Police Arrival and Legal Aftermath

Well already again, welcome back once again to the active self protection podcast. I am always your host . Mike Wulliver and I remain your favorite former Fed with me today , a new friend of mine, his name is Uberto. He hails from the Greater Lost Wages. Sorry, Las Vegas, Nevada area . And he is with us today with a story that is about three years old . It was on the local news, not the national news. Oh Brita. How are you, sir? I'm doing well. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. So in our little very brief pre brief, I didn't learn very much about the story, which is how I like it. I asked him what name he wanted to use, and he said, Well, you know, if you can pronounce it, Umberdor said, Oh, can I pronounce it? Of course I can. I speak fluent Spanish and I puff my chest up a little bit, felt pretty proud about that. So tell us, sir, about your personal sort of self defense history. You watch active self protection, I take it, at least Well yeah, this was one of my favorite channels to watch including the Colleon Noir . I believe yes I don't want to butcher his name but you know he used to be a very big watcher on his end as well . Anything that's a code blue cam, you know, police activity and I always like watching what happens in the world . Yeah, Kole Noir is he used to be NRA . I'm not sure if it's NRA affiliate anymore, but yeah, Cole anymore. Don't say police activity in front of John Korea. He's not a fan. Police activity. I don't understand what his issue is. He's explained it to me and I've forgotten, but at any rate. So you as an individual, are you a big self defense minded sort of person? Are you a concealed weapons carrier, pepper spray, martial arts, anything like that ? I will say I'm very big on being aware of your surround ings and knowing and having everybody around me be the same as well . Having general knowledge . Understood. So we're not going to go into too much of your personal life or work history or anything like that. So we'll just kind of kind of jump right into the incident at hand. You said it happened about three years ago and it did happen in Las Vegas ? Yes . So yeah, just we'll jump right into it since there's not a lot of small talk in this episode. So yeah, just kind of walk us through where you were and what happened ? Well, it was pretty much about three in the afternoon. A gentleman came downstairs with a helmet and a rifle hung around the lobby for a couple of minutes kind of like making everybody feel uneasy. So we're keeping an eye on him and then you know obviously we can't do anything right away because open carry here in Nevada is legal although the way he was carrying it was kind of odd and the way he was acting was odd so everybody was kind of aware of what he was doing . You know, walking around acting strange and we thought that because he was going to the elevators he was going to go straight up to his unit . Initially we didn't know he came out of a stairwell . So that was a surprise to us later on. We all thought that he came out of a vehicle in the valet area . And then as we kept an eye on him, you know, one of my ballet coworkers used he approached him and spoke to him and he ended up like kind of spooking him in a bit and then he ended up coming back to the front desk where some of the other guys were watching him and everything through the cameras and he gave a minute or two, let some people walk by here and there. Other employees in the area noticed what was going on and they're all you know kind of cared for their own safety and started hiding off just in case and that ended up working out for everybody, you know . And as he finally decided to start walking towards the front desk and pop the shot off at us . All right, so here 's how true I am to my commitment to the good people who watch and listen to the active self protection podcasts that I do not want to know the story of the person I'm interviewing before I interview the person. I want to hear about it for the first time along with the audience . So much so that I did not realize you were the person that was in the video , the Las Vegas video of the gentleman, gentlemen, I say, who showed up with an AR pattern rifle and a helmet. I've seen the video. So I do have some a little bit of inside knowledge on this one. So it took me off guard when you begin with that particular story. So this guy showed up that day with kind of an old school like army helmet, right? It looked more like a moped helmet or a bicycle helmet . It was a little odd, you know, odd behavior, you know? We didn't think too much of it first. He was a gentleman that was living in the higher units . Okay, so she was a resident that we seen every day . So he was a resident of that place . Yes. Interesting. Okay, I don't think I knew that . And so you know, in the West, I live in Arizona, not too far from where you are . You know, open carry is not an uncommon thing, but mostly when you talk about open carrying and I think you'll agree , most people think of somebody open carrying like a pistol in a pistol or a revolver or a semi automatic pistol usually in a holster on their side, right? Most people aren't open carrying a rifle out in public . That is true, but you know, if people's coming home from an outing or indoor range thing, you know, it's kind of odd that they didn't have a case and the way he was holding it by the grip kind of gave off a lot of red flags, honestly . Yeah, so I'm saying is look, you can open carry a rifle. That's your God given right as an American . I don't think it's a great idea. I'm not telling you you can't do it. I just think it's unwise and it makes people really, really uncomfortable when you're walking around, especially in that particular manner , open carrying a rifle, again, you can do it, doesn't mean it's a great idea. That's just my two cents. I'm not telling anybody they can't do it. I'm just saying it makes people very, very uncomfortable. I think for good reason So where were you when this guy showed up Initially , it took me a few times to look over the video and I do remember that day that when I was going from I had an office down stairs which was the receiving office and I ended up going upstairs with some items to drop off at the front desk . So I took a little backway to get around there and by the time I was going into the side door I noticed him already walking into the main main valet area. So you seemed walking into the valet area, you could clearly see that he was armed. It was obvious to you . Yeah, he was so when I walked into the back valet door, you know, to go drop off some items to the front desk . That's when I seen him from the side of my eye and I kind of stuck around to kind of see what's going on , not realizing that I was the only one carrying a firearm that day . And you know, I just stuck around hoping that he was going to go up to his unit and the day was going to go on as normal . And it did not . So you recognized him as a resident at that point? Oh yes. He was a very well known person at that tower. He was always in and out in the afternoon, evening , including the person who he was living with . And would you say he was well known just as a resident like in a regular sort of guy or was he was he outspoken? Was he unusual? Was he odd, eclectic? How would you describe him ? I don't want to give him labels because he's just a person that we see every day. He's a normal standard type of guy, but the news and the courts want to label him as something else He was a person that had a job. He was going to live in another unit down below . And he had everything normal going in his mind throughout the entire time. We knew him . I wouldn't say socially awkward, but he wasn't that interactive with people like that . I don't know if he's like more kept to himself, but that's pretty much how I seen him . So nothing jumped at you as being a red flag or anything like he was she could be dangerous or anything like that. Nothing jumped at you. Honestly, no . Okay . So you see him recognize him as a as a resident . Nothing unusual other than the fact that he's for whatever reason he's wearing a helmet and carrying a gun. So what happened then? Well, initially I just dropped off whatever I had to drop off and it was a very normal task for me to do to always pay attention to the cameras based on where I'm at and help out my buddies kind of keep an eye on certain things here and there when I'm away from my office and all that. So when I ended up stepping away and I ended up walking into the back door, I already seen him with a rifle. So for me there were a few monitors here and there where I always kept an eye on things and it was just kind of standard for me, you know, if I'm already there I'm watching cameras I'm just gonna kind of help out too and be in the area too. And when eventually he just stayed in the lobby thinking that maybe the elevator broke down or it's taken forever to come back down and he ended up skipping a few elevator rides going up and just stayed in the lobby for a while and I witnessed my ballet coworker approach him, started talking to him and he made like a weird gesture gesture, like he wanted to jerk back and try to aim it at him . But it was like he kind of hesitated. How did you read that interaction? Like what was going for your head ? I thought my buddy was gonna get killed right there . So eventually he comes to my valet buddy comes to the front desk and starts telling us like, oh I feel like he's gonna try to kill me or something like that . And eventually other coworkers start, you know, making ph one calls to the person he was living with and another one was on the phone with the police I believe already at that moment was like we have a guy walking around with AR fifteen and all that so a few minutes have already passed . And before you know it , some people start scattering the ballet buddy who talked to him initially in that ballet lobby area starts telling people to go away, go away this guy here with the rifle . He's a good guy for doing that . Sure. And eventually he stopped hesitating. He put his phone back in his pocket and started walking towards us and eventually popped off around towards the front desk and I witnessed my other coworker, my buddy drop down to the ground. In my mind I thought that he got hit because I seen him from the camera . Like I heard it because he started walking towards the front desk area in the center . We all told each other to go back, get down, you know, just in case. And I end up going to the next doorway that was like connected to the other woman and I was looking at the cameras from over there and when I heard the shot and I see my buddy go down, I thought that he was already hit and I instinctively instinctively reacted. I just went out the side door and I ended up meeting him face to face. Although he was behind the glass , I can still see a very good silhouette of him. About how far away were you at that point? I would guess them like maybe like twenty five or thirty feet away . So at this point, are you already drawing a firearm? I think the moment I started running, I've already pulled it out of my waistband before I got out that side door. So I had to do like a little turn and run off to the side and pull the door and I already have the gun in my hand . Do I remember how? No, everything happened really quick. And then when I came face to face with him , I wouldn't say really directly face to face, but I don't think he saw me come out or knew anybody was gonna come out . So I ended up catching him by surprise . I didn't know if he was going to keep on shooting and because of how polished the floors are, the windows are, all I saw was a very faint silhouette and I was aiming from chest up and as I started letting a few off , he kept on going for some reason. I already thought that I may have hit him and should have dropped already . And I don't know, everything happened so slow and so fast at the same time that I can't explain how I felt in that moment besides an adrenaline adrenaline jump or dump however you want to say it . And I've shot plenty of times, but anytime everybody goes out shooting, we're always shooting at a static target that's just sitting there at a distance and you know you hit your shots pretty good . Over here, you know, you're kind of jumpy and how thick that glass was this is about an inch thick, maybe a little bit more . I really was confident that my bullets were going to go straight and hit him through and his vital organs in the higher and because he kept on moving, I kept on shooting . And luckily I already knew that everybody was already cleared out from the lobby so I wasn't just winging off shots. You know, it happened all so quick so I can't not everybody shoots as well as they think when go down. Yeah. So just to be clear , because I'm trying to remember the video. Were the first shots through the glass to break the glass or did you have a free field of fire between you and him ? Oh, it was through the glass . The glass was at an angle and it was pretty much like an inch thick or so And it's kind of hard to tell if you're shooting directly at the person behind glass once it shatters and you know, it creates all these little cracks all around. You can't see any anything . And as soon as I kept seeing him coming through the doors and eventually dropped a rifle away from him a little bit, that's when I stopped shooting . There's plenty of people that will say online like, oh my tax dollars are getting wasted. You should have killed him. It's like now then I would be in trouble possibly, you know ? Yeah , we could talk about that later during lessons, but we battle that every day in the comments section when John , John Korea, our owner and founder had a break in at his house recently and ended up not shooting the guy. The guy ran away and the comments were full of these internet keyboard cowboys who were like , you should have done the taxpayers and blah blah blah and shot the guy in the back and we were running away and it's like, okay, well, we don't we don't we don't talk like that around here . Yeah . All right, so this guy ends up hitting the ground the rifles away from him . And again, I'm not that I don't remember much about the video at that point . What happens next? Do you just cover him? Because someone would reassure you the police are coming and how long does that take and what happens in between him falling down and the police arriving? I don't want to talk about when the police arrive just yet, but how long does that full thing take? What do you do in the meantime ? I mean, after the shots fired and he hit the ground, he was rolling around, kicking around, screaming real loud. And the moment he dropped our rifle I ended up kind of running around him and kind of like shoving that rifle away further away from him and kind of like keeping my gun pointed at him and you know kind of making sure I don't touch him or do anything just in case I'm getting in trouble personally, you know, for doing anything extra besides what is necessary . And already at that point there's already two or three people on the phone with police and it took them probably a good minute or two, maybe three because I remember being on the phone a little bit afterwards like hey I'm not going to make it home something happened. I might need some help afterwards and Yeah, when the police arrived they were treating him right away almost like he was the victim and by then I already started hearing the well before they got there I started hearing the gates opening and I ended up putting my pistol down on the floor , unchambering it, leaving my two magazines in the chamber ground on the floor . Away from the suspect obviously, but sure, I don't want to be in a predicament where they think I'm the threat and I accidentally get killed for trying to do something good , which is like a weird horrible dream someone would have, but I've had those dreams before. It can happen. It wouldn't be the first time it's happened. You know, they get a call for someone's running around with a gun and they walk in and they just see you holding a gun and you know, it's it's possible. So it's you know, it's the question remains obviously when do I do that? What's the right time to do that? Because you don't want to do it too soon too, quickly and then end up eight balls with somebody else grabbing your gun or he jumps back up and grabs a rifle or whatever. So timing is everything, but I think you probably handle that pretty well. No, you were right to do that for sure . So the police arrive. How long does it take for them to kind of figure out who's who and what's going on ? So initially when they got there, we're me and another coworker were kind of pointing him out. You know, he's right here , he's along the rifle . And they were kind of scrambling, giving him aid, and then some more police officers started coming in . And by then, I was already confident that the police were already present, you know, no more threats around and I ended up kind of walking around to the lobby behind the front desk and started checking on my other coworkers if everybody's okay, you know . I couldn't get out the other door that kind of leads you into the lobby from the front desk behind the front desk because somebody locked it from the inside and that would have been a bad, you know, fish in a barrel situation if he would have came around and back at us . So the police at some point want to talk to you Do they question you on the scene? Do they take you somewhere? Do you talk to them? Do you ask for an attorney? What goes down in that regard? So in that situation from what I remember right and watching the videos after I check on a few coworkers , you know, they're already aiding the guy . They're trying to figure out who the second shooter was, which happened to be me . And they end uped putting me in handcuff s for a little while and I think I was sitting at the valet, you know , lounging area for about a half hour or so until they started watching the videos and determined what happened. And what happened they just cut you loose, so they question you, what goes on ? So what happened afterwards they started pulling everybody who was in the lobby out to the back area kind, of like a amenities area and started having every sit down and write down, you know , what had happened . And I was kind of denying on all of that because I didn't want to say something or write something down that may get me in trouble too . So when the investigators came like probably twenty, thirty minutes afterwards, you know, they wanted to have a chat with me and ask me all kinds of question is and eventually I gave in because everybody says, yeah, do it, do it, do it . And I really didn't want to . But I ended up just doing it and didn't really answer too many questions besides the necessary . And that was it. I was cut loose probably like almost two hours hour and a half afterwards because they had to still process everything, you know, see what was going on. They had to talk to people and verify their story versus what they saw in the cameras . So it took a little good while, but I was in handcuffed for about thirty minutes, I would say, in the couch . Police officer was really on in front of me like he wouldn't let me move my head or anything like that or try to talk to anybody, but it's probably part of what they need to do . But in an instant, you know, I felt like I was gonna go to jail for a while for potentially saving myself and others . So two hours was after that whole incident wraps up , is there any more police contact . A theyre inter youv againiew? Is there any other goings on with the law enforcement? Do you have to go to court or anything like that ? For me though, people who were witnesses were the ones that probably went to court and continued on with that situation For me, I had no charges . You know, they had me detained for a little while initially, but they let me go . And I never heard anything from them besides checking on the court cases myself and seeing how things went down over the months . I gotta tell you two being detained for two hours after something like that and not having to ever deal with them again is like honestly a dream scenario. I can't tell how many people I've talked to that have been in that position where they're sitting at the police station for twenty four hours, twelve to twenty four hours after that going through , you know, three detectives and another guy and lieutenant and it's a whole thing. So thirty minutes in handcuffs in two hours. If you talk to any one at Fire's legal protection, who's one of our sponsors who's dolled one of these cases before , that's really not that. I mean, it really that's a pretty ideal scenario. And the fact that they just went look at tapes and go, yeah, this is a good guy. Let's get him out of here. Let's, you know, let's let's not detain him unnecessarily is not bad at all. Did they keep your gun as evidence? They still have it right now . I've tried contacting the evidence ball to try to get it back because that was my favorite , but they said it's still in processing, so I might have to wait a little bit longer . But the case has been this guy's been convicted of whatever and sentenced everything . He is not sentenced. All I believe all he got was five years probation if you would believe that. Yeah, we talked about that. I think we talked about that on one of our live streams. Yeah, this is insane. Yeah, the guy that broke into John's house got I interviewed him on the podcast recently. I think he got like sixty days in jail and a couple years of probation or whatever. Like I 'm not sure this guy shot into an occupied dwelling and got five years probation is they do you happen to know if they're claiming any sort of mental disability on his part or anything like that? Are you aware of it or do you know ? I believe so because when we were starting to be able to look up and search of the court case and everything, you know, it rolled over to something else and we started seeing the descriptions and minutes and everything of what was going on that they were mandating him to go see a mental therapist or something like that . And I already knew from there that they were going to give them a slap in the wrist family with money, people they know are pretty well connected and stuff like that. So it was like, I already knew what was going to happen happened is like just from seeing that I'm like, hopefully it wraps up soon. No, they boosted it over three more months, three more months, three more months and eventually like almost two and a half years passed by and he only got five years probation . So yeah, even in the first few months, I already knew it wasn't going to be anything serious for him. Wow, so how about you? And we talk about the aftermath of these things almost as much as we always talk about the incident itself . So have you had any lingering effects, any PTSD, anything , any problems when you go back to work? Any hesitancy picking up another firearm? Any after effects for you at all ? Initially , I would say the first month was very hard to sleep . I would have these occurring dreams where maybe something had happened to somebody else and I would wake up randomly . But it all went away slowly over time . And not knowing how things were gonna happen with me legally , I was hesitant to buy a gun, but I felt nakeded so I end up going to a gun store not too long after and getting another one similar as the one I had . And I'm sure someone by the way I'm sure somebody is begging me to ask you if you don m'indt make model caliber of your favorite gun . It was in the Smith and Weson MMP two point zero nine MM . The polymer version is very reliable. It had the hinge trigger standard three dot sights and it shoots like a dream. Some people don't like the trigger but I prefer that trigger . I don't know if this is because how I hold things that I like a heavier field for the pool? There you go . So you ended up picking up another one. Are you now once again if you don't mind, you don't have to answer if you want to. Are you now again a daily carrier . Oh yes. Even after that was once I got my other gun I started carrying every day again. No problem . For me it was more of like a safety thing and paranoid thing for a little while but that all, kind of shook away and just turned into my standard, you know, everyday carry just in case. Very good. Well, I'm glad you made it through this one piece, and I'm glad the legal system didn't abuse you one necessarily. And I'm sorry this guy didn't get a little bit more than basically a slap on the wrist legally speaking . But I thought I want to part ways with you until we've discussed everything you wanted to talk about. Did we forget anythingting or did they' lereaving anything out ? I don't think so. We pretty much covered what had happened during and after . And you know, at least I got to tell out my little part of the story, you know, where everybody's very critical of criticizing and stuff like that of like this guy can't shoot, this guy can't shoot. Well, you probably haven't been in a situation where your ass is jumpy and you don't know what you're doing. Oh, excuse my language. That's okay . Yeah, I mean , I would love to know all the people that were criticizing you for quote unquote, you can't shoot and why didn't you do it the taxpayers and blah blah bl blahah bl blahah blah . There's a lot of those people out there. Ask me how I know because our videos get hundreds of thousands of views and there are a lot of people who like to sit in their keyboard and say words on the internet . And I'm venturing to guess here. Most of whom have never been in that situation. Most of whom I would venture to vent would probably wet their pants if they were in that situation. If someone was walking around with an AR pattern rifle shooting it off indoors, those people would probably wet their pants and hide in the men's room. They would probably not probably not would have done what you did , but they are happy to judge you on the internet facelessly in the quiet of their mom's basement hiding behind a keyboard in the glow of their, you know, while their mom brings them grape juice and graham crackers, they can talk about how Alberto did everything wrong. Don't worry about it. Let it bounce off the back. Like the water off of ducks' butt. Trust me. At a buddy who was telling me don't even read the comments, don't even pay attention to it. And you know, temptation kind of gets to you and you read a little bit here and there and then you're like yeah it was all good. You know I never took anything in a bad way. You know, always stay practicing keep your head in a swivel like John says and just be aware of your own surroundings, make sure everything is good and you go home safe but by the end of the day. Absolutely. Mertra, I can't thank you enough for writing in and coming on the show. I really appreciate you . Now thank you for having me