So, I was assaulted on Sunday...

[Kusanagi]

Well, a taser is out of the question, so I ended up getting a small keychain with pepper spray.

These next two weeks shall be long ones indeed.

[Crazyredhead]

Is the front of your store a large glass window? If so and you see a suspicious looking car driving slow, move behind your counter. I don't want to hear about a drive by in the paper tomorrow.

Also, I am glad you didn't try to detain him after you hit him, he could have had a knife or a gun. I am glad you pressed charges, keep him away for a loooong time.

[Kyree]

Wow...I'm speechless. Just stay safe Kus ; ; I hope the guy's locked up for life shortly.

[Jester]

Ironically, the day after this asshat's court date, I have jury duty. Too bad I'm not in the same town as you....that could be entertaining if I ended up on his jury!

Of course, if you have worked for this company for a while, you might want to consider taking some paid vacation time. Then he could be looking for you at work all he wants....he won't find you, and will waste a lot of his time spinning his idiot wheels. Just a thought.

[thegiraffe]

Idiots have wheels? Perish the thought!!

(sorry...too much Shakespeare recently haha)

[Broomjockey]

Are idiot wheels anything like fly wheels? or are they more like pin wheels?

And as for Shakespeare, thou hast awaked a beast most foul and loathesome to mine eyes, as they have been afflicted with such foul sights by a source so seemingly benign as a teacher of the Queen's fine English.

[powerboy]

Dude, He better get locked up for life. And I am just like you, when I get pissed, no one can stop me. But I try so damn hard, not to get that mad

[Kusanagi]

Well, he came back. Last night. I wrote this this morning and didn't want to post this until I heard back from the police about it.

This happened right as I was closing. I've been carrying around pepper spray for this very reason, and yes, due to the advice of others on this forum, I did get a restraining order. Sure enough, a piece of paper didn't do jack shit.

I got messed up alot worse than I did when he came in the first time, but so did he

Short version: I got bruised ribs and a knife to the arm. He got knocked out cold and won't be able to walk again without alot of surgery and therapy.

As I'm locking up, I set the alarm and start to walk to my car. I park it in an alley behind the store to try and keep it less visible. Turns out that didn't work.

As I'm walking out there, a car pulls up behind me at the end of the alley, essentially blocking me in so I can't get in my car and bail. Doors open, and Wigger gets out of the passenger seat, and his buddy gets out of the drivers seat.

I'm scared shitless at this point, because I'm boxed in and I have nowhere to go, and you can see this guy has murder on his mind.

My hand goes to my keychain immediately and I hold the pepper spray at arms length and the convo goes like this. Sorry for the language.

W: I'm gonna kick your motherfucking ass right now bitch. I'm gonna fucking kill you for what you did to me. (Of course, he sounded funny cause he was missing a few teeth)
Me: Get the fuck out of here, right now.

He then starts walking towards me and I see him pull something out of his pocket. It's a switchblade, and he starts going on about how he's going to cut me. I try to nail him with the pepper spray but I end up aiming a little too low and hit his chest. He freaks, and throws the knife at me. I raise my hands to block it and it nails me in the left arm and ends up giving me a nice gash. It didn't stick, and it wasn't deep enough where I needed stitches but I didn't know it at the time.

So I yell "fuck!" and drop the pepper spray and grab my bleeding arm when he comes up and kicks me in the stomach, bending me over, then he kneed me to the forehead. I go down and I remember he was kicking me in the ribs, laughing the whole time, and started screaming "get up motherfucker! Not so tough now, are you?" His buddy didn't join in, he was doing lookout. I'm able to roll away and get back to my feet. My left shirt sleeve is red from the elbow down, and I'm dripping blood down my arm.

Remember what I said earlier about when I get REALLY mad, I tend to lose myself? I'm cornered, and I'm bleeding. I was furious at this point, and I tell him one more time to leave. He doesn't, his buddy's laughing and cheering him on, and now that I'm on my feet and know what's happening, I'm much better prepared this time when he comes at me.

He throws a few punches at me which I step back from or block, I kick him in the jewels and he bends over. I wrap my arm around his neck in sort of a reverse headlock, and just fall over backwards. His head goes CRACK against the concrete and he's out like a light. If any of you follow wrestling at all, the move is called a DDT.

His scalp was split open from about his hairline to maybe an inch or two back, all the way to the bone. It also turns out, and I do feel a bit of remorse for this, that I had inadvertantly stepped on his foot when I fell over backwards. As a result, it torqued his left knee enough to bend it the wrong way.

I get up and turn the guy over with my foot onto his back, he's breathing fine. I look at the car and his friend has eyes the size of dinner plates. I just look at him and say "You wanna try?" He yells "HOLY SHIT! " and jumps in the car and rockets away. Great friend, huh?

I go open the showroom again and call 911 and let them know what happened and to send an ambulance, not for me, but for him. I go back outside and take my shirt off, and use it as a compress against his head to try to stop the bleeding in his scalp. The cop shows up about 3 minutes later, and it's the same officer who came out initially, and the one I was dealing with on the whole issue.

First words out of his mouth when he sees the guy laid out and his knee bent the wrong way: "Jesus Christ, did you have to do THAT to him?"

Paramedics show up and the damage done to my arm isn't as bad as I thought. The gash is about 10cm long and maybe half a centimeter deep, enough to bleed like crazy but not enough where I need stitches.

I DID get handcuffs on me while I waited for things to sort out. I was sitting on the curb, and the best part was that Wigger woke up as the paramedics were working on him. Sees his leg. Starts SCREAMING. "Oh god, my leg! What did you do to my leg? Oh god, I'm never gonna walk again! I'll kill you, motherfucker!" and he starts crying. Big, wet tears coming down his face. He's sitting there bawling like a five year old and I must admit, it's music to my evil little ears.

The officer (Officer P) lets me up and takes the cuffs off, then two other cruisers show up to get evidence. They confiscate my pepper spray, and they also pick up the knife from where it fell. I end up getting home after giving another statement, around 2 in the morning.

I just got a call back from Officer P. It turns out, I most likely won't be charged. It happened on work property, the restraining order was broken, and his prints will most likely be found all over the knife. I have to go in later today and give a blood sample to prove my blood matches the blood on the knife, so it doesn't look like I picked it up and slashed him with it or anything. There's a mountain of paperwork I'm going to sort through regarding this, and I'll probably be down at the station a few more times before this is all over.

He goes straight to jail after he gets out of the hospital, with no chance of bail whatsoever. I think I opened myself wide to a countersuit with this, but I'd much rather do that than be gutted with a knife. I know at the very least if I hadn't fought back, I'd be in the hospital for quite a while, or I might not even be around to post this.

[Rapscallion]

*blink*

*blink*

I know we have a 'war story' category, but it's not meant to be taken literally...

Glad you're alive.

Rapscallion

[Der Cute]

Holy SHIT!

And I thought MY Assault was bad....

Kusanagi, dear, please, document the ever living hell...and call a lawyer.

I'm glad you're in one piece, and you did a purty good job of kickin some ass. I'd like to have you on my team, ok?

Hope you feel better soon...very soon.

Have boss install external camera now. Video surveillance would get good justice.

Cute

[ladyklack]

I echo the sentiment

HOLY SHIT!!!!

This goes beyond assault. He should be charged with attempted murder. Kudos to you for being able to defend yourself, not many people would have walked out of a situation like that alive. After reading your story, I have no doubt that he would have made good on his threat to kill you if you had let him. I personally think that any amount of physical force is acceptable to preserve your own life, including bashing open someones head!

[Rocko]

Just think: This all started over a $650 couch set

Glad you're okay man. That could have been a lot worse.

[repsac]

Kusanagi, depending on what state you live in the self defense laws can be rather useful.

The only ones I remember, are that in most every state you are allowed to use all force nessecary to stop an attack; in some cases and states this even means you can kill your attacker. Georgia has that, with it loosely called the "gunslinger" law. Basically it means if someone attacks you, and you fear for your life, you can shoot to kill.

Taken from an old police manual I have.

The general criminal law allows for the use of necessary and proportionate, non-deadly force in self-defense anytime the victim reasonably believes that unlawful force is about to be used on him.

In virtually every jurisdiction, to make out a case for battery, the plaintiff must show that the aggressor made harmful or offensive contact with the plaintiff’s person, that the aggressor intended to bring about such contact, and that the aggressor’s actions in fact caused the contact.

Assault, briefly, is the creation of a reasonable apprehension of an imminent battery, in the victim. Simple fear is not enough. The aggressor must have a present apparent ability to bring about such contact. In other words, the victim must actually expect to be struck or touched. Conversely, the fact that the victim was not in the least bit afraid does not bar recovery.

<snip>

steps to avoid lawsuit (those which directly pertain to Kus)

State loudly, "I don't want to fight you" to an attacker. If overheard by witnesses, it adds support to your case should the attacker become injured and try to sue.

Don't provoke a fight. Inherent in the legal concept of self-defense is a knowledge of who is at fault, or who started the fight.

Don't wait until you are physically struck to use the force necessary to prevent being physically harmed. If an attacker raises his fist or a knife, prepare to strike fast and hard. You're still the victim who is acting reasonably against bodily harm.

When you have to use force, only use that force necessary and deemed reasonable to protect yourself, another person or your property.

Laws vary widely across countries. In America, some states allow the prosecution to offer evidence of the defendent's past, such as a history of violence inflicted on a spouse.

.......................................

Kus, you may notice the part I had to type about an assault lawsuit. What that basically says is that YOU can sue your attacker for attacking you. Just thought you ought to know.

[Jester]

Just think: This all started over a $650 couch set

Glad you're okay man. That could have been a lot worse.

No, this all started over an asshole trying to get an employee he didn't know to cut him some kind of great deal on a $650 couch set.

And now you're in jail again, asshole. Here's your sign!


And I think we can all agree that this would be a good time to raise our glasses of whatever we are drinking in salute to our comrade in arms (and for once this phrase is literal, not figurative!), the ass-kicking Kusanagi.

[Rahmota]

Wow. Oh my Stars and Garters! I have no idea what to say about that guy other than he got what he deserved.

From my training when I was goign to be a cop you appeared to do most of the right things IMO. You where threatened verbally and physically (presence of a leathal weapon in Ohio is grounds to escalate your defense, basically in the way you did) you restrained yourself until such time as your body was physically struck (and then some) and then you used enough force to end the situation and remove the threat to you and then you stopped. Sounds to me like you did the right thing. Too bad the right thing isnt always the legal thing.

Good luck with this and lets hope this guy and his friends have learned their lessons. Unfortunately from my experience its usually the wrong lessons they learn. You might also want to get a few blood tests to make sure there wasn't anything on the blade that could be unpleasant for you later.