The double-edged tragedy in Dallas, discussed here in my last post has triggered a common phenomenon seen nationwide, and even here in commentary: the natural human tendency to be tribal focuses sympathy on whichever party the onlooker most identifies with.
Having been on both sides of that doorway, as it were, with a gun in my hand I would respectfully offer the following observations. Let’s look at it from the perspective of someone in the position of Botham Jean, the young man who was killed in this tragic incident. We’ll be talking about criminal law principles, as opposed to civil law, i.e., lawsuits.
I’ve only briefly lived in a condo complex where the row of doors on each floor looked just like those on the floors above and below, and never had a problem there. However, for a long time my lifestyle has had me spending more time in hotel rooms than my own home in any given year, and that has put me in a few situations similar to this one.
Late 1970s: I was coming out of the shower in a very crime-ridden big city when I heard a key going into the lock of my hotel room door. I dove for the bed, rolled across it, and scooped up my Smith & Wesson Model 36 .38 Special, over which I saw a man with a rapacious leer on his face push the door open until it stopped on the chain lock. I barked a command not to move. His expression changed to one of horror, and he slammed the door back shut. I immediately called the front desk: no, they had no male housekeepers and had not sent anyone up to my room with a master key that would open both door lock and deadbolt as this man had. Draw your own conclusions. If Mr. Jean had a physical reaction that could be deemed assaultive, or on the “fight” side of “fight or flight” response, I can certainly understand why. From the information made public at this time, we don’t know whether Mr. Jean had such a reaction or not, as seen from the off-duty cop’s perspective.
Late 1980s: I had just finished teaching an officer survival course in a medium-sized Midwestern city, and returned to my hotel room carrying a bunch of paperwork including some late-arriving discovery material just delivered FedEx for a homicide trial I would testifying in elsewhere in a few days. (Armed, battered woman who had killed her abusive husband to save her own life; we soon won an acquittal.) Motel phone was ringing as I entered, so I kicked the door shut behind me, neglecting to double-lock it and secure the chain lock. Went to bed exhausted shortly before 11 PM. Less than half an hour later was awakened by the sound of a key going into a lock. Sat bolt upright in bed, and everything went into slow motion (there was actually time to think “Oh, wow, tachyspychia” as I saw a foot propelling the door open). Rolled out of bed scooping up my Colt Government Model .45 auto and barked a command not to move. The man and woman in the doorway bolted and ran down the outside hallway. Secured the door, called the front desk and determined the clerk had thought I had already checked out and given those folks a key to my room. I won the race to the telephone and made the first call to the police department, requesting a call back from the chief of detectives, who knew who I was. Bottom line: the couple, who wanted me arrested for pointing a gun at them, were told they were lucky to be alive. Turned out the male had pushed the door open with his foot because he had his hands occupied by the key in one hand and his overnight bag in the other. The motel apologized profusely and we all got a free night at the motel in question.
1990, airport hotel in a fairly large Eastern city where it turned out there had been enough crime that the hotel had full-time security. Curiously, their doors had a secondary lock but no chain lock. I was in town in a law enforcement capacity. I was awakened once again by sound of key going into my door. By the time it swung open, my bedside handgun, the SIG P220 .45 I was carrying on duty at the time, was in hand and leveled at the doorway. I said in command voice “Police! Don’t move!” Once again, a look of horror: he slammed the door shut behind him and ran, and was gone from the hallway when I got to the doorway. The hotel’s head of security was there minutes later after I called the front desk. There had been, it turned out, incidents of criminals having gained access to master keys and done bad things there. He kept repeating in tones of nervous relief, “Thank God he started with your room, Captain!”
All were treated as “no harm, no foul” on my part.
Some who criticize the officer claim that if the apartment resident in the Dallas case under discussion had shot the cop, he would have unquestionably hung. Au contraire. If the triers of the facts determine that the officer making entry was not identifiable and the resident fired upon them in reasonable but incorrect belief that the officer was a criminal home invader, they may well be held harmless. Here are two such cases just in the state of Texas:
http://www.thedailychronic.net/2014/27533/texas-man-indicted-killing-cp-knock-drug-raid/
and here:
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Man-who-shot-at-cops-acquitted-5608077.php
There are, of course, two sides to every story. We’ll look next at the same situation from the view of the police officer who was entering what she says she believed was her own apartment when the incident went down, and she fired the fatal shot.
What seems obvious from the fatal case and Mas’ experiences is how essential it is to lock your doors at all times. In your own home, a deadbolt is essential. In a hotel room a personal door jam is essential.
In nearly every case, the invasion will be unlawful. Even so, there will also be cases that are purely inadvertent or under warrant. A lock, bolt and door-jam will be extremely helpful in sorting out the invader’s motive. In the unlikely event of a no-knock warrant service such measures will buy the seconds needed to wake-up and start to come to grips with whether the invader is police or criminal.
My question is what might have happened if you didn’t have the gun?
Shudder.
Back in the 80’s I was staying at a Holiday Inn right off the Newark, NJ, airport. Far from the best part of town… I’m lying in bed just about to go to sleep about midnight when I hear a key in the lock and the door starts to open. I yell, in a command voice, “Stop right there! Get out!” Luckily they heard and obeyed, and the door chain held…The front desk apologized, for some reason thought my room was unoccupied (different clerk than when I checked in).
On two other occasions, I have opened doors to the room I was checked into and seen other people’s luggage in the room – they were not there in both cases. Again, clerks seem to get confused about what rooms are available.
So this kind of thing happens to a lot more folks than some might realize. I haven’t had it happen in a few years, thank goodness. The idea of bringing a couple of door wedges with you is a good one. Also, in rooms with connecting doors, I always check the locks and then prop up the ironing board on that door. In rooms with closets right by the front door, I prop the closet door open to block the room’s door,
Tom,I remember Newark of the 1980s; what a toilet it was, especially around the airport. But I also remember seeing dozens of large backyard swimming pools from the air as I made my way to Atlanta via People Express (anyone else remember this airline, lol?) and my then 23 year old brain wondering WTH. That same trip, I also got bumped from a flight landing in Denver and ended up overnight all alone I a motel room some distance from the old Stapleton terminals. Even though I had only been reading Mas for a short time up til this point, it was enough to ramp my awareness of things related to security and the like considerably. I didn’t get a lot of sleep in Denver that night (they assigned me a room in a section of the building that was otherwise unoccupied as far as I could determine), and I had no weapon whatsoever other than my wits.
The incidents described perfectly illustrate why our house doors are ALWAYS dead bolted. When traveling I always use a device that prevents the hotel door from opening – regardless of the “quality” of the door locks. I acquired a couple of them in the mid 1970s and keep one with my travel gear. You would literally have to break down the door to get into the room.
A good lessons I see to take home here is to always secure you home. The primary lesson I see is to be aware of your surroundings and know where you are at especially if you are prepared to use deadly force. Its careless to not lock doors but its much more careless to not be 100 percent certain that your not walking into the wrong home. In her mind she was in her own apartment and she acted just like an off duty police officer would act. He responded to a home invader shouting commands and lost his life. Unfortunately in the eyes of civilians an armed person who happened to be a police officer had a lack of awareness and killed a careless civilian who forgot to lock his door.
I rather expect the reaction of most (the unaware/clueless) folks in the situations Mas describes would be the deer in the headlights look and stunned inaction.
I won’t comment upon how that might be interpreted in various circumstances.
Before I retired, my work required me to travel on occasion. I have spent many nights in various hotels all over the U.S.A. Nothing like the total that Mas must have racked up in his work, of course, but a fair amount.
While I have had some trouble with the occasional hotel-billing problem, I never suffered the “double-booked room” problem. However, a colleague of my did some years ago. Not only did a hotel clerk, on a new shift, try to hand his room to some other customers, but, when the new customers tried to enter the room and found him there, they complained back to this new clerk. This clerk believed his computer more than my colleague and actually thought that my colleague was some sort of “squatter” who was in the room illegally. The hotel clerk tried calling the police to have him tossed out of his own room! It was a nasty mix-up. My colleague straightened it out in the end but it cost him hours of his time and he did not get much sleep that night!
I never did carry any additional locking devices for the hotel door. However, I always made sure to use whatever locks and chains that were available. I also acquired a small, motion-detector / alarm unit. I could set this up a few feet away with it pointed in the direction of the hotel door. That way, even if someone could unlock the door, they would set the alarm off as soon as they opened it and stepped into the room. This would give me a few seconds warning and, who knows, might scare off the intruder. Although this pocket alarm was small, when it went off, it was loud enough to “wake the dead”.
Thanks Massod Ayoob, Your excellent writing on your experiences are very informative. My husband and I, fortunately, only had one problem when someone tried to unlock our hotel room door. Fortunately, the key did not unlock the door.
Thank you
I noticed how Mas was armed, but it was his voice commands which diffused the situation.
I think it is possible to prop a chair under a door handle. If the chair is the right size, the door would remain closed even if the intruder had a key.
All seriousness aside, I remember Mas winces at the command, “Aim at the center of mass.” I suppose someone named William would cringe if he heard the command, “Fire at will.”
I was given a heads up by our mutual friend, the late Jim R. about your encounter at a certain no tell motel out in the middle of nowhere in northern Indiana. I was just in the shower after a day at the range with Ken Tapp, when some body opened the door. Do not what scared them more , the naked guy or a chrome Hi-Power.
I stay in hotels occasionally. Although I keep a .45 on the nightstand, I think I’ll review my safety procedures a bit.
Thanks Mr Mas.
The situation has been immortalized in pop music. See Silhouettes on the Shade by The Four Seasons, Herman’s Hermits and various do-wop groups. Probably bad tactics on the back end but the front end is believable.
The guy was in his own apartment minding his own business. No warrants, no complaints, no “suspicious noises” or “hot pursuit” have been claimed, so far as I’ve seen.
The fact that the shooter was a cop isn’t relevant. She wasn’t on duty or acting in any capacity that could be construed as “law enforcement.” I don’t see that any of the protections that apply to a police officer have any bearing here.
She simply entered an apartment she had no business in and killed its lawful occupant.
It might have all been a horrible mistake, but it looks pretty cut and dried so far.
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