Good Guys 1. Scum 0.
By Mitch Berg
Another law-abiding homeowner with a gun became possessed by the spirit of his/her firearm, and ran amok, killing indiscriminately.
Well, no. Actually, a Saint Paul homeowner apprehended a violent scumbag with a knife who’d broken into his house.
The really amazing part about this story? The Strib carried it:
Jon Sokol wasn’t trying to be a hero when he confronted a burglary suspect who had brazenly broken through the front door of his home in St. Paul.Sokol, 49, said his adrenaline was flowing as he crept up the stairs, revolver in hand, from the basement bedroom he shares with his wife.
His wife had been awoken at about 4:45 a.m. Wednesday by their alarm system and initially thought Sokol had — again — opened the door to get the newspaper without turning off the alarm. But there he was, sleeping right next to her.
Then she heard footsteps. “I think there’s somebody in the house,” Sokol recalled her whispering. “I’m thinking to myself, ‘Noooo.'”
Sokol said he’d gotten to the second step when he saw somebody cross the room upstairs. “Oh my, there is somebody in our house,” he thought.
“I grabbed our gun, which we keep for protection,” he said.
Of course, it was all a terrible misunderstanding. He was just a Japanese exchange student, or a drunk college kid or…
…or….
…er, no. He was a dirtbag with a criminal record longer than Bill McGuire’s portfolio of backdated options, armed – according to the Saint Paul police – with a knife and possible a fireplace poker.
“As I stepped around the corner, he hit me … right between the eyes,” Sokol said. “And I fired the gun.
“Down on the ground he went and I insisted, in a not very nice way, that he not move,” he said. “I held him at gunpoint until the police arrived.”
Michael G. Spencer, 31, of St. Paul, has been charged in Ramsey County District Court with two felony counts of burglary. He has a lengthy criminal record, including convictions for theft and burglary as recently as last year.
Now, all joshing aside for the moment – nobody claimed that having a gun was a panacaea. Having to use a gun to defend oneself is pretty much always the second worst option available to you.
[Sokol] ended up with a small cut on his forehead and a somewhat shattered sense of security. He and his wife dead-bolted themselves in their bedroom Wednesday night, and still he stayed awake all night keeping watch while his wife slept.
But it could have been much, much worse.
As, indeed, Sokol seems to realize:
“It’s a happy ending, I guess,” Sokol said. “The good guy’s still alive, for the time being. And the bad guy is captured. It turned out like you see in the movies.”
Perhaps.
Beats the hell out of the alternative.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:07 am
Congratulations and good luck to the Sokols. I hope things get back to normal for them soon.
While I’m at it, congratulations to the Strib, too.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
I had the back door of my north Minneapolis home kicked in about midnight a month ago. I didn’t have a gun (my wife is kind of leery of them). The compound bow was zipped up in its case. I was in my underwear and slippers.
I got to the door just as it gave way and he came in. I don’t know if he saw me, but he heard me: “Get the hell out of here!” He was gone so fast he must have hurdled the chain link fence.
The police dispatcher was not the most helpful, but I’d admit I was not the most coherent. She thought I was reporting a prowler, not a burgular. When the police arrived about five minutes later, he was a little bit upset that the dispatcher had gotten it wrong; it delayed the response.
I still don’t have a gun, but my wife is thinking about it. Meanwhile I have a very sincere hatchet handy.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:07 am
These are examples of why we need to keep fighting for Castle Doctrine.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
Yeah, cause then Gordon coulda had at least one dead person in his house instead of a broken door.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:30 am
Gordon said: “I still don’t have a gun, but my wife is thinking about it. Meanwhile I have a very sincere hatchet handy.”
Next intruder, Gordon’s gonna scalp.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:37 am
Yeah, cause then Gordon coulda had at least one dead person in his house instead of a broken door.
Right. And it’d be so much better if that were Gordon and his wife, right?
Next intruder, Gordon’s gonna scalp.
It’d be cool to build a pyramid of intruders’ skulls on one’s front lawn.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
angryclown has such a kind heart that he won’t suffer one burglar be killed.
Their innocent victims? Well, I guess he also has a callous streak as well.
I do wonder what angryclown’s policy on intruders is for his own home.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Troy: my guess is he starts talking, and they either run screaming or off themselves right then and there.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I do wonder what angryclown’s policy on intruders is for his own home.
Tea and crumpets with a polite “Cheerio,” no doubt.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:24 pm
“What angryclowns`policy is for intruders?” He`d be sprouting the lib mantra “He must have suffered racism sometime in his life, or he`s just poor because the evil white man has kept him down,or his mother didn`t love him, ect.,ect. All the while, the bad guy`s busy walking out of his house with his tv and computer under his arm. Or worse, stabing or shooting the homeowner. He`s thinking to himself, as he runs out the door, that maybe there is some secret liberal phone book, or address book, or something that tells him where all these kind of people live. Cause they sure are pansies to steal from!
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
You guys have got the clown all wrong.
The idea is that the homeowner cowers in his bedroom and calls the police. When the cops show up, they determine if the suspect is a minority, and if he is, they shoot him a hundred times or so & then take him back to the station and sodomize him with a broom handle.
That’s home defense, New York style.
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
“home defense,New York style” Of course, if said homeowner had a gun to begin with, said suspect would be dead and none of the other stuff wouldn`t have happened anyway. You`re right, that`s why people have guns to begin with. You can`t always count on the cops to to be there on time or do the right thing. Thanks for bringing up one more point to have a gun.