LEOs only; Altercation in the neighborhood

[99blkzx2]

Hello, all.

I would like to get a piece of advise from officers around this forum. Yesterday my wife and I were driving (she was driving) through a part of our neighborhood. We saw some commotion and people in the street: a man and a woman. The woman had a car door open and was doing something (the car was facing us and we couldn't see). My wife started slowing downs as it looked like they were going back and forth from and to the car. She slowed down to a stop, then as we decided to start going again, a kid jumped out of nowhere (from the car) and proceeded to run across the street to this man that was standing there. My wife hit her brakes and stopped the car.
This man then starts yelling something, so i roll my window down, and start hearing cursing and more yelling. He gets closer to my window and looks like he's ready to fight. Fist clinched and body language out of control. As I ask him why he is yelling, he gets really close to the window in a threatening manner and my wife hits the gas, and we drive off. The guy then throws some object and hits our car. It felt like a lighter or something else, I am not sure. I'm still at our house getting ready to go to work, and don't know if we have any damage on the car yet.
I haven't called the police as we were on our way to a birthday party. It happened ritght around 5 p.m. on Sunday. What is your take on this situation? Do I have any legal options? I am thinking about calling the pd, btu wanted to hear from you first.
We drove by the spot where this happened after the party, but the car wasn't there anymore. I now think they might've been visiting somebody. Funny thing, a cop stays 2 or houses down from where this happened, which further supports my point of them not living there, but i digress.
I did feel threatened by this individual (especially when he was next to the window) and if i would've stepped out, it was fight time, no doubt. My wife was shaken up as well.
Appreciate your input.

 

[CobraSB]

I'm new and my first post!

however, asked my brother who is a leo, and he said chances of any charges actually getting filed on the guy are pretty low.

Honestly, sounds like the guy was already having a bad day, and when he saw his kids life in "danger" it was just an excuse for him to off load his anger on you. Not right obviously, but people get heated sometimes. I say forget it and move on as long as your car is undamaged!

 

[99blkzx2]

I see your point. However, is this the kind of behavior that can and does go unpunished?

 

[oneslo5.0]

I see your point. However, is this the kind of behavior that can and does go unpunished?

It will...

Hope there isn't any damage man.

 

[Outlaw99]

charges filed? against who? you dont know who it was. if you havent even looked to see if there was damage, it must not be that important to you. if you didnt report anything immediately, then you have nothing to go on.

stopping to help might seem like the best thing to do sometimes. but if you involve yourself, in a domestic situation, when you had the option of not doing so and calling 911....then most likely you will have 0 recourse for any damages.

 

[99blkzx2]

charges filed? against who? you dont know who it was. if you havent even looked to see if there was damage, it must not be that important to you. if you didnt report anything immediately, then you have nothing to go on.

stopping to help might seem like the best thing to do sometimes.
but if you involve yourself, in a domestic situation, when you had the option of not doing so and calling 911....then most likely you will have 0 recourse for any damages.

Re-read my post again, please. There was no domestic situation that we've involved ourselves in.Checked the car this morning, it's dirty, but doesn't appear to have any damage.

 

[Outlaw99]

no damage is good. glad for you.

you stopped, rolled down your window and spoke to the guy. that is involving yourself.

 

[99blkzx2]

no damage is good. glad for you.

you stopped, rolled down your window and spoke to the guy. that is involving yourself.

I guess I forgot to mention that he jumped out in front of our car and tried stopping us from avoiding all of this right away, that's why i rolled the window down. I know, I should've reported it right away, but both of us were shocked to see something like this go down in our neighborhood. I did see a car speeding out of the neighborhood that looked like it was them, but not 100% sure.
In this instance, it's about my wife and her anxiety, rather than the car. She was really shaken up by this person.
So, as an outsider to law enforcement, I was trying to ask the local LEOs if we have any recourse at this point. Thank you.

 

[Outlaw99]

stop changing your story to coincide with your point. you wanted law enforcement opinion, and you got it but you dont like it. thats fine. you dont have to like it. but it is what it is.
what else did you leave out? you said the kid ran in front to the guy, which infers the guy is on the side...hence ran across in front of you to the guy. there is no way you can make it right for stopping. no matter how you want to reword what happened. you still havent filed a complaint, a report or anything. no damages were a result of anything that happened.

next time you want to know a LEO opinion, write ALL the facts as they happened and dont change your story of you adding this, or saying you meant to say that or i know i said this but it was a little different. at this point there is absolutely 0 recourse for anything for you.


if you ever did file a report, or complaint and things didnt turn out how you wanted, you cant go back and add or remove things to make it look like you were in the right. just so you know.

time to move along. nothing to see here.

 

[99blkzx2]

stop changing your story to coincide with your point. you wanted law enforcement opinion, and you got it but you dont like it. thats fine. you dont have to like it. but it is what it is.
what else did you leave out? you said the kid ran in front to the guy, which infers the guy is on the side...hence ran across in front of you to the guy. there is no way you can make it right for stopping. no matter how you want to reword what happened. you still havent filed a complaint, a report or anything. no damages were a result of anything that happened.

next time you want to know a LEO opinion, write ALL the facts as they happened and dont change your story of you adding this, or saying you meant to say that or i know i said this but it was a little different. at this point there is absolutely 0 recourse for anything for you.


if you ever did file a report, or complaint and things didnt turn out how you wanted, you cant go back and add or remove things to make it look like you were in the right. just so you know.

time to move along. nothing to see here.

This man then starts yelling something, so i roll my window down, and start hearing cursing and more yelling. He gets closer to my window and looks like he's ready to fight.

I am sorry, I should've mentioned that all of them were in front of the car at this point. It happened rather quickly, and as you started asking me questions, i started remembering more. Isn't how that works, detective? I might be leaving some stuff off, but as you start asking questions, I can start adding what I can remember.
I appreciate your input, but if there's nothing for you to see, then move along, please.
I'm interested in hearing from more LEOs around here. If their answers are going to mirror yours, so be it. I will beat it.

 

[Outlaw99]

lol, im not trying to be hard on you. but, just want you to know exactly where you stand.
i hope some others chime in also. its good to get different opinions.

just next time, when you see a situation that doesnt look right, especially where someone is being aggressive towards you. call the police. let them get involved. then, you can tell your story to the investigating officer(s) and they can validate any damage that may have been done to your car.

i know it pisses you off when someone is aggressive like that and you have to speed off. if makes you want to punish the guy someway. it sucks. watching him being put in handcuffs would have brought much satisfaction to me if i was in your place. i would have handed him back his lighter he threw....." here you dropped this junior"

 

[99blkzx2]

for sure. i really thought of calling them up, but we were already on our way and the day would've been ruined even further. no sense of what-ifs right now, i guess. lesson learned.

would i do any good by knocking on that officer's door and asking him about those potential neighbors? if there was any history of something similar before.

 

[Outlaw99]

what officer?

 

[crfrider16]

Sort of repeating Outlaw99's advice, but you have several problems.

1) You have no clue who the bad guy is. That's your biggest problem.
2) You didn't call the police right then and there. You are going to be very hard pressed to get the PD to follow up on an incident like this days after the fact.
3) Even if the identity of the bad guy is discovered, the police would never charge him based on a you said-he said situation. It would be up to you to file complaints in court yourself.

Consider yourself lucky that no one was hurt, and the guy didn't do damage; time to move on...

 

[Lt. ZO6]

If you felt the need to involve the police, you should have called them right away.

What you are describing is most not involving any felonious activity, so you're pretty much SOL at this point.

Next time, call right away instead of thinking about it overnight and coming on a public forum, asking for advice.

 

[99blkzx2]

Got it. Appreciate the advices!
I have another question, though. Would I have been justified to get out of the car and start a fight? Wouldn't work out too well if i had to unbuckle and attempt to open the door in real life, but you get my point.
I felt threatened enough when he approached the window. I really thought he was about to swing. I know, the best thing was to drive away like we did, however I'd like your LEO take on this.
At what point (before the physical contact is made) is self-defense justified?

 

[Lt. ZO6]

Got it. Appreciate the advices!
I have another question, though. Would I have been justified to get out of the car and start a fight?

You are never justified in starting a fight. It would also possibly be one of the dumbest moves you coulda made, especially with your wife in the car.

I felt threatened enough when he approached the window. I really thought he was about to swing.

Which is why you decided to roll the window down... :??:

At what point (before the physical contact is made) is self-defense justified?

Depends on your local laws... Does your state have a duty to retreat law? If it doesn't then the moment you can justify to a jury of your peers that you felt your life was in danger... But, being in the right doesn't always make it the smart thing to do.

 

[Outlaw99]

if you did any of that, you would be the one in jail and would soon hear...." would the defendant please rise"

its never a case of self defense. its always a case of he said she said. the other guy is never going to admit he started anything for you to defend. he will always accuse you of being the aggressor. had you stopped and got out of the car....his story would have went something like this, " look officer, this clown and his girlfriend got mad because my son ran in front of them so they had to stop. so this clown gets out and starts a fight with me, he threw a punch, so i shot him."

see how it works. then you spend 1000's on defense lawyers and who really wins in the end? imagine going through all this when all you really needed to do was call 3 simple little numbers. 9.1.1.

 

[99blkzx2]

points taken. appreciate your time!