Common Folk Using Common Sense

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Roughly three hours before they died, Tiffany Barwick and Michael Ruschak asked Seminole County deputy sheriffs for protection from the man they feared would kill them.

Andrew Allred, Barwick’s former boyfriend, had raided her bank account, tampered with her MySpace page and sent phony messages to her family and friends, she told deputies. He e-mailed Ruschak saying, “The next time I see you, I’m going to kill you,” and sent Barwick an image of herself covered with bullet holes, a report of the meeting states.

A deputy replied that he could do nothing at that time.

Later on Monday night, Allred plowed into Barwick’s car outside Ruschak’s home in Oviedo, broke in and shot him dead. He then walked into the bathroom, where Barwick was hiding, and shot her.

Acquaintances said he was bitter about his breakup with Barwick, a student at Seminole Community College, and directed his anger at her and Ruschak, a student at the University of Central Florida. The three had been friends, according to these accounts, until Barwick ended her relationship with Allred in August.

Sheriff’s records show that Barwick, 19, first called deputies at 11:30 a.m. Monday alleging that Allred had tapped into her Bank of America account and withdrawn money without her permission.

At 7:09 p.m. she told another deputy that Allred just sent Ruschak, 22, a message threatening his life and that he had recently purchased a gun. She pleaded with the deputy to “lock him [Allred] up.”

Sheriff’s officials defended the agency’s handling of the plea for help, recounted in a four-page report released Wednesday. The deputy who responded to Barwick and Ruschak’s complaints did “the best he could,” Chief Deputy Steven Harriett said.

He hunted her down in the bathroom where she was hiding before shooting her. He was a Predator with a bloodlust. This event, good people, is a good reason not to ignore the Second Amendment.

“A deputy replied that he could do nothing at that time.”

Allred’s threats were not enough to warrant anything be done by those sworn to protect us. How much clearer can it be that it is us, ourselves, that hold the primary responsibility for protecting ourselves, not some arm of the government.

The police were at their station waiting on more information for their paperwork while Allred shot his way into the house and butchered innocent lives. The police were quick to respond later with their yellow Crime Scene tape and their Dead Body chalk outlines and their test tubes for collecting spilled blood.

If anyone in the house had been lawfully armed maybe the good people would be alive and the bad person would be dead.

Are you people out there starting to understand the crux of the issue here yet? Do you own a handgun? Do you carry it with you wherever you go? If not then don’t cry one tear if you, or a loved one, is murdered when you could have done something about it.

More:

Friends and family had mixed reactions on the events that led to Monday’s shooting.

“My opinion is that if you get a restraining order, it is just a piece of paper,” said Ruschak’s mother, Janice. “I know police are doing their best, and I don’t want to blame them.”

Even if Barwick had sought a protective order against Allred, the forms must be filed at the Seminole County Courthouse, then sent to a judge and finally the Sheriff’s Office.

Court officials said the process could take a day or two.

Wick said she doubted it would have helped.

“Allred would not have been served the order in time and, even if he was, who knows if that would have stopped him?” Wick said. “Sometimes there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I don’t want to blame the police either. They’re already overworked and underpaid. But they simply cannot be everywhere at all times. There are going to be times, usually 167 hours out of every 168-hour week, that there is no police officer near enough to you to provide you with adequate protection. And odds are this will not be an issue.

But what happens when the odds are against you, those rare moments when a Predator is coming for you? Are you simply willing to wait for the police to magically appear and rescue you? Are you going to boldly hold a Restraining Order like a medieval shield against the Predator? Are you going to quickly step to the side and let a Predator’s bullet slowly miss you by a fraction of an inch? Or are you going to pull your head out of the sand (or other dark orifice) and take responsibility for your own safety? When are you going to grow a pair and boldly proclaim, “Damn it, I am not going to yield anymore!”

I legally carry a concealed handgun. Every day. Everywhere I go.

So does my daughter and son.

So does my wife.

And not because we like death and killing and destruction. Rather the opposite – because we value life, our own, so much.

Tiffany Barwick, Michael Ruschak, Andrew Allred, Oviedo

Spread The Word: