Florida Woman Disarms Hostage-Holding Suspect Thanks to Gun of Her Own

It never fails to amaze me how many defensive gun uses never capture the attention of national media, no matter how compelling the circumstances might be. Take this recent incident out of Florida that I stumbled across, for example. An armed felon drags a woman at gunpoint into a grocery store, only to be confronted and ultimately disarmed by an employee who had a gun of her own. 

The incident unfolded in Vero Beach, Florida back on October 3, but the local media didn’t report on the defensive gun use until late last week, and so far no national media outlet has picked up on the woman’s lifesaving actions.

The incident occurred at Wabasso Foods last Friday and was largely captured on surveillance video. Deputies say a drunk man came to the store with a gun, threatening to kill one woman, leading her into the store and telling everyone else to get out.

The worker behind the counter decided to take action, reaching into her purse and pulling out her own gun. Surveillance video shows the worker pushing the suspect out of the store.

The suspect was identified as Calvert Allen. The employee pointed a gun at Allen’s face, and deputies say she began wrestling him for his gun in the parking lot.

Investigators say the woman fired two warning shots at Allen, then hit him with her gun until she was able to get control of his handgun, which she turned over to a responding deputy.

 “I have the gun,” the deputy can be heard saying in the video.

Allen is a frequent customer who the worker knows.

“He’s going through a mental health crisis, he just got out of the behavioral health center,” the worker said.

Once in custody, Allen told deputies in an interview that he contemplated shooting the worker in what “he believed would have been self-defense,” but says he decided against it because “he liked her.”

Whatever Allen’s reasoning, I’m glad he didn’t pull the trigger. As it is, he’s facing charges for being a felon in possession of a firearm as well as aggravated assault, but the situation could have been much worse if he’d decided to shoot the armed citizen or the woman he was allegedly holding hostage.  

The employee didn’t actually fire warning shots “at” Allen according to other media reports, but fired two rounds into the air. That’s not something I (or any firearms instructor) would recommend, but the employee isn’t facing any charges of her own for discharging her handgun. Warning shots are a bad idea, from both a practical and legal perspective. If you have reasonable belief that your life is in imminent danger, you shoot to stop the threat, not fire a couple of rounds into the sky or at your assailant’s feet. And if you don’t have a reasonable belief of death or great bodily harm, you don’t pull the trigger at all. 

Regardless of that mistake made in the heat of the moment, it’s pretty clear that the gun owner was acting in defense of her own life and the lives of others. According to WPTV, the woman said she wants to “put the incident behind he,” but added that she still carries her concealed pistol “at all times.” 

That’s a wise move, though I do hope she’ll be inspired to get some additional training after the confrontation with Allen. I also hope that at least some national media outlets will report on her heroism, though I’m not holding my breath. The mainstream media loves to report on violent crimes involving firearms, but are strangely reluctant to cover any and all defensive gun uses no matter how unique or extraordinary they might be. 

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

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