You know it truly amazes me that on a forum dedicated to gun owners rights whenever a thread like this pops up there is always a good number of people saying that the person who acted in self defense did something wrong or should not have employed a firearm.
As a LEO I can assure you that if someone is coming at me with a tire iron in what is clearly a threatening manner either on or off duty they are going to get drawn down on, and they are not going to get a warning first. You can talk all you want after you have the threat covered or the situation is diffused.
As far as calling the police and being the "complainant" that doesn't hold the magic status that some here seem to think. Just because someone calls 911 does not mean I take their word automatically over the other party. There have been numerous times when I have left a call with someone in the back seat of my patrol car whining "but I'm the one that called you!!" The fact of the matter is that a lot of people who call the police do so out of selfish motivation to use law enforcement as an agent against someone they don't like.
Now that being said I'm not saying not to call, that decision is yours. I will tell you this in the majority of situations like this the person who calls doesn't get a license plate, or gives the wrong one and doesn't stick around. Most of these types of calls aren't even assigned to a unit and are simply "BOLO'd" over the radio in case anyone is in the area and sees it.
If either of you did call and when I got there all parties were still present I would do a complete investigation and speak with all parties involved. The first thing that would speak volumes to me would be that both parties, which inevitably claim to be the victim, stayed in proximity to each other after the potential dangerous incident. In your situation each of you would have several witnesses that would likely be backing up both of your stories. At that point it becomes a case of you both go to jail or nobody goes to jail if I can't find any evidence other than witness statements. You can imagine what 99% of the people in that situation choose.
As for the other party calling and you going to jail I have only encountered that situation ONE time in my career. I was very unhappy with the whole thing as the "victim" is/was a total dirtbag that I have dealt with numerous times and is a known criminal and the "suspect" was his elderly neighbor that had gotten fed up with said dirtbag making all kinds of noise and always fighting with his wife. The dirtbag said the neighbor pulled a gun on him from across the fence after telling him to shut up and stop making noise. The dirtbag's wife confirmed his story, and he was able to describe the neighbor's gun that he still had on his person when I arrived there. Try as I could I wasn't able to talk the dirtbag out of pressing charges against the old man and even the Judge I called was dismayed that he had to issue a warrant.
The happy ending to the story was that the dirtbag moved off to somewhere unknown and when it came time for the charges to be heard myself and the other Deputy on the scene had the prosecutor drop the charges.
Bottom line is this, if you are threatened and you need to draw your gun that is what it's there for. Use your head and be smart and you will make it out alright.
As a LEO I can assure you that if someone is coming at me with a tire iron in what is clearly a threatening manner either on or off duty they are going to get drawn down on, and they are not going to get a warning first. You can talk all you want after you have the threat covered or the situation is diffused.
As far as calling the police and being the "complainant" that doesn't hold the magic status that some here seem to think. Just because someone calls 911 does not mean I take their word automatically over the other party. There have been numerous times when I have left a call with someone in the back seat of my patrol car whining "but I'm the one that called you!!" The fact of the matter is that a lot of people who call the police do so out of selfish motivation to use law enforcement as an agent against someone they don't like.
Now that being said I'm not saying not to call, that decision is yours. I will tell you this in the majority of situations like this the person who calls doesn't get a license plate, or gives the wrong one and doesn't stick around. Most of these types of calls aren't even assigned to a unit and are simply "BOLO'd" over the radio in case anyone is in the area and sees it.
If either of you did call and when I got there all parties were still present I would do a complete investigation and speak with all parties involved. The first thing that would speak volumes to me would be that both parties, which inevitably claim to be the victim, stayed in proximity to each other after the potential dangerous incident. In your situation each of you would have several witnesses that would likely be backing up both of your stories. At that point it becomes a case of you both go to jail or nobody goes to jail if I can't find any evidence other than witness statements. You can imagine what 99% of the people in that situation choose.
As for the other party calling and you going to jail I have only encountered that situation ONE time in my career. I was very unhappy with the whole thing as the "victim" is/was a total dirtbag that I have dealt with numerous times and is a known criminal and the "suspect" was his elderly neighbor that had gotten fed up with said dirtbag making all kinds of noise and always fighting with his wife. The dirtbag said the neighbor pulled a gun on him from across the fence after telling him to shut up and stop making noise. The dirtbag's wife confirmed his story, and he was able to describe the neighbor's gun that he still had on his person when I arrived there. Try as I could I wasn't able to talk the dirtbag out of pressing charges against the old man and even the Judge I called was dismayed that he had to issue a warrant.
The happy ending to the story was that the dirtbag moved off to somewhere unknown and when it came time for the charges to be heard myself and the other Deputy on the scene had the prosecutor drop the charges.
Bottom line is this, if you are threatened and you need to draw your gun that is what it's there for. Use your head and be smart and you will make it out alright.