Good Guy with a Gun #258: Indianapolis, IN
Carrying a gun doesn't make you a good guy with a gun. | Original incident: July 16, 2024
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. Today’s post is somewhat updated from the calendar version.
This one comes with video, so nobody has to take anybody’s word for it.
A black Honda blocked a white Chevy pickup on Indy’s southeast side, and the Honda’s driver didn’t stay in his seat. He got out with a gun already in his hand, walked up to the pickup’s window, and started yelling.
He punched the door — gun still in his hand — then switched it to his other hand and raised the one that was free. The driver of the truck shot him.
The man on the ground was Gavin Dasaur, 29. He’d been married two and a half weeks. Officers found him in the road, and he was pronounced dead at the hospital soon after.
The pickup driver stayed at the scene, cooperated, got detained and questioned, and was released. Detectives said at the time that it might have been self-defense, and defense attorneys who reviewed the tape came away agreeing.
Dasaur’s widow called it murder, but there’s no sign that anyone in the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office agrees.
It was, however, entirely avoidable and tragic. Keep your cool when carrying.
Sources
There are a lot of sources for this story.
WTHR 13 did a good job here, with direct IMPD sourcing, the widow’s on-record quote, attorney Daniel Vaughn’s video breakdown, and 2:28 of airtime.
Other sources include Fox59, WRTV, and the NYPost.
2A / specialist press
Brandon Curtis covered the story at Concealed Nation, giving the deceased aggressor a justified dressing-down for not understanding the need to de-escalate while carrying a gun.
Attorneys On Retainer gave an independent frame-by-frame legal breakdown, separate from WTHR’s own attorney interview.
Concealed Carry Classes of Denver isn’t press, but they posted a noteworthy article about this incident sixteen months later, and covered (among many other things) why the fact that charges weren’t filed only kinda/sorta means the incident is over.