a reasonable person in the actor's position would believe his intervention to be necessary for the protection of the third person, and (b) in the circumstances as that reasonable person would believe them to be, the third person would be justified in using such force to protect himself...The actor's justification is lost if he uses excessive force, e.g., aggressive or deadly force unwarranted for the protective purpose.....

http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/369/369mass640.html
 
Wow that's quite a thing to wake up to. I'm shocked the 911 operator instructed you to enter the home.

I honestly don't know what I'd do in a situation like that (regardless of what a desk-bound person on the phone is telling me to do) Suppose I'd try to get a peek in the windows without being seen to see if anyone's being assaulted. Then of course you run the risk of being mistaken for a burglar and shot. I guess I'd go full-on Santa and enter through the chimney.
Tactial upside-down handgun/flashlight room sweep maneuver. [thinking]
 
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