[Double Naught Spy]

fastforty, you did do well, as evidenced by the fact that you won, so at least you did well for your particular situation. With that said, you could have done better. From what you described, you put yourself into unnecessary danger. You meanted you approached the bandits from cover. So that tells me that you were exposed, not a good thing given that you had other options in your non-life threatening situation.

Next, you experienced something very real that does happen to police and citizens alike when they are alone and facing multiple bad guys. You discovered that you can't necessarily control multiple bad guys at the same time and that as a result they managed to go in two different directions. Whomever you were not covering was able to move. So you ordered one guy down and the other went to the cab of the truck. When you started shooting tires, the both bailed. You were unable to do anything to stop their foot egress.

You said that you saw the second bad guy got to the cab of the truck, thinking he was going for a weapon. Maybe so, maybe not. He might have just been trying to use the truck for a get away. You noted that you ordered him to stop what he was doing and he didn't stop. And here I think you made a hugely critical error. You took your eyes off the bad guy inside the cab of the truck, not knowing whether he was getting a weapon or not or what type of weapon he as going to get. You took your attention off of him in order to shoot the tires to preclude his escape in the vehicle. No doubt that at this time, you didn't have your eyes on the first bad guy either. So you were out in the open, shooting tires, with one bad guy somewhere on the ground in your immediate vicinity and one inside of the truck possible going for a weapon, that could easily have been a gun. You had know way of knowing what weapons were or were not available. The guy on the ground potentially could have produced a gun at that time, or maybe the guy in the truck. So you were faced with a split suspect control issue, out in the open, and facing an unknown set of weapons. This could have gone south for you very quickly.

Also note that you only spotted 2 bad guys. I don't doubt that there were only two, but from what you described, you had no way of knowing if there was a 3rd or 4th that would have been obstructed from your via if they had gone in or around the barn. The potential extra bad guys might have been searching for more goodies when they heard your voice commands. They would have been in a tactically great situation of being hidden and completely unknown to exist by you...and you were not behind cover.

Is that your white house in the back left of the picture of the flat tires? Just how far away were your kids when you started shooting. I don't think you would have hit your kids and I am not meaning to imply that, but if they were in the immediate vicinity, then they were in danger by the potential actions of the bad guys. In trying to flee in the truck, had it come to pass, your kids would have been in danger from the truck. He passed by your kids on the way in and undoubtedly would have passed by or over them on the way out if they were in his way.

I liked the photograph of the 'weapons.' I think you were being overly dramatic. Bill spots 4 potential weapons. I see one actual weapon and then just a bunch of typical farm truck accessories. If we wanted to count potential weapons, everything there in the seat except maybe the cigarettes, plastic bag, and toilet paper roll could all be used as weapons, but they weren't. They were simply tools. With the exception of the garbage, cigs, beer, and monkey wrench, I have all those in my vehicle and some extra.

Obviously, you did well enough for your situation as you did come out just fine, but then again, you weren't coming up against very bright or prepared bandits. From the sounds of things, all parties involved spent too much time out in the open and with less than adequate situational awareness and control.