Good Guy with a Gun #179: St. Louis, MO

A DGU buried fourth in a St. Louis crime roundup. Plus a bonus one that didn't make the calendar. | Original incident: April 28, 2024

These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version, with a bonus.

I remember being pretty proud of this one. When you look at as many posts as I do to find defensive gun use (DGU) stories, you start to realize that many of them are hidden. The stories exist, but the fact that they’re DGUs isn’t near the surface.

So it is that we find this story as the fourth of five in an article about St. Louis crime. There’s little detail, but what it tells us is enough.

Around 2 AM on a Sunday morning, an unknown man tried to break into a residence through a rear window.

The resident confronted the aggressor, who shot the resident. The resident returned fire, and the aggressor ran away; we don’t know if he were hit.

The victim went to the hospital for treatment, but fortunately there’s no mention of life-threatening injuries.

This is a life-altering story for the resident, but it barely made the news. How many Defensive Gun Uses never even reach the cops — see yesterday’s story as an example — much less see daylight in the press?

Pride goeth before a follow-up

So, yeah, I was proud. But it turns out that Sean Holt from USACarry had caught and summarized the same story around the time it happened. Hey, nice work, Sean. I owe you a beer if we bump into each other.

But I can still give a little bonus. At the same time I found Sean’s article, I also found another St. Louis DGU that didn’t make it into the calendar.

Around 4 AM on Tuesday, May 12, 2024, Andre Farrar III broke into a home on Empress Drive in St. Louis County — his second attempted break-in that morning.

Surveillance video shows him trying to get inside twice before succeeding. (He’s almost impossible to see in stills: Watch the video if you want to see him moving.) The homeowner woke to him moving things around inside and shot him.

Farrar fled but was tracked down by a police K9. He was charged with first-degree burglary, attempted burglary, and resisting arrest while still hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. He had prior convictions for burglary and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Neighbors in this quiet area were shocked by the unusual event. Brendan Cole said, “I don’t want to be in that type of situation. It’s crazy, but you have to protect your family at the end of the day.”

As always, I appreciate the human side of this story, which First Alert 4 covered thoroughly online and on-screen.

So there you go: A twofer. Now I don’t feel like I just cribbed Sean’s homework.

Sources

Both stories and Sean’s summary are linked in the text.