11 comments

  1. To have reinforced the door was something long on my honey-do list that never got honey-done — I reckon we all have some things like that in our lives.

    Yes, I do wonder how things might have been different, and it's possible things could have been even worse. It's all armchair quarterbacking at this point.

    Either way, the reason I am sharing my story is precisely so people can learn from it: the good, the bad, everything. If one thing people take from it is going to Home Depot this weekend and getting their doors and windows reinforced, great — that means some good, some positive has come from this, and perhaps future lives can be saved.

    Thank you for reading, Raven.

    – John "Hsoi" Daub

  2. John,
    Thanks for sharing your sobering account. I had always thought of house hardening as protecting the occupants, never occurred to me till now it also protects the potential intruder.
    BTW, there is a brief but interesting discussion on doors etc in the comments to one of peters recent threads here. Might be of interest.

  3. I find it interesting that he'd been collected by police after banging on other doors. Sooner or later he was going to find a breakable one with someone behind it, and then someone was going to get hurt. Raven's hypothetical "saved his life" is just a stay of execution if the behavior were to continue. We tend to think nothing of the near misses, because nothing comes of them, but those should've been a wake-up call to everyone involved. Are we really looking at an isolated tragedy, or just a chronic russian roulette player who finally found the loaded chamber?

  4. If you read deeper, you will find that the autistic main was failed by his caretakers. They weren't managing the meds, and were undertrained. The agency surrendered (probably to avoid more scrutiny) their license for the group home. Both are victims in this.

    John Daub was one of the instructors at a defensive handgun class my wife and I took. Really nice guy, and a patient instructor. A shame this happened to him.

  5. Scary story – thank you for sharing it with us Mr. Daub.

    Home invasions / burglary were a concern when we built our home due to the location, so I designed it with extra security in mind from the beginning. Commercial heavy steel doors and frames, grouted into place into the concrete block home frame. It would take a very determined persons who likely needs tools to open that forcibly.

    I have an autistic son who is nearly an adult. He does not require any medications to maintain mental awareness. He does get stubborn about maintaining his routine but not at all to the point of becoming violent – just crosses his arms and repeats his desire for things to go 'his way'.

    To me, your actions described seem justified and I hope you and all others concerned reconcile to what occurred.

  6. What I understood is that Mr.Daub spent more time into gym than chatting with his wife…
    Also, that experienced firearms trainer, who is experienced with empty-hand martial arts can't keep calm and shoot to death, several times btw, gentle autistic giant.
    Question which arise is : experienced with what ? With such a experience, here in the middle East, you'll be down within minutes.

    Shame on you, people. Shame on all of you supporting this kind of behavior.
    Only god gives a life and takes it away ! Did you forgot that ?
    And Mr.Grant, being a god's servant, a chaplain support this too by spreading at his blog, otherwise well balanced ?!?

    Reading this story and above comments it looks like that you believe that Jesus Christ must take the holy lance and start fight with roman soldier !
    Forget about peace and sacrifice – fight for your property !
    No wonder to me, being familiar how USA was formed and established, over the bones of natives.

  7. I don't know who you are, anon, but you need to read that article again. Your "gentle autistic giant" broke down his door! Never having met the man before, there was no way to tell if this invader was high, or insane. People like that are STRONG, and physically engaging with them can be fatal.

    If you have a family, think about you would do if this happened to you.

    Antibubba

  8. I worked 29 years with mentally handicapped people, including austuic ones. I was injured three times as the result of their violent behavior episodes. This unfortunate man may have been a "gentle giant" to some but a client with serious, violent behaviors is a danger to everyone when those behaviors surface.

  9. Anon #1: It is obvious you have never interacted with an agitated person who is profoundly disabled or on drugs. After showing enough determination to break down a door then ignoring an obvious verbal threat there is NO way I would close to grappling distance given an alternative. The man presented a lethal threat, and that's why Mr. Daub was No-billed….

    Regarding the founding of the USA. Name me ANY country not founded on the bones of the previous inhabitants.

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