It only takes seconds to lose everything you love. Justified lethal force is serious business, and the decision to point a gun at another human is one you can’t take back. I don’t think I’m alone here in preaching that if that line is to be crossed, it must be done with all the violence, force, and terror you can muster. This isn’t a game and no one’s going to cry uncle, especially when they come to steal your child. Brianne Rodriguez of Fresno County, California had little warning, just a guy at the door. Moments later, she was fighting for her child’s life . . .
She ignored the guy at the front door who, she said, “looked like a salesman.” But salesmen don’t put on ski masks and subsequently bust in through the back window. She confronted the man, and was attacked, knocked down and kicked in the face and ribs. The home invader then grabbed Ms. Rodriguez’ two-year-old daughter and bolted:
I said I gotta save my kid, that’s my life, my everything my love, so I ran to my room where we have the shotgun and I grabbed the shotgun. I came chasing out here after her and I yelled some obscenities at him, cocked my shotgun a couple times. He saw it. He threw her [the child] on the floor.
The foiled kidnapper didn’t get away empty-handed; he was able to grab a purse and some other valuables. And this isn’t the first time Ms. Rodriguez has had to use a gun. She chased off a prowler in her yard a year ago. She’s not an OFWG looking for a fight, and the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office (California!) had no problem with her actions. It’s her 2-year-old daughter she’s fighting for, so I think anybody here would’ve done the same thing and you know kudos to her, said Deputy Chris Curtice.
The local publicity and response seem overwhelmingly positive, certainly thanks to the words of the Sheriff’s office and, of course, the actions of a caring mother. But is this an isolated incident? Nope. Just a week earlier, a man tried to abduct an 8-year-old girl from Fremont Elementary School located just a few miles from where the Rodriguez attempt took place.
Didn’t we just warn criminals not to mess with moms? Brianne gets it: “I kicked into lioness mode protecting my cub.” Are your loved ones prepared to deal with a sudden break-in and abduction? What can we learn from this incident?
First, and foremost, she had a self-defense gun and knew how to use it. She immediately took action and confronted the intruder instead of letting him control the show. When overwhelmed, she grabbed her force equalizer and chased the guy off. And she knew what was important: “The stuff that he stole from us is miniscule to the fact that my daughter was with him, says Rodriguez.”
The “happy ending” in this story is that no one was shot, although in light of the severity of this attempt it might not have been a bad thing. Oh, the attacker is still on the loose.
Probably every husband / father’s worst nightmare too… something like this happening while you’re not at home is one of the reason why self-defense needs to be taught to EVERYONE not just “grown men.”
Hurray for this mother and her child, and glad to hear they’re both safe.
Cocked my shotgun a couple of times…”?????
I assume she means she racked the slide–but if she did it twice, it sure seems like that shotgun was empty.
One of the scenarios where a shotgun is the worst gun for DGU. She would have had to be an expert shot to be able to down the kidnapper without seriously harming her child [unless it was loaded with slugs, and even then]. Obviously, a sighted-in rifle would have been best, but a pistol and a lot of practice would have been best.
Or a crossbow with a broadhead arrow, aiming for the pelvis…
And I don’t get the bit about cocking it several times. Was she dumping the ammo on the floor?
I disagree. A well place shotgun shot at close distance is far more accurate in my opinion. The shot doesn’t spread as much as people like to think. At room distances the shot would be less then the size of a fist, maybe smaller.
I would take aiming for his knee or leg with a shotgun anyday over trying the same shot with a handgun.
Ditto on the rifle.
That was my thought… shooting the bad guy in the legs isn’t as difficult with a shotgun versus pistol. Plus, it accomplishes 2 things: stops the bad guy from getting away, and it’d make him drop the kid.
I stand corrected. Being a center-of-mass shooter, I didn’t think of a shot to the legs. I appreciate the broadening of my horizons. [Interestingly, when I thought of a crossbow, I had no problem with shooting low]
Out of all the guns I own my “boomstick” is still my favorite go-to weapon for home defense.
A mossberg 500 pump brand new is only about $300, cheaper from a gunshow and with all the mods you add to them you can customize it for where/how you intend to use it if the need ever comes.
I got a “just in case II” for $280 brand new from a local gunshow. It came with a carrying case, 18.5″ barrel, and pistol grip.
I added a top rail & green laser and changed the stock to a blackhawk breechers grip low recoil stock and it was the best thing I ever did!
Those stocks really do reduce felt recoil, they say by up to 65% and I agree because shooting 3″ slugs before would really hurt your hands after 5 rounds or so but with the new stock I went 20 three inch slugs and about the same amount of 3″ buckshot before I got the same level of pain in my hands and the barrel was too hot to touch.
You can also shoot one handed regular bird, buck, and low-recoil slugs with this stock so I think it was totally worth the extra hundred bucks.
For home defense I like to stagger my rounds between 3″ buck and 3″ slug evenly, that way you are ready to confront anything head-on, or shoot through a wall if you have to!
Not really corrected, just different ways of approaching it. If I were as good with my handgun as I am with my shotgun I would probably agree with you because let’s face it, both have their merits.
I am heading to a membership range with a friend soon and I hope to bring along some sheet rock and a few papers to display the dispersal patterns on low-recoil LEO shells at room distances. I’m also gonna throw in some high-power shells (3in) to show the dramatic difference.
You can find an excellent source of penetration tests with different weapons at a very cool site called: the box O truth.com
Its run by a retired marine I think, who loves to shoot-n-tell and it is full of cool vids of the old-timer shooting up stuff on vids to prove to everyone what exactly your weapons and bullets can do to real world stuff.
it may well have been the only gun she had. i have the luxury of being able to pick and choose from a battery of different types. a lot of people don’t have those choices.
Good for Brianne. Hopefully she can move that kid into a safer neighborhood.
Some great DGU articles coming out today…blasting these out to anti’s on facebook posts I’m involved in. They are pretty quiet all of a sudden.
see what the noise of a shotgun being prepared can accomplish. i bet she racked that gun. hopefully he’ll be caught or shot before he succeeds.
You steal someone’s kid, you totally deserve to die.
Struggled with the robber and was kicked in the face and ribs.
Ran to her room and got a shotgun. Chased after the kidnapper, yelled some obscenities, cocked the shotgun and the robber threw the child on the floor.
Maybe the Brady Campaign might have some advice for this lady about just doing what the criminal tells you to do and make sure she gets a lecture on safe storage of shotguns.
I’ve heard the rule about only using the amount of force necessary to cause the criminal perp to cease and desist their activity, and surely do hate violence, but I’da felt a whole lot better about this story if after he threw the child on the floor she’d have helped this animal breathe a little easier thru that hot ski mask he was wearing by using that shotgun to ventilate it for ‘em.
This is the lowest form of crime there is, a crime against a child.
I agree with other posts here in parroting the idea of once her child was out of the line of fire that she should have prevented this sub-human POS from ever doing this to someone elses family with a liberal (haha) dose of OO buckshot/slugs to permanently mark him for being the loser he is.
I am guessing the shotgun was not loaded. Here is why.
1. Not many people keep loaded guns unsecured and at-the-ready in their house when they have small children.
2. She cocked it a couple of times. She probably racked it to make sure the would-be kidnapper heard her do it.
3. She didn’t shoot him. I bet if the gun was loaded she would have.
(And as a father of two, I would understand if she did. )
In any case, good on her. Too bad this wont make the Nightly news with Brian Reach-Around Williams.
Fresno county is about as close to shall issue as you can get here in California. Kudos to her for using her instinct.
Also the fact she didn’t fire is because he had her child, but just the sound of it made him drop the kid and high tail it outta there. So she obeyed the rules! She didn’t have a clear shot based on what we know but this is a case where she properly used her gun. Just the threat was enough. My lord she deserves a gold medal for restraint and focus!
No one was shot, no one hurt, child scared but safely back home!
Ok the guy is still on the loose, but heck it is a win for her to be sure!
I’m happy that after being repeatedly kicked, she was still able to arm herself and protect her child. Kudos to her!
I just realized that this happened in California! Tow solid thumbs up to the local police for recognizing that she was the victim and not arresting her for “disturbing the peace” or some such crap.
shotguns are fantastic, if you take the time to train with them. reloading is really hard to do under duress. in her case, she was understandably seeing red so if she did have to shoot and reload later on, she’d probably have a fumble or two. darn it I hope not.
patterning is also really important. like the other guys said, at short range its almost a single projectile. thing is, I really have seen that patterns differ from one gun to another, even if they’re the same type!
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