Good Guy with a Gun #210: Reno, NV
He invited a homeless man into his home. The police ruled the homeless man's shooting of him self-defense. | Original incident: May 29, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is significantly updated from the calendar version.
This story seems pretty typical at first glance, but I found something that casts it into a weird light.
Let’s start with what all the news sources say:
At 2:48 PM in northwest Reno, NV, a man found himself in an altercation on Comstock Drive that led him to shoot his attacker, who later died in a local hospital.
The shooter stayed put and cooperated fully with Reno police.
After investigation, the robbery/homicide unit deemed the act self-defense, clearing the shooter of charges.
As stories go, the details are thin, but the result seems clear: It’s a self-defense shooting, a defensive gun use. As I often say, the Good Guy with a Gun isn’t a myth — he’s just under-documented.
But there’s also an article in the Yeshiva World News, describing a report from B’Chadrei Chareidim, that sheds additional light on the story. These are both mainstream news outlets for ultra-Orthodox Jews: The former is English-language in the US, and the latter is Hebrew-language in Israel.
They name the aggressor as an Israeli Jew named Yeshayahu Dayan1, and say that he had invited a homeless man to live in his own house. There were — as one might expect! — some issues with that arrangement, and Dayan asked the homeless man to leave. The homeless man refused, the two got into a fight, and the homeless man shot Dayan.
If the Yeshiva World News account is accurate, a man was shot in his own home (or on his own property) by a homeless man that he had invited in, and the shooting was in self-defense.
Crikey.
I have to agree with the commenter who said, “People have to understand that many of the homeless are people that have mental and emotional issues and as much as you’d like to help them you can’t place your family in danger just to help them.”
I also have to have some faith in the police, who investigated and said that the homeless person shot the resident in self-defense. However things might have gotten out of control, it sounds like Dayan didn’t handle it in a way that led to a good result.
Dayan’s family subsequently arranged for the body to be repatriated to Israel for the funeral rites.
Sources
Local news
All of the news sources are roughly the same: KOLO 8, My News 4, 2 News Nevada, and the Reno Gazette Journal.
2A and specialist sources
The Yeshiva World News article includes the Hebrew-language death notice.
Brandon Curtis covered the incident for Concealed Nation.
Claude AI tells me that this reads as follows:
Headline: “Death has come up through our window,” which is a biblical phrase from Jeremiah 9:20.
Body: “With shock and deep sorrow we announce the passing of our son, our brother, a true speaker from the heart, a man of peace and goodness, deeply knowledgeable in Torah and scholarship, who was found blameless in his speech and in his conduct, good of heart and generous, one who gave much to everyone in need, a pursuer of peace who loved his fellow creatures, careful and diligent in honoring parents.”
Large text: “The young man Yeshaya Dayan, of blessed memory.”
The remainder are details such as the parents’ names, funeral arrangements, and so on.