A 23-year-old man attempting a carjacking in Philadelphia last week got much more than he bargained for.
According to WPVI-TV, the gunman allegedly approached a pizza delivery driver about 7:30 p.m. Jan. 27, pointed a weapon at the driver and demanded he get out of the car.
However, what the gunman did not know was that his attempted victim was legally carrying his own firearm.
“The driver of that car — when he saw that this male was pointing a gun at him, demanding that he get out of the vehicle — brandished his own firearm, which he was legally allowed to carry,” said Philadelphia Police Inspector D. F. Pace, according to WPVI.
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The driver proceeded to shoot the would-be carjacker six times.
Neighbor Eric Howard said he was having a rather normal night before he heard the incident.
“I was just remodeling my kitchen and talking to my son, and he was about to come out the door, and as soon as he went to open the door- that’s when we heard the shots,” Howard said.
In Howard’s view, the delivery driver was well within his rights to shoot.
“The guy was licensed to carry a gun and defended himself,” Howard said.
Pace told WPVI the gunman returned fire, but the driver was not hit. The suspect was eventually taken to a local hospital in a private vehicle, where he was in “exremely critical condition,” WPVI reported.
He was not identified beyond his age. Pace said the individuals who brought him to the hospital were also considered “persons of interest” in the case.
In an ideal world, no one would have to shoot another person to defend himself. Sadly, that is just not the reality we live in.
According to the New York Post, there were 757 carjackings in Philadelphia in 2021. That was 353 more carjacking incidents than the previous year.
As of Jan. 28, 2022, there had already been 90 carjacking during the calendar year in Philadelphia, the Post reporterd. If that pace continued all year, the city would see over 1,000 carjackings.
It isn’t just carjackings that are increasing, either. On Jan. 19, WPVI-TV reported in a separate article that 32 homicides had occurred in Philadelphia since Jan. 1.
That was a 19 percent increase compared to the same period 2021, which was already the deadliest year in the city’s history according to WPVI.
“The rising numbers are beyond troubling, especially given that during the winter months, we generally would tend to see a decrease in the number of crimes committed,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said at the time. “But unfortunately, over the last few years, we haven’t seen those lulls in crime.”
With the crime levels continuing to rise, the importance of the Second Amendment for people like this delivery driver is becoming even more apparent.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
