Ving Chun Kuen kung fu / Self-defence

The Basement

Dunedin, New Zealand

Est. 2010

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Self-defence in the News - No. 122

Boy uses slingshot to save his sister from an attacker

Jonathan Edwards

20 May 2023

Owen Burns with his parents after the kidnapping attempt of his sister.

(STEVE SCHULWITZ/AP)

Owen Burns assumed his little sister was goofing off with her friends in the backyard when he heard her screaming, something he found annoying.

 

But when the 13-year-old looked out his bedroom window moments later, he saw a stranger holding a hand over his 8-year-old sister’s mouth as he tried to drag her into the nearby woods.

 

Owen turned to his bed and grabbed his slingshot and any ad hoc ammunition he could find: a marble and a rock, as it turned out.

 

From his bedroom, he loaded the marble first, pulled back the slingshot’s yellow, plastic tubing, aimed out his open window at the stranger some 60m away and let go.

 

The shot hit him – right between the eyes. Then Owen loaded the rock and fired again – another hit, this time to the chest.

 

“He was swearing. He was cussing,” Owen told The Washington Post.

 

It was the start of a bizarre encounter on May 10 outside Owen’s house in Alpena Township, Michigan, where attempted kidnappings “don’t really happen,” according to Maggie Burns, the children’s mother.

 

By day’s end, Owen’s sister would be safe, if traumatised, Owen would be hailed a hero with impressive aim and a 17-year-old local would be behind bars, accused of trying to abduct an 8-year-old from her backyard.

 

Police did not identify the 17-year-old in its news release but said he’s being charged as an adult. Law enforcement praised Owen for neutralising a scary situation that could have turned into a tragedy.

 

“He really is the one that ... I believe saved his sister’s either life or from something seriously bad happening to her,” Lieutenant John Grimshaw said at a news conference, calling Owen’s actions “extraordinary”.

 

“He should be commended for it,” he added.

 

Owen’s slingshot is nothing fancy. His mother bought it for him on clearance for US$3 a couple years ago, he told The Post. Since then, he’s gone out in the backyard from time to time to do some target practice using old orange juice cans.

 

He wasn’t using it on the afternoon of May 10, at least not at first. Instead, he was just settling in to Call of Duty: Black Ops II on his PlayStation 3 after getting home from school.

 

His sister was hunting for mushrooms in the backyard, which backs up into some woods. They were alone, having arrived home before their parents, which was unusual.

 

That’s when the 17-year-old emerged from the woods and tried to snatch Owen’s 8-year-old sister, who screamed and struggled, state police said in a news release. When Owen first saw what was happening, he said, a thought flashed through his mind: If this stranger kidnapped his sister, he might turn her into a sex slave or kill her.

 

As Grimshaw later recounted, the suspect “came from behind her, grabbed her like you see in the movies – hand over the mouth, arm around the waist – and was attempting to pull her into the woods”.

 

That’s when Owen reached for the slingshot and hit him twice. Having freed herself, his sister came inside, crying, telling her brother she had almost been killed.

 

Owen roared out of the house, yelling and cursing while the guy started to take off. As the stranger kept running, Owen grabbed a baseball and hurled it at him, missing just over his shoulder.

 

Then, Owen returned to his trusty slingshot, stretching the sling back as he prepared to fire a third shot. But the plastic band broke, causing Owen to smack himself in the face with his hand.

 

The stranger got away – but not with his sister.

 

The siblings called their mother, who had stopped to help a family member on the way home from work. Her children were hysterical and incoherent, but she could make out the word “kidnapped”. Racing home, she called the police.

 

“I was in shock for a few days,” Maggie said.

 

Police said they found the 17-year-old suspect hiding at a nearby gas station. He was charged with attempted kidnapping, attempted felony assault, and misdemeanour assault and battery.

 

“He had obvious signs of an injury consistent with those that would have been sustained from the slingshot strikes to his head and chest,” police said in a news release.

 

Maggie said that, at first, she didn’t believe her son had sniped a stranger from some 60m away. She thought he was talking big.

 

Then, police informed her of the 17-year-old’s telltale injuries. They said that, as investigators interviewed the suspect, the marble-induced goose egg on his head kept growing.

 

“You said I always lie!” Owen told his mother.

 

“I just couldn’t believe it,” she responded. “It just didn't sound real, until there was proof. It sounds like something you would see in the movies.”

 

“Mum,” Owen said, “stuff in the movies can and do happen in real life.”

Self-defence in the News - No. 121

Piha locals pin burglar to ground after woman assaulted

Two Piha locals held the teen down before the authorities arrived 

after he allegedly assaulted an elderly lady.

Piha locals have stepped in to catch a burglar after he allegedly assaulted an elderly woman in her home.

 

The incident on Glenesk Rd on Saturday night has left residents in the community on Auckland’s west coast concerned for their safety as they continue to rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle.

 

A police spokesperson said they were notified of an attempted burglary and an assault on Glenesk Rd at 8.05pm.

 

A 19-year-old is due to appear in the Waitakere District Court on Thursday on charges of assault and burglary.

 

Police said no “significant injuries” appeared to have been reported from the assault. Residents on a local community page said the victim was an elderly woman.

 

The 19-year-old, according to locals, was reportedly part of a group staying at an Air BnB nearby who had attempted to break into several other properties before entering the woman’s home.

 

The residents also shared on Facebook that two neighbours took down the teen, pinning him to the ground for 25 minutes before police could arrive and arrest him.

 

“Everyone’s nerves are raw,” a post to Facebook by a concerned local read. “And the lowest bottom feeders are always prepared to take advantage of an opportunity.”

 

They added businesses in Piha were struggling after the cyclone destroyed or damaged several homes and temporarily cut-off the area from the rest of Auckland by road.

 

“We all miss our friends and family coming out to see us. But red and yellow stickered homeowners have their homes and possessions vulnerable until decisions are made.”

 

The incident follows fierce opposition from residents in Muriwai, another cyclone-battered coastal community, which led Auckland Council to backtrack on a decision to lift cordons, which would have exposed red-stickered houses to potential looters.

 

Many Muriwai residents were distraught at the initial decision to lift hard street cordons in Muriwai today and allow street access to the general public to more than 100 red-stickered and still deserted houses.

 

Muriwai was one of the worst-hit suburbs in the Auckland region from Cyclone Gabrielle’s onslaught. A landslide in the early hours of Monday, February 13, killed two volunteer firefighters there.

 

All major roads into the community had been blocked with cordons since then, but on Friday afternoon Auckland Council announced several roads would abruptly be reopened today.

 

After the Herald’s questions to Auckland Council on Saturday about the community objection to the cordons being lifted, the decision was reversed.

Self-defence in the News - No. 120

Liquor Store Owner Shoots Armed Robber With Shotgun

Liquor Store Owner Shoots Armed Robber With Shotgun - YouTube

Ben

 

Kung-fu instructor Ben Goulding called into The Basement for a cup of tea and some training. Great to see you, brother!

Self-defence in the News - No. 119

Perth woman uses army self-defence to fight off teens

Oct 08, 2022

Di, a 70-year-old woman from Perth was ambushed by teenagers who wanted her cigarettes.

A 70-year-old woman has fought off two would-be thieves after they ambushed her for cigarettes as she sat alone on the verandah of her home in Australia.

 

"They went, 'if you don't give it to us we're going to hurt you'," Di told 9News in Perth.

 

The retiree, who relies on a walking frame, was punched in the face but she managed to land two blows of her own.

 

When she refused to hand over the cigarettes, one of the teenagers lunged.

 

Di, a former clinical nurse, leapt into action, using self-defence she learnt in the army.

 

"The next thing I knew I got punched in the face and that came so quick I didn't have a chance to do anything," the 70-year-old said.

 

"But the second one I was ready for and I blocked that.

 

She managed to wind her attacker before taking on his accomplice.

 

"The other one came at me and he had his arms up covering his torso so I couldn't do the same thing and I just kicked out and hit him hard in the scrotum."

 

Battered and bruised, the duo ran away along Throssell Street but in the dark, CCTV didn't manage to capture the pair as they fled.

 

"I didn't expect I would do anything. It absolutely shocked me when I got so enraged and thought I'm not standing for this."

 

After the pair left, an exhausted Di fell, hitting her head on the verandah, where she lay unconscious before crawling to her mobile phone and calling for help.

 

The incident, which left Di's face bruised and swollen, happened just after 11pm on Wednesday (local time).

 

"It was only six cigarettes and the police said to me, 'you should of just given it to them and they would have gone away', but that wasn't the point," she said.

 

Even as Australian detectives continue to hunt the teens, the retiree says she refuses to live in fear.

Di was attacked by two teenage boys, but she managed to land a few blows of her own.

Self-defence in the News - No. 118

Teenage Girl Escapes Abductor

Monday, 7 November 2022

The Selwyn Fireworks Spectacular event at Foster park. Photo: Selwyn Fireworks Spectacular

With a crowd of thousands, plenty of security and police, a Christchurch dad had no doubts his daughter would be safe attending a packed-out Guy Fawkes event and he certainly didn’t expect her to nearly be abducted from it.

The dad, who media have agreed has not to name, said a man approached his 14-year-old daughter at the Selwyn Fireworks Spectacular in Foster Park on Saturday night.

 

“[She] bent down to tie up her shoe lace and as she stood up, she felt someone tug her arm and initially thought it was one of her friends,” he said.

 

“When she looked up and realised it wasn’t one of her friends she pulled her arm away and he grabbed her arm again and started to walk off with her... forcefully.”

 

The girl told her family and police that the man was walking away with her towards the exit for around six seconds and she went into panic mode, experiencing blurriness and echoing.

 

In a final yank, she managed to pull away from the man and screamed as she ran to the business tents.

 

People at the tents calmed her down and then her friends and their family members took her to report the incident to police on site.

 

The dad said he received a phone call from police and was told to meet them and his daughter at the Rolleston police station where they made official statements.

 

“The police were amazing. They were really supportive, they were really friendly, they looked after her because she was quite shaken and hysterical and scared,” he said.

 

“For me, it was the brazenness of it. There was 14,000 people there and there was police and security and whoever it was still tried to do what they did, that was the most shocking thing.”

 

A police spokesperson confirmed they received a report about the incident and are making inquiries.

 

Now the dad has been further shocked after posting details about the incident to a local Facebook community page and getting responses from others who have recently faced a similar situation.

 

“If this was an isolated incident, you think, well okay someone tried something stupid but it’s more worrying that more and more people are now commenting on it saying ‘I wonder if this is the same guy that tried this with my son or my daughter within the last month or so’ – that’s a bit more worrying for me,” he said.

 

He said he wants people to be aware that situations that might look like a father trying to get his adolescent to come home could in fact be an abduction, but didn’t blame anyone for not stepping in to help the girl.

 

“Somebody somewhere must have seen something and thought ‘it’s nothing, I’m not going to get involved when actually it could have been a lot worse’,” he said.

 

“I’ve been in that situation before where I’ve thought it’s not my business.”

 

When approached by the Herald, President of the Selwyn Fireworks Spectacular committee Chris O’Brien said he was not aware the incident had occurred.

 

O’Brien said security had been increased by 20 per cent compared with 2020′s event and that they work closely with emergency services to ensure a safe event.

 

He said the committee will contact police about the incident and will identify areas for prevention for the 2023 event.

 

-By Caitlan Johnston

Self-defence in the News - No. 117

22-year-old man doing his shopping shoots and kills Indiana mall gunman

 Police laud actions of man who killed Indiana mall attacker

 

By ARLEIGH RODGERS and RICK CALLAHAN

 

19 July 2022

The image provided on Monday, July 18, 2022 by the Greenwood Police Department shows Jonathan Douglas Sapirman, 20, who police say fatally shot two people, Sunday, July 17, after he opened fire with a rifle in a food court and before an armed civilian shot and killed him at the Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Ind. (AP Photo/Greenwood Police Department via AP)

 

GREENWOOD, Ind. (AP) — A 20-year-old man likely assembled a rifle in the bathroom of a suburban Indianapolis shopping mall before shooting five people in the food court, killing three of them before an armed shopper fatally shot him, authorities said Monday. 

Jonathan Sapirman of Greenwood apparently was facing eviction before he opened fire at the Greenwood Park Mall shortly before it closed Sunday evening, the city’s police chief, James Ison, said at a news conference. 

Sapirman continued shooting people until he was shot and killed by 22-year-old Elisjsha Dicken, of Seymour, a city about 45 miles (72 kilometers) south of Greenwood, who was shopping with his girlfriend, Ison said, calling Dicken’s quick action “nothing short of heroic.” 

“Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen,” said the chief, noting that authorities were still trying to determine a motive for the attack. 

The Johnson County and Marion County coroners’ offices identified the slain victims as a married Indianapolis couple — Pedro Pineda, 56, and Rosa Mirian Rivera de Pineda, 37 — and Victor Gomez, 30, also of Indianapolis. A woman and a 12-year-old girl who was hit by shrapnel were wounded in the attack, police said. 

Although authorities said Dicken was legally armed, the mall prohibits people from carrying weapons on its property. The mall issued a statement Monday saying it grieves for the victims and praising Dicken’s “heroic actions.” It didn’t mention its no-weapons policy and its operator, the Simon Property Group, didn’t respond to a request for comment. 

As of July 1, Indiana law allows anyone age 18 or older to carry a handgun in public except for those prohibited for reasons such as having a felony conviction, facing a restraining order or having a dangerous mental illness as determined by a court. Indiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature retained provisions in the law that allow private property owners to prohibit firearms. 

The attack Sunday was the latest in a string of mass shootings in the U.S. Schools, churches, grocery stores and a July Fourth parade near Chicago have all become killing grounds in recent months, though the country’s staggering murder rate can often be seen more clearly in individual killings that rarely make major headlines. 

Authorities said Sunday that four of the victims were female and one was male, but they corrected that Monday to two males and three females. 

Ison said Sapirman entered the mall and walked into a bathroom, where he spent about an hour before he emerged and opened fire. He said investigators believe Sapirman spent that time preparing and possibly assembling a disassembled rifle that he had brought in his backpack. He ended up firing 24 rounds within [fifteen seconds]. 

Ison said Sapirman used an AR-15-style rifle during the shooting and that investigators found another one in the bathroom. They also found a handgun on Sapirman, who was wearing a waistband holster and had several magazines that contained more than 100 rounds of ammunition. 

Although police don’t know a motive for the attack, Sapirman’s relatives told investigators that he recently received notice that he was being evicted from his apartment, though Ison said authorities were still trying to confirm that. Relatives also said Sapirman resigned from a warehouse job in May, he said. 

“Right now we have no motive. His family members that we spoke to, they were just as surprised as everyone else was. They said there were no indicators that he was violent or unstable,” Ison said. 

The chief said Dicken fired 10 rounds from his handgun, and that as he fired, Sapirman “attempted to retreat back into the restroom and failed, and fell to the ground after being shot.” 

“He engaged the gunman from quite a distance with a handgun and was very proficient in that, very tactically sound. And as he moved to close in on the suspect, he was also motioning for people to exit behind him,” Ison said of Dicken. 

Sapirman had a juvenile record, including for a fight at school and an incident where he ran away from home, but he had no criminal record as an adult, the chief said. 

He said relatives told investigators that Sapirman has been practicing shooting at a gun range, and that records obtained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirmed he had frequented the range and bought ammunition there over the past two years. 

Ison said officers recovered a cellphone from a toilet in the mall bathroom that they believe Sapirman placed there. At Sapirman’s apartment, they found a laptop and can of butane inside the oven, which was on and set to a high temperature, the chief said without elaborating. 

The cellphone and the laptop, which was damaged by the oven’s heat, will be analyzed by the FBI, and that “we are very curious to have those analyzed,” he said. 

Mark Myers, the mayor of Greenwood, a city of roughly 60,000 people just south of Indianapolis, said the grieving community is shocked to be the scene of a mass shooting. 

“I don’t want to be among the mayors that has to share these statements. But sadly, I am,” he said. “I grieve for these senseless killings, and I ache for the scars that are left behind on the victims and on our community.”

A customer checks a door on the closed Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood, Ind., Monday, July 18, 2022. The mall was closed Monday after police say three people were fatally shot and two were injured, including a 12-year-old girl, after a man with a rifle opened fire in a food court and an armed civilian shot and killed him. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Elisjsha Dicken

Self-defence in the News - No. 116

 Dog walker fends off knife-wielding robber

A man was walking his dog along Hutt River when another dog walker pulled out a small knife.

Sophie Cornish 

Jul 13 2022

 

A dog walker has fended off another dog walker who attempted to rob him at knifepoint beside the Hutt River. 

The man was walking his dog along the river about 12.30pm on Wednesday when another dog walker pulled out a small knife and demanded he empty his pockets. 

The victim then kicked the knife from the man’s hands, kicked him in the groin and left the scene. 

“Police are currently doing area inquiries for the offender with the knife,” a police spokesperson said.

Self-defence in the News - No. 115

Farmer pulls gun on boy racers

Another farmer let down by authorities 

Kerre Woodham 

Wed, 6 Jul 2022

 

Another farmer has appeared in court after being let down by police and authorities. 

This time it's a Taranaki farmer who fired a shotgun as he ran down his driveway towards a group of boy racers who had parked near his paddock and were allegedly throwing bottles at his bull. 

On first hearing, you might think that's a bit of an overreaction. I mean, you don't want a bunch of over-excited young people aggravating your stock sure, but doesn't really warrant bringing out the hidden weaponry in terms of the shotgun until you hear that it wasn't the first time. 

There had been groups of oiks gathered outside his property for more than 10 years.  For a decade boy racers have plagued the Taranaki district.  And despite a couple of deaths, injuries, numerous court cases, damaged police vehicles and a bylaw change, there has been no relief for the many law-abiding citizens who are fed up with the arrogance and the attitude from a generation of boy racers. 

There are so many, many examples over the last 20 years of people taking the law into their own hands. It's a sign that people are fed up with being left defenceless. 

Either because they live remotely and there simply aren't the resources available from the authorities. I'm sure farming communities have the resources available, but then that's what gets you into trouble. 

I don't want it to go to a state where your law reigns supreme because you might think differently to me, you might have a different ideas of what is right and just than I do. 

We're all going to have a different idea, that’s why we have common law. 

But when it's not being applied, when people feel let down, when people are basically left to their own devices in matters of life and death. 

Not just property, but in life and death, then this is going to be the outcome.  And that's not a failing of the individuals involved. That is a failing on the police and the authorities.