God created man, but it’s Sam Colt’s six-shooter that made them equal, as the saying goes, and the truth of that pithy statement was proven yet again in Houston in late-June. There, an armed pregnant woman, one of the more vulnerable sorts of people, was able to successfully defend herself from two young men, both of whom were armed with firearms, thanks to her own pistol.
The pregnant woman and her husband, both of whom were carrying pistols, were attacked by the robbers outside of an All Season Food Store on the night of Tuesday, June 27. That’s when the robbers attacked. One pistol-whipped the husband, hitting him in the head and knocking him to the ground.
The alleged armed robber, later identified as Mario Duque, then taunted the prostrate husband, asking him if he wanted to die. That’s when the man’s wife sprung into action and opened fire on Duque.
She told CW39 that she shot Duque three times with her handgun and he then fell on the ground and started begging for his life. The pregnant woman did the noble, and legal, thing, holding him at gunpoint until the police arrived instead of finishing him off.
Watch the CCTV video of the incident here:
This is why concealed carry is such an important Constitutional right💥
Pregnant woman in Texas is approached by an armed robber
He pistol whips the man she’s with, she shoots him multiple times, and the innocent live to see another day
Wow!
pic.twitter.com/lqWJQue0bx— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) June 29, 2023
The Houston Police tweeted out a picture of the scene of the attack and noted that the police were told the shot male had been shot while attempting to commit a robbery:
North officers are at a shooting scene 8600 Fulton. Adult male was transported and is expected to survive. Initial reports are the male was shot while committing a robbery. 202 pic.twitter.com/BRYnCiDGjd
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) June 28, 2023
Click2Houston noted that the husband arrived armed because the woman called him, worried that she would be robbed. So he showed up armed and the two of them attempted to proceed into the store, at which point the robbery attempt and shooting began.
That outlet also noted that Duque had an accomplice who was also carrying a pistol and who has not yet been identified. That second, armed suspect apparently fled in a green Dodge Charger after Duque was shot. Duque is expected to survive.
The incident should be a clean shoot for the woman, eight months pregnant at the time the shooting occurred. Under Texas Penal Code Sec. 9.31, “a person is justified in using force against another when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect the actor against the other’s use or attempted use of unlawful force.”
The section adds that it is acceptable to use deadly force to defend against robbery if the person using the deadly force to defend against the robbery both “did not provoke the person against whom the force was used” and “was not otherwise engaged in criminal activity, other than a Class C misdemeanor that is a violation of a law or ordinance regulating traffic at the time the force was used.” There is no duty to retreat under Texas law.
So, as the woman’s husband had been pistol-whipped and might well have been killed by Duque, and she was not committing any sort of misdemeanor or felony by going to buy groceries, her use of deadly force appears to have been legal.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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