Last Friday afternoon, a man walked into the SMS Property Management on St. Joseph Boulevard in Fort Wayne. He then pulled a gun and demanded money. However, a customer in this Indiana store also had a gun and decided to fight back. He foiled the robbery, but got pretty badly wounded in the process.

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The Fort Wayne Police Department reports that it responded to the incident around 5:30 p.m. After arriving, officers found one man at the location with serious injuries. The officers called medical personnel, which transported the man to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police believe that the wounded man pulled his own gun and fired at the robber, but the robber fired back. In fact, the pair exchanged several shots before the robber fled, either on foot or possibly a bicycle. It is also possible that the robber was wounded in the gunfight. The FWPD has not released any additional information about the suspect, expect they believe he might still be armed and dangerous.

Indiana Customer Might Should Have Waited to Act

As is typically, there is not a lot of information about this event. So, we have to make some assumptions about what happened inside the store during this incident.

One possible scenario is that the customer tried to draw while the armed robber was aiming at him. There are a lot of ways this could happen. The customer could have been standing at the counter, or the robber might have some understanding of controlling a room. In either case, in most circumstances it is not smart to draw against a gun in the hand. The chances of winning in such a situation is slim. It is typically better to await the opportune moment.

Robber are typically more interested in getting the money than keeping an eye on multiple victims. So, it is better to wait until his or her attention is elsewhere before trying to draw. Of course, that is another scenario. The customer waited until he thought he could act, but the he was slow on the draw or the robber was quicker.

Regardless, this incident reveals the need for compliance until an opportunity presents itself to do otherwise. Just because you’re carrying a gun doesn’t mean you have to get into all situations. Sometimes it is better to be a good witness to help police catch the bad guy. The exception for all situations is when it looks like the bad guy is going to pull the trigger anyway. At that point, you might as well try and take him out.