I think I handled this right...

[Alex (UK)]

I was just walking home with my girlfriend Sarah the other night. This girl (about 30) comes out of some flats by the road in her nightclothes, she said her boyfriend was going crazy in her flat and her child was in there, she was a bit concerned obviously.

Me and Sarah both called the police on our mobiles, I got through first and explained what was happening, they asked to talk to the lady. I handed her my phone and all of a sudden she runs. I thought she was stealing my phone so I followed, but she said "he's coming he's coming".

This huge black guy runs past me, he's chasing her, and I started chasing him.
He soon catches up with her and I was right behind them. He grabbed her arm and starts pulling her back to the flat. I was right behind them, he turned around every few feet, telling me to f**k off, all the stuff you'd expect. First of all I said "Where's my phone?" just trying to engage the guy a little. He hands it to me and carries on.

He then started rumaging through one of those plastic rubbish bins behind the flats looking for something to hit me with but he gave up. I was just standing there. Obviously alarmed but I couldn't exactly just leave this girl.

They make it into the flat and he slams the door, he's shouting at me to f**k off, he'd better not find me here when he comes out etc.

I can't get in the door, so I head back out to the street to find Sarah. About a minute later he comes out with a hammer, waving it at me, saying if I don't f**k off he's gonna "show me something".

At this point I actually started laughing. I just went " yeah, sure, whatever". He wasn't going to do anything,(I believe) he was just trying to be scary. He was mumbling a lot so I said "What? Huh?" cupping my hand to my ear, which annoyed him a lot but hey.

So he heads back into the flats. I had seen they which flat they went into as the stairs are glass fronted to the outside. I walked around the corner, dialling the police again. As I'm getting through, I see a couple of police cars have pulled up around the corner, so I hang up. At this point Sarah phones my mobile, saying the police are there. There are around 5 of them, all looking around the grounds of the block of flats. I explained what happened, we gave our details, and scoot. They wanted to know, did I want to pursue the hammer threat, but I said, not really. I just wanted to make sure the girl and her kid were ok.

So off we went.

If the guy had charged me with his hammer I'd have just run I guess. Luckily I didn't have to find out.

[Stickgrappler]

woof:

glad to hear you and your GF are safe.  domestic squabbles are hard to deal with. usually the wife/GF will side with her husband/BF if they see them being beaten up despite them asking for help.

very tough situation. it could've gone done much worse for you. not sure if you were aware of how bad it could've really been. although you had the right intentions of helping someone you perceived to be in need, you do not know the whole situation. it could've been a setup or it could've been domestic violence. regardless, glad to hear you and your GF are safe.

if it was me, i would've called the police and despite me wanting to stay and help the girl, i would've left. it would not help my family for me to end up hurt. despite this sounding mean and uncaring but it's not, in today's society, sometimes it is in your best interest not to get personally/physically involved. calling the police is the best option IMO.

[Alex]

Interesting.

I know exactly what you mean... I had no intention of fighting the guy. I guess I figured if he had been about to rip into the girl, I might discourage that by my prescence at least. Actually I don't know what I was thinking (lol)



On a side note... I've done very little sparring or free flow drills, anything like that, I'm really a total beginner in Kali. Having this guy standing right in front of me really brought it home how gosh darn good top fighters must be. The first time this guy turned around my only thought was "I have NO IDEA what you might be about to do" - On two counts... Here's a guy who's gonna come at me in a totally unpredictable way, and I also have no clue what his intention is... whether he's gonna actually try to kill me or what.

I just watched the Dogbrothers Promo clip again, the way you guys hold your technique together under pressure blows my mind.

"Woof!"

[Stickgrappler]

woof:

just for the record, i am not a DB.

but it takes practice. different people have different ways to train and to deal with the adrenaline dump and the "fear".

[Crafty_Dog]

Woof Alex:

 A big part of why I got involved in martial arts was because of situations where I grew up in NYC where bystanders looked the other way.  In addition to some personal experiences a famous case, the Kitty Genovese case, moved me greatly.

  My sense of it is that you handled it very well.  Domestic situations are the most dangerous category for police to handle and much more so for us.  They are very, very hard to read.  I once had an analogous situation on the streets of Philadelphia where I was tempted to intervene but instead found a pay phone (this was in the early 1970s) and called the police.  When they arrived it became apparent that the woman was angry/distraught and not in danger from the man at all.

You called the police, did not meddle in what you did not know, and by your presence served to strongly decrease the chance of things getting out of hand.  

Well done.

Woof,
Crafty Dog

[Anonymous]

Woof

Thanks Guro Crafty I guess that's what I wanted to hear

Alex