And welcome to the Concealed Carry Podcast, part of the ConcealedCarry.com network, brought to you by HK. Today is actually Thursday, July 23rd, 2026, as of the live recording of this episode. And I am your host, Riley Bowman. And I’m joined today by a special guest whom we will introduce here momentarily. I’m really excited about this one, folks.
I hope you’ll stick around for the entirety of the episode because it’s going to be a good episode. I know that. So today we are going to be sharing the story and interviewing firsthand Jarrell Kapel, who was a FedEx delivery driver in December of 2019 that had a defensive gun use, as we call them here at the Concealed Carry Podcast, a justified save.
It’s a compelling story with many lessons to be learned, and I know that you’re going to really benefit from this one. So I look forward to bringing Jarrell on here in just a moment. As he described himself to me a moment ago, he is just a chill guy. And I appreciate that about him. He’s got a good attitude. And I’ll tell you, sometimes a chill attitude is the right one to have when we’re dealing with high-stress situations.
And certainly to try to avoid those situations where possible. Unfortunately, that’s not how it worked out for Jarrell on that fateful night in 2019. As he was robbed by an armed robber and actually got himself shot, unfortunately, as part of that. But he fought back, and he’s here to tell his whole story. But before we get into that, we do have a couple episode sponsors today. Our first sponsor, which we’ll introduce now, is HK, Heckler & Koch.
Our friends over at HKUSA have been big supporters of the podcast for a long time now, and they are the title sponsor of this podcast and of today’s episode. So thank you, HK, for your support of the Concealed Carry podcast. Folks, when you’re dealing with difficult situations, particularly when your life is on the line, I’m a big believer in trusting only your life with the best equipment.
And I know that carrying an HK pistol for my personal choice in a sidearm is a quality piece. It’s something I am confident will not let me down when the moment counts. So I’d hope that you would consider for your next firearm, taking a look at HK today, go to hk-usa.com to see their full lineup of firearms. You can find them typically in just about any local gun dealer.
And I do think it’s good and wise to support your local dealers. So go to your local gun shop and ask them what they have on the shelves from HK today. The CC9 is a big hit. It’s been a very popular pistol for them since it was released. And I’m actually carrying, I like carrying that one, but I’m actually carrying today the newer HK A1 series.
It’s the VP9A1K, the K model, which is a nice mid-sized compact gun and just a great performer. So there you go. HK, thank you for your support of the podcast. Again, you can learn more at hk-usa.com. Well, let’s bring on our special guest today, Jarrell. There he is. Welcome, sir. How are you? I’m doing good. How about you?
Fantastic. It’s really good to have you on. And we thank you for your time today and your willingness to share your story. I know that sometimes these kinds of things can be difficult to tell, maybe even difficult to relive. Fortunately, this is crazy. It’s been almost seven years. It’ll be seven years ago in December of later this year. It’ll be seven years since this thing happened to you, unfortunately, back in December 2019.
Jarrell, you were employed as a FedEx delivery driver, contract guy, back at that point. And you’re just doing your job, man, delivering packages and bringing everybody their holiday cheer, as they might say. So tell us a little bit about kind of yourselves, your background, and kind of, you know, how it was going in the days leading up to that fateful day for you and your kind of day-to-day job.
All right thank you for having me um to share my story um so as i told you earlier you know i’m a pretty relaxed cool easy going guy um uh, up until that point what was it 2019 so i think i had been at fedex for about 11 years at that point um wow so it was you know every day get up go deliver packages and, um matter of fact the route i was on i had been doing for maybe about a year i spent most of my um fedex career in west philadelphia so i was like pretty, pretty known um in those parts so uh, it’s only been about a year for the route that i was on, um but crazy enough it’s the neighborhood that i live in so that’s i usually just go home i mean go to work come home so it was like i was actually learning a lot about my neighborhood too at the same time while delivering that well um, let me see uh.
I think leading up to that day a week before i had delivered a tv Once again, we were talking about the Christmas season, right? Yeah. So it was super busy. I had a friend. They would allow us sometimes… FedEx would actually employ helpers. Or if you had somebody that can help you, you have to bring them. They would approve them.
I had help the week before. Me and my friend, we delivered a TV. And about maybe… 45 minutes later, somebody stole that TV. And the only reason I knew was because my boss sent me a text that night that somebody caught it on the ring camera. And it was a little bit upsetting because they thought it was me and my friend because that day I had an orange FedEx hoodie on.
So you see me deliver the package, me and my friend. Then we pull off and then about a 45 minutes later you see two guys pull up in the car and they hop out run up take the tv, but as the guy was running i think his shirt lifted up so you see like you see an orange and i’m like that must have been his underwear you know how the guys dress, so they thought it was i guess me and him and i’m like in my world i’m thinking, i’m not risking my job to steal it still tv it’s not worth it so that happened you’ve been.
Working there for you’ve been working there for 11 years So i mean that’s. That’s practically a career at that point like yeah exactly yeah so sorry continue No you’re fine um so at that point it put me on alert that, people were actually following you was over there you would follow the truck or because in my opinion the way i’ve seen the video i’m like how did he know that tv was there is either they, seen me deliver it or maybe they drove down the street spotted it and came back around but the video that was posted only showed when they pulled up and stole the tv so i was, on some kind of alert that people were following us and then like i said prior to i was I was in West Philly and by me being there for so long, you know, I was cool with a lot of the police officers in that area and, one cop in particular told me that, I think Philly actually had police, I don’t know if they were undercover or not, they would follow FedEx trucks because they was aware of people stealing packages.
So they was already trying to get on top of it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you definitely hear those stories. I mean, we see them every year. I live here in the suburbs of West Denver Metro and a good-sized city like Philly. And every year you see the stories, you see people, you know, share their videos as well, you know, to the news stations and stuff.
I mean, packages getting stolen by these so-called porch pirates and whatnot. And I would imagine that, and this was 2019, which, you know, that’s still relatively recent. But what’s happened since then is, you know, we went through the whole COVID episode and people started shopping and buying things online even more and, you know, expecting deliveries and whatnot.
And so I would imagine this kind of thing has even increased from what it was in 2019. I would imagine that if I was a route manager or owner or whatever, I’d probably be talking to my employees, coaching them, advising them, letting them know, like, hey, make sure you’re keeping your head on a swivel and keeping an eye out on things because you’re a target potentially.
And unfortunately, that’s what happened to you here. But before we get to that moment, tell us a little bit about the actual day this happened, Don. Even right down to like what was the weather like this is December in Philadelphia was it was a nice day was it a cold day was it snow was it dry like and then and what time did you typically start work and and then kind of lead us up to I think the incident happened about 7 p.m.
That day so kind of tell us what that day was like. So that day, if I remember correctly, I know it was definitely was sunny. It wasn’t too cold. You know, the past, I would probably say in the past decade, we’ve been having these on the East Coast. We’ve been having these mixed winters where you can come go outside one day in the wintertime and it’s 70 degrees. So it wasn’t too cold.
The day that it happened, the helper told you, couldn’t make it in that day. So I was by myself. And so I was on alert, just first stop, second stop, making sure I was checking my surroundings, trying to make sure nobody was following you. So typically, you know, with FedEx, once your day starts, you try to get into a groove, stop, stop, stop.
And so I was working my way through holiday season. If you’ve ever driven behind a fedex or even a ups truck and they open that back door you notice that truck is loaded it is loaded up so, it is it’s a lot sometimes especially in the morning hours to try to clear your truck out because the more room you have to move the more efficient you can be so, i was definitely uh you know working trying to clear my truck um like i said it was sunny most of the day so it was cool um, and a lot of times for me i would if i got lunch i would stop get my lunch but, i’m working while eating my lunch so i might my food might last me four or five hours to finish it because it’s just take a bite here work work work take a bite there um.
And you kind of feel the pressure like around 4 o’clock, 5 o’clock. Because now it’s like, okay, cool. I want to be off the road by 8 o’clock. And depending on where you’re at on the road, you start to kind of zone out. So getting close to that time, it’s tunnel vision. Like you’re rapidly stop, stop, stop, stop. Yeah. sometimes at that point.
How many stops would you have in a typical day during that season Depending on your route 150 more than 150 would probably be a good day during that time you could probably average between 180 200 plus stops a day, 230. So to your point you’re getting later in the day I mean, you’ve, you’ve made so many stops that like you, you use the word tunnel vision, probably not literally tunnel vision, but you’re just so like in the routine of stop, stop.
And probably before long, they all start to look the same. I would guess. It does get to be like that. And then you’re like, plus remember with that time, that time of the year, you’ll typically have like maybe, uh, I would say between. Four five stops on each street that you stop on so they they go by faster sometimes but it’s still a lot of stops to um, to get to um yeah and i think around yeah so around that time i was just really moving um the truck is pretty much i can see my shelves so i can, it’s times you’ll stop for like maybe five minutes and say you know what i’m lining up my next 15 20 stops so that when i get there is just grab and go, grab and go.
Like I say, we’re working your way through the day at that point. Yeah. So on that particular day, it’s getting late in the day or maybe an hour or so from being done. Probably looking forward to that. It’s probably been a long day already. I mean, how long you worked at that point? Probably 12, 13 hours? 12 hours? I think at that point, because usually when we get in in the morning, even though we have loaders, but everything is not the way the driver would like it.
So most of us, we would probably spend about an hour, hour and a half sometimes in the morning, resorting our truck so that we can work efficiently. So probably would have been at work by eight o’clock. If not leaving out nine 30, 10 o’clock, which would be late for us. We would like to leave out like eight o’clock, but said we try to set ourselves up. So we take the time to sort the truck out.
So, yeah, pretty much that was going on maybe –, 10 hours of work at that point. Okay. Yeah. Well, and you still got, you still got ways to go. So it’s been a long day and you’re, you’re, you’re working hard. So you had a delivery. Was this a TV that you were delivering when you got stopped in the robbery or do you even know what you were delivering? Probably not.
No, I don’t. This wasn’t a TV. This was a small package. Gotcha. Another one of those packages, I think I said it was already lined up on my shelf, stopped next to the house, ran to the door. I think I rung the bell, and I was making my way back to the truck. And just to go back to it, I get that point. Time from the time from the truck to the door might have been 30 seconds i’m moving like i’m moving this time right yeah, you’re on residential blocks you can exit your truck run to the door leave the package at the door and then um come back to the truck in less than a minute plus around that time from what, i recall and what i remember with protocol we had to leaving the package where it’s visible was a no-no.
I don’t know if it’s the same thing I did in Denver now, but as I ride around Philadelphia, they leave packages on people’s porch. Sometimes, even with some of the other carriers, they’ll put it right there on the steps. I’m like, the porch is just a further, you know, put it on the porch where nobody can see it. There’s a lot of porch pirates, but I said, I ran that package, rung the doorbell.
I didn’t get an answer, so I think I put it in between the screen door, and I was making my way out of the person’s front yard, and then that’s when the whole situation started. That’s where it starts at. Wow. Okay. Now, I’m going to put the pause button on there for just a little bit because I got a question before we get to that critical moment.
So you’re obviously carrying a gun. Yes. What made you decide to carry Concealed as a FedEx driver? I always have to give credit to one of my customers. A few years prior, he was a technology guy. Super cool. Sometimes I stop, we’ll have like five, ten minute conversations throughout my day. So I remember at one point. I think we got into the topic of firearms, or I may have noticed that he was carrying.
So we were talking, and it was a key statement I asked him. I said, do you think you could live with knowing that you had to use your firearm? His response was, the key word in my statement was live. Cannot live with it. And I think he told me he was actually robbed before and he was shot. He survived. So from that moment, it kind of changed my mentality on firearms.
Let me not say it changed. At that point, I already owned a gun, but I didn’t carry it. So it was in-house. But that did change my mind. And I think I do accredit him for possibly me still being here because if it wasn’t for that conversation, probably wouldn’t have been carrying but, it was very eye-opening and i just decided to uh start carrying you know it’s a lot of.
Nuts out here like people are robbing for anything um they run in the truck we have had situations um in the past with drivers being, tied up in a truck, truck stolen. Um, if you remember around that time, maybe like a couple of weeks before my incident happened or maybe a week, there was a UPS driver in Florida that got caught up in a robbery.
The guys I think was robbing a bank of a jewelry store and they forced him on his truck to get away. And he ended up getting killed in the shootout between law enforcement and those drivers so that further solidified me carrying my firearm. So that happened just shortly before your own incident what did that cause you to change anything because that happened to that ups driver like in a you know like did you start actually carrying every day where maybe you didn’t before or anything like that or or did it just sort of solidify that, oh, I’m just going to make sure I’m really, you know, paying attention and dialed in?
I think it made me a little bit more dialed in. I was already carrying for the most part almost every day, but it’s some days because what it is, one of the main things that came up are, are we allowed to carry as delivery drivers? And I’m like, according to the policy of FedEx, I would say no, but in my eyes, I didn’t work for FedEx.
I worked through a contractor. So this truck that I’m on doesn’t belong to FedEx. And I would never walk into the building with my firearm. So sometimes when you leave out and have to go to my car to get my firearm to then start my day, it was some days you didn’t feel like doing it. But that further made me say, okay, every day. because you just never know when something can happen.
Yeah, I’m glad you explained that, by the way, because I don’t have a personal experience other than a family member owned a couple of FedEx routes. And so I learned a little bit more about how that works over the years. And like you just explained, those FedEx ground delivery trucks you see running around, those are routes that are owned by a private individual or a company.
And uh and that includes all the equipment the trucks and everything uh those are those are part of that contractor’s uh business and so if you were to go to my uh family member’s house when they they they no longer do that anymore they sold those routes off but uh they still have like old remnants of fedex vans and trucks sitting on their property because you know they had some you They had a number of trucks, and there was always something needing to be fixed and repaired.
And so anyway, yeah, I hear what you’re saying as far as, hey, I don’t actually work technically for FedEx. So like the route owner or the business that you actually were contracted with, they had never addressed a policy with you prior to that as far as no guns, no firearms, no carrying, that kind of stuff? Yeah, not that I can recall. I just took it into my mind like, hey, this is not FedEx’s property.
Second of all is, you know, when you really think it’s like, I’m responsible for making it home to my family. So even if it meant bending the rules in this way, I got to get home because you might get fired. But if you’re still alive, then you’re still here for your family. You can move past it. You can move on. Yeah, you can get another job.
Yes. Yeah, you can’t get another life. I hear you. So you made the decision that, hey, this is the right choice for me. I’m in a relatively high-risk profession that could be targeted. As you pointed out, there are already known instances of other drivers, including for other companies, that were targets or had become victims of crimes.
So you made the decision for you and for your family. you were going to carry and so you were carrying on that fateful day as well yes so going back you’re on that and i think this happened like on unreal avenue i think was where this took place so you’re at this home you’re dropping off this package you slip in in between the screen door and the and the door and you’re starting back towards your truck making your way through their yard and then what happens As I’m as I’m walking out, suspect is walking in.
And so they were coming like into into this like a did they have like a little gate or something It was yeah it was a little gate there um it’s not a very long yard it was short so i was walking out i seen him walking towards me and i still didn’t think nothing of it his first words was a my man, and in the time that i’ve worked at fedex, i’ve heard that statement a million times and usually what follows that statement is do you have a package for so-and-so or for this address so i didn’t think nothing of it at all just, hey my man i’m like what’s going on um, the very next thing is i see a gun being pulled out on me and the slob being racked back and the next statement is give me everything you got, and that’s where like I feel like it turns, I have to give Hollywood some credit sometimes to the way they depict certain things in movies it kind of it starts to spiral like, I do I tell people I do recall that feeling of your entire life just flashing before your eyes in that second.
Like so many things ran through my mind. First thing I did was, first of all, you’re presented with a firearm. And let me go back just a little bit because… Along with carrying, I watched tons of videos on YouTube on self-defense, the legality part of it. I watched a lot of training videos. What else had I done at that point? I used to go to the range.
Okay. Go ahead. Had you been through any formal training courses? I didn’t take any courses at that point, but, I would watch my videos, go to the range, practice. I think the only kind of training you could say I had was at one range where they let you do a couple reps so they can certify you to draw from your holster.
But at that point, that was it. I used to just watch a lot of training videos and, you know, take into account what’s going on. One of the key things I forgot who the YouTube personality was, but it was one key video that, Came into play this night that I remember, and it was along the lines of knowing when to draw and when not to draw.
And I think he had used a scenario in which a police officer had tried to draw a gun on the suspect, and the suspect shot first, killed the cop. And there was another situation where it was regular civilians and the civilian, I think, was getting robbed. And he waited till the guy just turned his head for a slight second.
And that was his opportunity to get in to the fight in his terminology. Right. Kind of sounds similar to my friend John Correa at Active Self-Protection. I think it was. Yeah? I think it was. It was two videos he showed. Yeah yeah he’s real big about talking about uh waiting for your turn you know if uh if you are faced with a deadly threat particularly a gun that’s already drawn on you uh you’re gonna have a hard time beating them on the draws they’ve already got their gun out but uh you gotta wait for your turn and whether that’s a distraction or uh you know them just turning their head away for a moment or whatever you know you got to look for those opportunities that say okay now it’s my turn now i now i’ve got the opportunity to do something here so that i’m really glad you you mentioned that that you’d uh watch some content like that so you’ve you felt like that was uh particularly meaningful for you just did that in your mind It stood out a lot of the stuff that i had seen to that point actually played out. And as I tell the story, like, I have to sometimes pause because a lot of this, it really came to me.
And like you mentioned too, in the beginning with me having a calm personality, my mind is always running. So it forced me to think through this entire event. And mind you, it took a while for me to unpack it throughout the years and realize, oh, wow, I didn’t even realize this when this happened. But everything kind of came back to me in that moment. And that throughout the whole event.
Yeah. Yeah. So you’re leaving this property, this home. They’re coming through the gate or whatever, or they’re near there. It sounds like it just happens real fast. Like you said, the guy’s just like, hey, my man. And then next thing you know he’s just drawing his gun you said you racked the slide so uh and then he’s like give me everything you got yeah boom like this is all happens probably in what two seconds maybe About yeah probably two seconds because when in that in those moments is like, is the conflict in your mind processing is this real time because a lot of it does feel like it’s slow motion.
A lot of it feels like it’s in slow motion, but it’s probably definitely a few seconds. And going on seven years, and I will probably have to go back because I do want to attain the 911 call that I’ve made, I’m still trying to figure out how long did the whole event last. I knew it wasn’t five minutes, but in my mind, it feels like five minutes or more.
But it probably might have been all of a minute or two, I feel like, in actuality. Sorry and you’re talking you know from that initial contact with him to the the actual incident the shooting uh him running off you i think you also got in your and we’ll talk we’ll break this all down but i think you also go back in your truck and drove off some distance right and then i imagine that at that point started calling 911 yes yeah yeah so you’re that’s what you mean like how long this all took you’re, you’re talking about kind of that whole timeframe of initial contact to making your own escape and that, that call.
Yes. Okay, cool. Cool. So what happens next? I mean, you’re standing there, you’re looking at a gun and see point in this, you know, like right up in your face or like, is he just keeping it down close, close to his body like you know how how menacing was him as a threat i’m just curious From what i remember i think it was pointed closer to his he kept it down towards towards his body um but it was still pointed at me yeah it definitely was close to his body because, um i had it felt like, The gun was, I think he had an all-gray sweatsuit on. So the gun being close to his body and then with everything going through my mind, I thought the gun was completely all silver, all nickel, but it wasn’t.
So it was close to him. It wasn’t pointed directly in my face. Mm-hmm. And then what did you do next? I mean, so he just told you to hand him everything you got. What did you do? That’s when I got stupid. When I say stupid, I mean like scared stupid. Like, you know, it runs through your mind. Give me everything you got. So the first thing, and I laugh because I literally in my mind, in my mind, I literally went to my pockets. I think I pulled out my keys.
And my car keys was in my left pocket. I don’t know why I handed him my car keys. My car keys is at the job. So I handed him the car keys. I’m going through the pockets. I get to my wallet. And when I went for my wallet, which I used to carry in my back pocket, I was carrying at a four o’clock position. So my hand brushed against my gun.
Once again, wait your turn. As a gun pointed at me, in my mind, it was like, can’t do nothing about this right now. Just get to the wallet. And here’s where I said I got scared stupid. I went into my wallet and literally took out the money that was in the wallet, and gave it to him and then it was like you smack yourself figuratively.
He said give him everything so I’m like oh I gave him the whole wallet right, so I always laugh at that point like why did I go in there and take money out instead of just handing him the wallet so I ended up handing him the wallet. After I handed him the wallet I think he asked me, he thought I dropped my phone I didn’t drop my phone I dropped my FedEx scanner, so he asked why did I drop my scanner I said I don’t know listen I’m scared you got a gun pointed to me, drop everything gave you the wallet the important things that would get you, give you what you want so you get away from me, so I can feel safe again.
So I did that. I’m trying to think, was there anything else? It was the keys and the water, I think, I gave him. Um… Yeah. Yep, that was a yep. In the news reports that I read, and by the way, interesting thing, Jacob and I, I think it was me and Jacob, it could have been me and Matthew who used to do the podcast with me as well.
We talked about your story in January of 2020 because for years we’ve done, We call it our Justified Saves episode where we talk about incidents like yours that we come across in news reports and stuff. And I stumbled upon that. I was like, I’m pretty sure we talked about this. And I had to go back and do some digging and saw, yeah, we talked about your story in January 2020.
So like a month after, after it happened anyway. Um, so the, uh, I forgot what I was going with that, but, uh, I think, you know, just continuing on with your story. Uh, you said you, you got stupid, uh, and you know, you’re kind of like, I think it’s, I think our brains do all kinds of crazy, weird stuff when we are scared and under a lot of stress, you know?
So I appreciate you take, you know, describing to us how you’re like, well, here’s the money. And then you’re like, oh, wait, I guess I just got to give you it all. Oh, I remember what I was saying. In the news reports, it talked about the perpetrator also taking your FedEx scanner as well. Do you recall that? That I don’t recall because I thought I had dropped it on the floor.
I do know in the reports that I’ve read, they said when they found a car that they were driving that it had packages inside of it. So apparently they must have been driving around doing stealing packages also. But I don’t recall. I know they might have reported that he had my FedEx ID also because which was in my FedEx ID would have been in my wallet also but I don’t recall him taking the scanner.
Yeah that’s fine I just noticed that as I was going back I was pulling up some of these old news stories and I saw that detail and it doesn’t matter it’s neither here nor there but anyway you hand him this stuff and then what So i hand him the stuff and i felt like he was looking around, and the very next statement he made was okay come outside the gate boom come outside the yard so this particular street.
In front of the house where I was at, opposite of that house, I believe, is a church. Further down, it was an apartment building that they were working on. It wasn’t occupied at the time. And it’s a dark block. So I’m here, like, come outside the gate. I’m like, oh, this is it right here. Like, you want me to come outside the gate?
I handed you everything. What more can you want? And what do you mean come outside the gate? So that’s what I think my mind just started going. Okay. He might try to shoot me or this is going to be it for me. So I think. I knew I was going to comply because you still have that hopefulness that they’re going to leave you alone.
So I was I did comply to my benefit he chose to walk in front of me so he turned his back and this is where, act of self protection came in and I’m like well this is my turn right now to actually get to my gun and at that in that moment I think to today it’s still a, it’s a it’s a not even an argument it’s a thing in the firearms do you carry with one in the head or do you not and that particular time i didn’t carry with one in the head, um so i had to get my gun out um put one in the chamber, and that alone was like i hope he doesn’t hear this so he did.
That so so so he had stepped into the yard you’re in the yard where the where you hand him the stuff he’s like come out of the yard or out of the gate or whatever and he walks in front of you so his backs to you at this moment yes and this is when you’re like okay i’m going to get my gun so you get your gun out and you know you don’t have a round chambered in that gun and so you’re realizing He’s like, I’ve got to rack the slide on my gun, and you’re hoping he doesn’t notice.
Yep. That’s another scary part. Oh, snap. Yeah. That’s super scary. It really is. To this day, I still wonder if he – did he hear anything? I mean, he didn’t react to it, so I’m guessing he didn’t hear it, thankfully. And I still had I don’t maybe it’s just the good in me that still felt like, he’s probably still going to walk away. So I didn’t have the gun.
I didn’t keep it in front of me. I had put my hand behind my back where it was still in my hand, but he wouldn’t be able to see it. From that point, he made it outside the gate. I get to maybe a couple feet in front of the gate, and now he’s facing me again. And he tells me to come, like, he waves, come here, while the gun is still, you know, around maybe his abdomen level pointed at me.
He says, come here, and that’s the moment where the, only thing I could say is that I felt a burning sensation in my stomach, and I flinched. And I’m here like, I’m shot because it felt it was hot. It felt hot. It was fast. It was it felt hot. And with the flinch, I’m like, oh, I’m shot. And everything from that point was just, I think, instinctual reaction, which I would attribute from the training videos that I used to watch in the time at the range.
Because the very next thing I remember was staring on the back of my gun and seeing him run. So I knew at some point, okay, he’s like, okay, he’s got a gun too. He’s shooting at me. He’s trying to make an exit. That was the very next thing. I can’t say that I remember raising the gun to my Milana sight, aiming. Everything just felt like instant at that point. this happened and I was King 2-0.
He’s running. I can’t shoot him in the back. Hmm. Right. Okay. So, wow. Uh, so he shoots you, he shoots you in the stomach area, Right? Yes. Just, just the one time, just the one shot, One shot. Oh, actually I believe that’s, that’s how many times I got hit. Um, according to the detectives, it was about maybe, I think it was like maybe 12 shot cases. They found both were nine millimeter.
Um, so I never found out. I do know that in the aftermath, they said he got hit around six to seven times. And so I’m like, if he got hit six or seven times, maybe he discharged around three or four times and only got hit once. So I got, I guess I would say, I don’t know if you call it luck or training. Because I did take my time at the range serious. Like, let me follow the fundamentals to make sure that, you know, I’m putting rounds on target.
I do see people go to the range, and to them it’s just fun. They just shoot, and put holes in the paper, no fundamentals or nothing. Yeah. Okay, so I’m backing up just a little bit because I think, I mean, and i can only imagine that in the moment for real like it would have just all happened so fast again and you just mentioned how you don’t really even remember bringing the gun up or anything it just next thing you know the gun’s in front of your face and you’re shooting but um he said come over here or whatever you said he motioned to you and then he shot Right then yeah.
Like no warning like nothing Else nothing else just come. Over here and then Bang yeah, like i said by happening so fast it was just like, all i felt was that burning sensation and me flinching i didn’t i didn’t see a muzzle flash i didn’t hear a gunshot which, as you know time went by you know through research and you you hear about auditory exclusion and circumstances like that where you won’t even hear the shot because there’s so much there’s so much going on um and then i guess, probably wasn’t even didn’t even notice the flash because at the time split second i’m hit so it’s a flinch and then now I’m just reacting to it.
Yeah, right. Wow. And so you don’t like, you don’t So do you think that he shot you now at this point because he saw your gun or heard your gun? Or do you think he’d already made up his mind that he’s going to shoot you? That, honestly, I don’t know. You just don’t know? Wow. It very well could be. Because like I said, that’s one of the main things in my mind is I hope he doesn’t hear this.
So it very well could have been people often ask when people hear my story they think that oh wow he robbed the truck I’m like no he robbed me, then my mind always goes to, why didn’t you just run up to the truck and drive off with the truck or just, hey I’m taking this you stay over here xyz like i’m a fedex driver fedex ups post office anybody’s like, we we don’t carry around that much cash on us that’s it’s personal money that we’re carrying around on especially this time of year so it’s like still to this day try to figure out the rationale behind it and like somebody said to me before like, you can’t put yourself as a rational person it’s hard to put yourself in the mindset of an irrational person.
In that moment, he was irrational. Even robbing somebody, committing that crime as an irrational thing that they’re doing in that moment. So like, I think I kind of gave up on trying to figure out why he shot me. And like you were asking me earlier too. You know what was going on that day i just said i did try my best to to look at every street that i turned on seven years later i still can’t, figure out was he already on the street um this did he pull up behind me right when i grabbed the package to run it in the gate, because i feel like he came out of nowhere i mean it’s 7 p.m in this episode was dark but i’m like where did he come from and i mean i’ll probably never know but answer but it’s like to this, day that’s the question mark where did he come from that fast like because i in time i left my truck to that door and i was turning back it did not go past a minute it was literally i would say, seconds, maybe 30 seconds almost.
Yeah. Wow. And so you don’t remember how many rounds you actually fired. You know you fired several at the very least. You told me that as far as you know, the investigation showed you hit him six or seven times. Good on you, by the way. Like seriously, bravo. Thank you. That’s excellent. Um and he he takes off running and you did say that i thought this was a key thing that you at some point you realize the gun like you’re basically looking at the back of your gun you’re shooting at him and you realize he is now facing away from you running away making his escape and you’re like oh you know it’s time to be done shooting like i don’t want to be shooting him in the back right yes Cool. Cool. And according to reports, at least, we know that he runs off, apparently gets back to his vehicle and he was not alone. Right.
There was somebody else with him. Yeah, he wasn’t alone. And I didn’t know this until this happened. I believe it happened on the week. I woke up in the hospital on a Friday. And it probably wasn’t until a few days after that that I found out he actually had an accomplice and he had him in custody. So it was two of them. I’m like, wow, the whole time I’m going through this situation focused on this one person.
But the whole time it was two. But I think the conference was parked in a driveway or an alley waiting for him to get back to the car. That’s basically the getaway driver, so to speak, and he’s the strong arm, so to speak. Got it. And you mentioned that they found him wounded multiple times somewhere nearby there in a vehicle with packages, with your stuff that he had stolen.
And I think reports said that he was transported to the hospital and he was pronounced dead. Um, we’re going to talk about aftermath here in a few minutes. So I got some questions about that for sure. Uh, it did also show in some reports I found that, that there were 11 spent casings that were found. Your memory is pretty good. I think you said 12.
Um, and, uh, you know, some of those are presumably his and some were yours. Uh, and so to your point, he, he may very, you don’t know for sure, but he likely fired a few shots at the very least, but only one struck you. Where exactly did that strike you? It was my lower abdomen to the left of my belly button. So it was, yeah.
And it hit diagonal. So it went through, it hit my intestine. And then on the way out, it fractured a vertebrae on the outside of my, towards the outside of my spine. Ah, so when you say diagonal, so it’s a little bit left of your belly button. And so you’re kind of turned a little bit of an angle so that that bullet path, as it went towards your back, it got closer to your spine.
Yes. Okay. And it exited, you said? Exited, yep. Oh, dang. Through and through and from the looks of it, I can’t remember the first time I seen them, seeing the actual exit wound in the hospital. Lucky for me, I don’t think he was carrying self-defense rounds because the exit rule was just as small as the entry rule. So I’m like, that was probably another blessing in disguise right there.
Yeah, for sure. Now, we did actually have a question coming in from a live viewer here. Project 1868 says, he wants to know what you were carrying. So what gun were you carrying? What holster you did mention you’re carrying about four o’clock and then he asked also what ammo you were carrying Um i said this is i’m probably gonna get some kind of scrutiny for this i was carrying a taurus g2c that’s all right which there you go it’s it’s mixed it’s mixed reviews about that gun but, i will say this uh on the weekends i was doing some construction work with my, wife’s cousin’s husband.
I don’t think I had cleaned that gun in a while. You’re looking at the dust from working in construction and then FedEx truck is also dusty too. The tourists definitely did what it was supposed to do. The holster I had, I believe it was, they didn’t give me back my holster. I think I had a Vetter holster or if it wasn’t Vetter it was maybe We The People.
One of those two companies. It was a Kydex holster. It was a Kydex holster. And then I was, was I carrying federal, HSTs? Here’s the thing. Right before that incident happened, my brother also carries. And I had just recently swapped in ammo with him. If I wasn’t carrying Hornady Critical Defense, it might have been Federal HSDs.
Okay. Well, Critical Defense, it’s not a bad round. And HSDs is a good round. So either way, you got the job done. Yeah. So then the second half of Project 1868’s question is, have you changed any of those things since that incident? In other words, what are you carrying now in holster and ammo and gun? So I think what I –, even though i still have the nine millimeter in in in my um safe i went back to my first gun which was a ruger sr 40 only because of the confusion that we had that day, both nine millimeters who shot what i say you know i’m going i’m carrying the 40.
God forbid it happens again but it’s going to be a difference and i’ve always carried um the critical defense or is it the critical it’s one of the the horn of the um. Yeah critical defense and critical Duty yeah yeah but it is time for me to um change out my um my carry ammo, and i do it’s been a while but i have to dive back into youtube world to see the comparison videos on which round you know gives you the best um, results so i always try to do my homework on that kind of stuff and then um, i am contemplating changing carrying carry carry weapons tools, it’s it’s in my mind because i said of that discrepancy but i kind of want to go back to a nine millimeter went to carry but so i’m going to be doing some homework soon on that yeah Well.
Let’s get you an HK. Listen, I heard you talk when you was talking about them earlier, because I was like, the last time I really looked in the HK was definitely the VP9. And I do know they had made some changes because prior to, I believe the magazine release was on the trigger guard in the earlier models. But I think they do have the American variant with the button release, right?
Yeah, they do have a, they call it the B model. So like a VP9-B is a push button mag release, which I’m like you. I’m an American. I like having the buttons to push. They don’t have the B models available yet in the newer A1 series of VP9s, but I do hope that will come eventually here soon. But you can get the older VP9s with a push button.
And what about the other one you said you carried? You said the CC? CC9. Yeah, that’s their little, you know, their kind of micro-compact size gun. And it’s a great gun. It carries really nicely. It’s small, compact, lightweight, easy to conceal. Shoots good, too. And that one, and then actually the unique thing about the CC9 is that is the first gun that is designed, engineered, uh, made and built, uh, all in the U S by HK.
Uh, so that was designed and built by their U S team. And, uh, so it’s got a push button mag release. Okay. So, uh, yeah, yeah. CC9 might be a good, good one to maybe take a look at and give a try. I I’m a big fan of it. I mean, I was already a fan before, uh, they, they were sponsors officially, but, uh, of course I’m doubly so now.
I’ll probably definitely have to go into the homework tonight and look at the CC9 because I think… I do own a CZP10C. I know it’s still bigger than the microcompacts. Currently shooting wise that’s my favorite gun that i that i own but at the same time like, do i want to carry around a six seven hundred dollar gun and then god forbid something happens even though i’m alive like you gotta hope and wait to get it back this is why like i, i probably would never carry like a 1911 because i’m like some of those guns are like if it’s a hundred dollars i’m like, what if i never get that back yeah.
I hear you i hear you i would say uh it’s a small price to pay in the Overall yeah for your life right yeah that’s true. Yeah you know carry the one that’s the right choice is the way i think of it yeah and uh you know because meaning that the one that gives you the best chance of making at home in one piece so anyway uh and then you’re still carrying inside waistband like four o’clock Area i’m appendix now appendix and i have done it before but at that particular time working and sitting driving carrying packages it wasn’t too comfortable but, i forced myself to become comfortable with it so that’s all i carry now is on appendix um, you know i drive fire and train at home and for me it’s the fastest draw that, that you can have so it’s like i want to put myself in the best position to survive god forbid you ever have to be in a situation with me.
Yeah i’m with you there i’ve been carrying appendix now for eight years nine years eight eight ish or so and uh yeah uh hey if we can help you out as well with uh getting a ksg armory holster which is our holster uh company uh in fact got a guy just through a couple of walls here making holsters right now uh let us know happy to help you out with any holsters you need.
If we can make it for your particular gun, we would definitely do that. So I appreciate you answering the questions and thank you Project 1868 for tuning in and thank you for the questions. Real quick, we’re going to take a little break and we’re going to start transitioning and talking about what happened and what came after this violent incident that fortunately you came on top of.
But before we do that, we’re going to talk about our second sponsor, which is CCW Safe. And this will actually kind of lead me into a question I’m going to ask you, Jarrell. But our other episode sponsor here today is CCW Safe, which is our preferred choice and partner for self-defense coverage. So the aftermath, I mean, here’s the thing, guys. The fight doesn’t end when the threat stops for a lot of people.
There’s still going to be potentially legal issues, financial issues. There could be all kinds of things that happen in the aftermath of an incident. And we’re going to hear in a moment from Jarrell about what his aftermath was like. But we have seen, we’ve talked to people that have had both positive and also very negative experiences in the aftermath of a self-defense shooting.
You want to have the best team backing you up in those critical moments that come after a self-defense incident. And CCW Safe stands at the ready to do just that. We’ve known these guys for years. We know that the owners of the company personally and know that they stand behind their product and stand behind their members.
They have proven that again and again through a number of incidents where they are right there with their quick response team to support, guide, answer questions, get an attorney to you right away. Make sure you have all the tools and resources you need to make sure that the aftermath goes i would say as smoothly but actually i’d say more smoothly than the actual critical incident itself and that’s what a professional team like ccwsafe can provide so ccwsafe.com to learn more guardian nation members of ours guardian nation members can save i think it’s 20 20 discount off CCWSAFE membership.
So you might want to look into Guardian Nation as well. But please consider joining CCWSAFE because that’s who I trust and believe in to back me up in the aftermath of a critical incident, such as one like this. So that’s actually the first question, Jarrell. We’ll talk some of the specifics about what happened, but did you have any kind of concealed carry or self-defense coverage or insurance or anything like that when this happened to you?
No, I didn’t. And I still don’t. And I do, too, definitely. Because I have… I think I did dedicate some time before to looking into the different companies, but that is something that is on my radar because, I count this incident as… I say I’m lucky. I do think because I was in a FedEx uniform, it saved me from going through, you know, that storm, that legal storm, let alone the fact that, okay, cool, you have my ID, you know I’m at work, but, you know, also civilly.
And I’m happy you asked that question because I’m not sure about how many events you talk about that go on in the media currently. I see a lot of people’s emotions and opinions in the comments section. And I try to dissect every shooting from a standpoint, not only legally, but it’s like you have to realize that a person can not only face criminal charges, they can be sued civilly.
And, I mean, like, you always want to be in the best standing for your defense. So, I definitely have to get on the ball and secure some self-defense insurance coverage. Yeah. Awesome. I appreciate you, uh, honestly, uh, uh, sharing that with us. And, uh, if we can be of any assistance to you, uh, in navigating that, let us know.
Um, and, and for folks that, yeah, we do have CCW Safe as a sponsor of the podcast, of course, but, uh, we’ve had a resource on our website for years now. We try to keep it up to date. Uh, you can go to concealedcarry.com forward slash insurance. So concealedcarry.com forward slash insurance and there’s a chart and it compares all the major programs from the different companies uh in that chart so people you know it’s just a free tool that we’ve put together for for years like i said now uh to make it easy for people to make the right decision for them as they’re you know kind of shopping all these different programs that are out there we we personally believe ccw saves the best but uh but there’s a lot of different programs and options out there, and your particular needs might be different than somebody else’s, so you can go through that comparison chart and make the right decision for you. So, all right, Jarrell, you fire back at this guy, and he scrambles away. What do you do next?
My next thought is, like I said, the first thing was, I can’t shoot this guy in the back, but I’m saying, And he’s gone. I don’t want to be in this situation. I’m gone. So I turn to the right. I see my truck. So I just start running to my truck. And as I’m running, my brain is functioning. And I’m thinking of all the videos.
It dawns on me, you’re leaving the scene of a crime. So now I’m like, okay, at least if I’m driving away to get to safety, I got to call 911. So I’m on the phone with 911. I get to my truck. Well, I get to my truck. I realize, luckily, I remember in the panic where my phone is at. So I get to my phone, and one of the first things that came to mind was, okay, I’m shot. I didn’t look, so I’m automatically assuming that I’m bleeding out profusely.
So I say to myself, well, if I could control my breathing, I could probably slow my heart rate down, which would have pumped less and probably control how much blood I’m losing, right? Like, I think that allowed my brain to function even clearer because when I got on the phone with 9-1-1 operator, another thing kicks into my frame of mind is like, well, it always seems like when you call 9-1-1, they ask a bunch of questions and they just keep you talking.
My mindset was that I am going to control this conversation. I’m going to give you everything you need to know. I don’t want to keep talking. As I’m driving. So I think I got in the truck. I pull off. So the block that I was on, directly in front of me, there’s homes. So you have to make a left or make a right. But on the other side of those homes is an Acme parking lot.
So I believe I made the left, made the very first right, right onto the street and drove to the Acme while I’m talking to the dispatch. And I think I very clearly stated I gave her my name. I gave her the address where the incident happened at. I told her I worked for FedEx. Told her I had been robbed. I told her what the suspect was wearing, told him that I was shot.
And this is, I mean, you can give me your opinion on it. So I know a lot of people, as we were talking about the self-defense coverage, I said to her that I returned fire. Because that’s all I knew at the time, I returned fire. I didn’t know if he was hit or not, but I wanted that to be known for the authorities. Like, hey, when you get here, just know that I’m shot.
He’s possibly shot I’m a firearms on a FedEx driver so by the time I got to the Acme which might have been, maybe I wouldn’t even say it was a minute because it was a car coming in the intersection and I was just on my horn the whole time like listen I’m not stopping I gotta make this turn I’m trying to get to my head, so time I pulled into the Acme I think when I stopped I might have put my head on the steering wheel for like maybe a second and then I instantly seen sirens and I saw past the cops.
Oh, that’s great. It’s not always they’re able to make a quick response, but, uh, it’s nice when they do. I’ll bet you were feeling relieved at that point. I definitely, definitely was knowing help was, Uh, coming. Definitely was. Yeah. That’s gotta be scary. Not knowing the extent of your injuries and not knowing if you know you have seconds or minutes to live if you’re going to bleed out like you said you might have been doing and so did you ever lose consciousness you know during all this from that point onward till you got help there or at the hospital at the hospital I lost consciousness I think twice but throughout the whole ordeal Hello.
I was alert because it was in my mind for one of the first things I said to myself also was that you got to put it in your mind. I’m going to survive this. So I feel like I already put that on my back. I’m going to survive this. So when the cops came, I stood up. I was trying to be as active as possible. They put me in the police car to take me to the hospital. I guess the ambulance is going to take too long.
Um do recall a police officer asking me where my firearm was and i pointed to the four o’clock position and back to training. Yeah so you had reholstered At some and honestly i don’t recall doing that and i was like i said this is how important training is because it just became muscle memory i’m like i don’t recall reholstering that weapon at all i thought i was like let me get out of here, but it was on my head.
He did ask me how many rounds that I discharged, and I was like, I don’t know. I said, listen, the gun holds 12, so whatever’s left in the magazine, that’s the answer right there to how many rounds I shot. So he just took the gun, he took me in the car, and drove me to the hospital, which was maybe seven minutes away, I would guess, with his siren on.
But it felt, it felt, it felt longer because as you mentioned, feeling safe. The moment I got to the police car, I did feel safe. I’m okay, cool. I’m on the way to the hospital. That’s kind of when the adrenaline dump went away. It’s like, okay, you’re safe now. Now there’s discomfort in my abdomen kicks in. And I’m like, I mean, I wouldn’t say it was pain.
It was a whole lot of discomfort like laying back there in the cruiser to the hospital. Well, I’ve sat in those back seats of cruisers. They’re not made to be comfortable, that’s for sure. And I was laying down in it. Like, I think at one point my foot was actually hanging out the window because I was trying to be as comfortable as possible.
And this is where I was telling you, like, I’m just, like, calm, chill. And I always try to do the right thing. Most people probably will ask me, what the heck is on your mind? I think I text my wife. I’ve been shot but then at the same time i text my boss hey i’ve been shot your truck is here, i know people probably wouldn’t i don’t care about letting you know where your truck is at i’m sure i’m trying to get to the hospital but i was trying to let him know your truck is here i’ve been shot i’m hurt so you know at least what’s going on, wow it’s times i’m telling the story and i’m here like i can’t believe i did all that and i expect my brain thought about everything like that so wow.
So you made the 911 call uh police arrived uh there was no question when they arrived like they they knew what they were arriving to like they knew that you were the victim there was no question as far as who you were To them um i think the only question was before he put me in the car, he asked me if I was shot. And he said he didn’t see anything. So, i was wearing a back brace so when i once i lift up my fedex shirt and i um, took the velcro off my back brace i showed him he’s like oh yeah you’re shot so i don’t know how bad it looked i’m guessing if he responded that quick it must have he probably could have clearly seen but i i do remember tightening back up my, back brace i guess in my mind i’m like it’s going to apply pressure to the wound like it may help me in some way shape or form that was just how my mom was thinking like i said i’ve always watched those videos and still not done with my training i do want to take classes on, you know trauma classes on stopping the bleed knowing how to apply a tourniquet and, what you call those look um i forgot you call those uh.
Not the compression kits the um the one for like when you shot in the chest or so the chest seals sorry, I retain a lot of knowledge so in my mind it was just tighten this back brace back up and let it hopefully this is a whole impression on it but that was pretty much the only question I think the 9-1-1 dispatch, by me trying to articulate everything so clearly I think that told them everything we needed it.
Yeah, that was really, I’ll just say, I’m quite impressed with how you seem to have handled yourself through all of that. The communication aspect, you know, that after response, that’s quite remarkable. And you would attribute that to, I mean, some of the training, the content that you’d watched and reviewed over the years, is that that was a help to you?
Is that how you see it okay that’s that’s awesome that is awesome i’m gonna by the way we’re done i’m gonna text uh john korea and i’m gonna say hey by the way i just did this awesome interview with jorrell and uh he gave you some kudos dude and you should probably know that i’m sure john would appreciate that um how did your how did your boss uh react to all this and did you know Did he support you through all of this and afterwards?
What did the aftermath go like as far as with your job? Yeah, he was definitely supportive. I think my wife said he actually was at the hospital the night of because once I arrived, they reeled me into triage, x-rayed me. I think cats gave me too, but then gave me some medication before surgery. But she said he was out there in the waiting room.
So only person I seen that night was my wife before I went to surgery. He came to the hospital after I came out of surgery. And, you know, even after he was still basically held my job so I can come back anytime. So he was definitely supportive. That’s great. That’s great. And since I’m on that topic, you don’t work for FedEx any longer or for this contractor.
Was that just a voluntary separation that you made at some point later on, or was this incident a factor in you eventually not continuing to work at FedEx anymore? At that point, because when I woke up, I already had representation as far as an attorney and then a workman’s comp attorney also. So my attorney actually requested more time for me to be away.
So I think workman’s comp had paid me out for a few years, and that’s when I had cut ties. But, you know, it was no problem. I would have went back, but I’m happy I took my lawyer’s advice. Because it took a while. I definitely needed the counseling and the therapy, to move past the incident because for a long time, you know, I would still – it took me a while to get comfortable being outside again, after dark, even in the daytime.
Sometimes the PTSD, you don’t like people approaching you or being too close to you because you don’t know their intent. So like I said, that time that I took to not, you know, return back to that environment. And even today when I see FedEx drivers and stuff, it kind of gives me flashbacks to like, wow, you can be so locked in the work that, you know, you can easily be harmed, you know, so.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I appreciate you sharing that with me. So you said you had an attorney. I mean, not just a workers’ comp attorney, but you had another attorney to advise you in the aftermath of all this? How did that come to be? Well, my wife, one of her friends is an attorney. And so she called her. Oh, good. That might have been the same night or the next night because I went into surgery that same night.
And I woke up that Friday morning. So I’m guessing it was that Thursday she contacted her friend. Um, I guess she already knew because I shot somebody and he didn’t survive that I can face, you know, legal ramifications. So she had, her friend reached out to another attorney that she was close to. He’s a criminal defense attorney and here in Philly, he, he’s actually been in the news plenty of times.
You know, they asked him for his opinion on a lot of cases. So he took my case, just off the strength of he said he felt connected to me because he used to be a police officer and he had also been shot. So he felt connected, just took my case, seen me in the hospital. You know ultimately he didn’t really he didn’t have to do anything because, he said to me if you’re not in handcuffs in this hospital and they’re going to allow you, to go home and then come interview you in your home I was in there for two weeks they came, about a week after I came out or so to interview me he was like They’re probably not looking at you Anywhere criminally and what not They just wanted to have the pieces To the story for that night Which was the case.
Yeah. I mean, as far as, from my point of view, it seems like this was relatively, you know, as they might say, cut and dry or black and white. You know what I mean? It probably couldn’t have gone much better for you as far as that’s concerned, which is good. Not every shooting goes that way, does it? Not at all. Yeah. Now that’s awesome though, that your wife was on top of things and, and, and made arrangements and made all the connections to, to get you some legal representation.
That’s super important. Even like, and we’ve tried to stress this to our audience before that, even if you’re in an incident and you feel like you are in the right, that you’ve done everything right and correct, uh, you still want to get legal representation because, um, even when you think that you’re in the right, you’re in the right.
Think you did everything right understand you got these other people these investigators they are not you they don’t see what you saw they all they have to look at is whatever the evidence shows and sometimes evidence is not either either there’s not a lot of evidence and you know so therefore there’s not a lot to tell a story from or maybe evidence shows you know something that they interpret a different way or whatever, right?
And so it’s a good idea to have legal representation no matter what. This is a critical situation for any self-defense-minded individual that’s been through an incident like this to make sure that you got somebody guiding you through this process, that you’re not answering questions that you shouldn’t be answering or answering yet um and so i’m glad you had that that’s good that was that was really really good um so you just mentioned you had surgery maybe or maybe you even had more than one did you have just one surgery or was there others it was just One surgery from that night and let me just piggyback off what you said too with even we’re having everything you may think you’re good with your attorney and.
Not having you answer questions you should have been answering. My cousin, he’s a retired corrections officer. And, you know, as we was talking, there’s one thing that I learned about corrections and law enforcement is that in the aftermath of a shooting, usually with police officers, they don’t make any statements or release any statement from the officer involved in the shooting they usually talk to the other officers because, under high stress sometimes your your mind creates things that weren’t were not even there like the entire time this happened i don’t know why i thought there was a.
Shrub or tree in this person’s yard right it wasn’t no tree there but my brain literally tells me to this day there was a tree there and I had a little bit of a cover, but it wasn’t there. Um, so that’s another important thing too with the attorney, but go back to the, um, uh, question I did have, um, it was, I think it was pretty much one surgery.
They opened me up, um, sewed up my intestine. And I think my wife was saying they you know put the gauze, in my um abdomen to absorb all the blood and they I think they left me open to monitor me like a whole night and then um I was in the hospital prior to that my spine, it healed on its own they didn’t even have to do anything with that so it was just one surgery that’s good thankfully.
Good. Yeah, that’s great. But as you mentioned, you were in the hospital for about two weeks. So you still had quite a bit of recovery to do there. And then I imagine some, you know, at home after that, too. You mentioned a moment ago, and so let’s kind of shift gears a little bit. And as we get close to wrapping this up, you caught my attention when you said you talked about your personal trauma and mental health following this as well.
And some of the healing that needed to take place with that as well. Not just the physical healing that you obviously had to go through. Uh and we’re so glad that you know that you healed uh i presume fully from your physical injuries but could you share a little bit more about what you experienced personally mentally emotionally uh could you just expand on that a little bit i think that’s really good for people to hear all Right so for me it was, the the mental aspect of it um i’m telling you where part of the mental aspect started, actually started in the triage room because I’m not sure if every city and state have the same protocol, but I do know that normally, they try not to bring criminal and victim to the same hospital.
Believe it or not, when they found him, he was in the same triage room as me. Literally, it was a half a wall dividing us. Remember you asked me if I had lost consciousness. It was the second time I lost consciousness because I was, I’m telling you, I was fighting to stay awake, stay alert, stay out of the light. Like they say, your body just gives out. I woke up the first time.
Then the second time I was surrounded by police officers and I heard commotion on my left hand side with them trying to revive the suspect. And then at the same time, I’m being I was being commended by police officers, like, hey, that’s him over here. And, you know, pretty much he’s not going to make it like pretty much like a pat on the back.
But in that moment, I’m laying on this bed and I’m like, this is not a proud moment for me. Like I didn’t have no intention of going through this tonight. I wanted to deliver packages, go home to my family. But you know being in the hospital hearing nurses tell you that listen. You don’t understand how often a criminal is being taken care of and the victim is dead they said it feels good to know that the good the good guy survived every so often right so that was the very first part so i had to.
I had that and then coming home and for me it was more so like just the thought of, this incident and oh my god it can happen again so i was a little bit paranoid like i honestly thought every time i walked out my house there would be somebody waiting at the corner just waiting to mug me again but, therapy definitely helps with that a lot so i will always i would tell anybody like you go through a traumatic situation seek counseling because you may not I think it’s affecting you, but it does affect you. Me, I think because.
I felt remorse for him. I actually, the only thing, the only negative feeling I have towards that night and the suspect is, why didn’t you just walk away with the money that I gave you? Like, it didn’t have to go this far. I felt, you know, pity on the family. Like, this is the holiday season. Now you have to deal with burying a loved one.
But like I said you have to deal with all those emotions, and you know going through therapy it helped me out I had a one on one therapist and then, you know here in Pennsylvania Drexel is one of the major cities here, Drexel also had a program for victims of violent crimes which is because it was COVID it was done over the phone but it’s in a group setting and pretty much except for one of the counselors, he had been there before too.
But everybody else has been through a situation similar. So actually talking to other people that has been through similar situations and being able to bounce off each other, that was very helpful to me. Wow. I actually wanted to continue that too. No lie, I really wanted to continue, in being able to help others when it comes to the recovery process of just dealing with that.
Well, I appreciate you talking about all this with us here today and sharing your story and your feelings and everything, because I hope that this is helpful for others out there listening or watching and vice versa. I hope that, you know, I certainly wouldn’t want you to go through anything, you know, negatively, emotionally as part of doing this podcast, but I hope this is also just part of your journey too.
So I’ve kept you for 90 minutes now, which is a bit longer than I intended, but this is just such a great story. I mean, frankly, I don’t know if you realize it, but this is just a very compelling story, and I am so thankful for your time. If someone listening carries every day but has never truly imagined being in an incident like this or maybe even being shot like you were and having to fight through it, anything like that.
But what’s something that you, you know, what’s one thing you would like viewers or listeners to take away from your story? I would say this because once I became – I also took – sorry, I also took classes to become a firearms instructor. But I developed the mentality in trying to tell people, listen, the minute you decide to buy a firearm and carry a firearm, please you know get adopt the idea of you don’t want to go through this but if I have to go through this just know that.
You it should be no hesitation in choosing your life over the bad guy and I feel like that’s the first part of it but definitely you know God forbid it happens you know, make sure you just have you know, a community in the village around you, whether it be, you know, therapy, like you mentioned too, with the self-defense insurance, because that can take a lot of the pressure off of you that you don’t have to go through this on your own.
Just have a community around you. Like if your lawyer’s going to handle the legal aspect of it, you can talk to your therapist, that will definitely help you. And, you know, just remember, look at it like this. If you wake up every day and you step out into the world looking to do good and God forbid you have to face a threat and you have to defend yourself, never look at yourself as the bad guy.
You did what you had to do to get home to your family. Never look at yourself as the bad guy. Wise words. One more thing. What would you say to the version of yourself who clocked in that morning with no idea of what was going to happen that night great question oh I would probably tell him, keep your head on a swivel. Keep your head on a swivel.
Throughout anything, especially in the dark, just stay alert. Stay alert. Yeah. As you said earlier in the interview, and I’ve heard this from other folks like yourself that have been in similar situations, it’s not uncommon to hear the phrase, he came out of nowhere. And you said that almost exactly word for word. He just, I don’t know where he came from.
That happens, unfortunately, so often. And it’s a lesson I keep trying to remind myself of that, hey, things can happen really fast and kind of come out of nowhere. And it’s harder for them to come out of nowhere if I’m actually really working to pay attention. So thank you for sharing your story, Jarrell. This has been a wonderful time with you. I hope it was good for you as well.
Good, good. You mentioned that you’ve become a firearms instructor. You’ve done a little bit of that. You’re in the West Philly area. Is there anywhere you’d like to point people to if they wanted to try to connect with you or find you, come take a class from you or anything like that? Where would they find you? You can email me. My email is training at purplelineselfdefense.com.
And I have an Instagram page. I haven’t been posting a lot, but the handle is led, L-E-A-D, two rights. That’s the Instagram page. You can contact me on there, too. Awesome. Excellent. Well, good. Thanks again, Jarrell. And folks that have been here with us live today, thank you for being a part of this. Of course, most of you are going to be catching this interview after the fact.
That’s where most of our listeners and viewers are, is catching it on the podcast feed later on or on the YouTube channel after the fact. Thank you either way for watching. I hope you would hear the story and take some things away from it like I have and then desire to share that with friends, family, coworkers, whoever you think could also benefit from a message like this, an episode like this here today.
Guys, thank you for your support in sharing and spreading the good word of the podcast and everything we try to do here at concealedcarry.com. We want to make sure we thank our sponsors. Again, of course, for the second half of this episode in particular, we highlighted CCW Safe quite a bit. Thank you, CCW Safe, for everything you do for us at concealedcarry.com and the Concealed Carry Podcast, and also our wonderful friends over there at HK for your support of us as well.
Thank you, CCWsafe and HK both. If you guys would care to learn more about those folks and those companies, you can go to hk-usa.com and ccwsafe.com. Don’t forget to subscribe and like the podcast and share. Also, our social media pages, Concealed Carry on Facebook, Concealed Carry Inc. On Instagram and the like. We’re always trying to put out good content.
And if you’ve got any questions or anything you’d like to send our way, you can always reach us at our email. We’ll call it the email hotline, the podcast email, which is podcast at concealedcarry.com. Thank you, everyone, for being a part of this episode with us here today. Thank you again, Jarrell. And until next time, a reminder to train right, train often, and train safe so you can fight hard, fight fast, and fight true. Take care.
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