Armed robbery of a mother with her young daughter

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Every responsible parent has thought about how to guard their children against criminals on the street. In this article, we will go in-depth analyzing certain incident markers and best practices to increase your chances of survival in an urban environment.

A mother and young daughter walk out of the apartment building, the daughter walked in front of the mother while the mother followed a few steps behind when she noticed a young man (attacker) walking deliberately towards her, by then her daughter has made a turn outside the building and is now out of view from the mother.

The attacker is clearly holding a handgun -still in his waist- in a threatening way and approaches the mother who instinctively drops her purse feet away from the attacker. The attacker demands her jewelry, then picks up the purse and leaves the scene. The young daughter meanwhile, realizing that her mother was not following her, had turned around and sees the man robbing her mom.

The first thing we see is that the little girl walks far away from the mother, she eventually turns and disappears from the view of the mother. Exactly 10 seconds pass from the moment the daughter walks out of view, to the moment she returns into the view of the mother.

We can see in the video, that it took the mother (victim) several steps to notice that something was wrong with the guy walking towards her, and eventually, the attacker shows the handgun hidden in his waist belt in order to intimidate the victim into compliance via fear of death.

Instinctively the victim throws her purse just a few feet away, and the attacker bends over at the waist and picks it up without deviating from his deliberate walk.

Entry point opportunity for self-defense is presented here where we see the attacker in a vulnerable position bent over to pick up the purse and not looking at the woman. If she had a handgun, this could have been a good entry point to put shots on target.

Also if the woman was confident in her hand-to-hand capabilities, a well-placed kick to the face of the criminal, followed by a full mount with a subsequent submission could have work. Nevertheless, an important factor to consider is when there is someone else with us, in this case, the little girl was too young to know what to do defensively, therefore it is probably wiser to not engage hand to hand unless you are very comfortable with your groundwork submissions

The criminal shows experience in these types of robberies since he is maintaining his distance from the victim, even though some would consider -mistakenly- a woman less likely to retaliate.

The fact that she is dressed in tight pants and a top that shows her waist, clearly indicates to the criminal that she is not carrying a handgun appendix or in the 4 o’clock position, nevertheless, if she was, the moment he touches his face would have been the perfect time to draw and commence shooting while moving sideways to disorient the criminal in case he has a chance to retaliate.

An important factor to consider when making the decision to shoot in self-defense is the backdrop.

Assuming for the sake of the analysis that the female was concealed carrying appendix, If the female would have decided to shoot the criminal, the chances of shooting her daughter would have been tremendous, as we can see in the red area of the picture below.

The criminal takes the victim’s jewelry, turns around and leave the area.

One behavior to point out is that the criminal shows his experience by not underestimating the victim for being a female, as he is leaving he turns to the female to make sure she is not following, or deploying any weapon.

Key takeaways from this incident

The first thing we notice is the distance between the mother and the child when exiting the building.

This action is important and must be addressed. A child separated even a few feet away from his or her caregiver is vulnerable to being grabbed by a stranger, or hit by a car, or being used as a hostage in the demand of money, cellphone, jewelry, etc.

When traveling with someone that can not defend themselves, it is always best practice to keep them close to you.

Although the throwing of the purse away was good, to be effective it needs to be thrown far away, and into a higher location, like towards the balcony of a nearby apartment. if this is not possible, then throw it to the opposite side of where the criminal is walking, this will make the criminal have to make a decision between you or the purse, especially if you back away from the criminal creating more distance between him and the purse.

Keep your cellphone on your body, not on a purse. Criminals steal purses, and with it, your ability to call for help is gone if you keep your cellphone inside.

When robbed at gunpoint, and you are not armed, raise your hands high up in the air, this may alert anyone watching from the distance, or passing by that you are being robbed. Note: This is not advisable when robbed at knifepoint unless you are distant from the edged weapon, your hands in front of you may help up fend off a knife thrust that otherwise would have caught you in the stomach or neck.

Even though is an elemental concept, an exercise I used with my students is to have them visualize particular scenarios, and run them in their mind so they can create a “dry fire” effect and formulate corrections they would apply in real events, if it happens to them.

As always, “Live rad and make every day a training day”©

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