This just happened to me last night. I work as a painter and have been doing night work at a local car dealership in Nimitz. I was waiting for access to the building at about 9:00pm. I noticed a local man walking out of the dealership parking lot with a cart of our equipment. I grabbed my tactical flashlight and pepper spray and confronted the individual. The man very quickly became confrontational and threatening. I asked him to leave the equipment. He then pulled out a knife and ran at me. I pulled out my pepper spray and pointed the flashlight at him. He went back to the cart and kept going. As he kept walking away I called the police and kept following the man. He started down an unlit backstreet alley with no exits. He ran at me with the knife again threatening to kill me. I was reluctant to go down the alley as I don't know the area and didn't want to get cornered. I noticed a cop car come by and went over and told them what happened and where I saw him go. The cops couldn't find the guy or equipment.

I thought I would share the story, as I think it supports the case this site stands for. It would have been much more effective to confront the situation with a firearm rather than purely defensive weapons. Even a taser would have been more effective, unfortunately also not legal. I also don't think I would want to confront such an unstable person in some sort of knife fight.

Scary story vidar808, I'm glad no one got hurt..

I know theres "authorities" that don't want us to have firearms so in due time it would be easier to contain us if needed..... whatevers

It's the anti gunnies that don't understand that a "bad guy with a gun gets stopped by a good guy with a gun"

When he went away after the first time that you pulled out your pepper spray and pointed your flashlight at him, you should have let him go and called the police whether you had a firearm or not. Avoiding a fight is better than being put in a position to have to shoot someone, IMHO.
You're lucky that he wasn't more aggressive. In the end, that fact that you're OK is the most important thing.

This isn't Texas; you can't use deadly force to protect property.  Sucks, but that's the law.

Can't say I disagree with that law. Life is more important than property. Running at you with a knife was certainly life threatening, however. That's assault. Thank heavens you had the tac light and the pepper spray.

But its a shining example of how ineffective the police for is for stopping crimes in progress. Makes me wonder why tasers are illegal here. Would have had the same deterrent effect as the pepper spray and you might have stopped the criminal from leaving long enough for the police to arrive and actually, you know, do something about it.

Glad no one was hurt.

The old wives tale is that some perv was going around Waikiki tazing hookers.

This just happened to me last night. I work as a painter and have been doing night work at a local car dealership in Nimitz. I was waiting for access to the building at about 9:00pm. I noticed a local man walking out of the dealership parking lot with a cart of our equipment. I grabbed my tactical flashlight and pepper spray and confronted the individual. The man very quickly became confrontational and threatening. I asked him to leave the equipment. He then pulled out a knife and ran at me. I pulled out my pepper spray and pointed the flashlight at him. He went back to the cart and kept going. As he kept walking away I called the police and kept following the man. He started down an unlit backstreet alley with no exits. He ran at me with the knife again threatening to kill me. I was reluctant to go down the alley as I don't know the area and didn't want to get cornered. I noticed a cop car come by and went over and told them what happened and where I saw him go. The cops couldn't find the guy or equipment.

I thought I would share the story, as I think it supports the case this site stands for. It would have been much more effective to confront the situation with a firearm rather than purely defensive weapons. Even a taser would have been more effective, unfortunately also not legal. I also don't think I would want to confront such an unstable person in some sort of knife fight.

OK wait, the guy charges you twice with a knife and you never pepper spray him?  You go down an alley with no exits and the LEO's can't find a bum with a shopping cart.  BS meter is high on this.

OK wait, the guy charges you twice with a knife and you never pepper spray him?  You go down an alley with no exits and the LEO's can't find a bum with a shopping cart.  BS meter is high on this.

+1
Sounds like a scene from Hollywood where Jackie Chan would scale walls etc.

Not too many no exit streets in Nimitz area.  Only one I can think of.  Hmmmm......

OK wait, the guy charges you twice with a knife and you never pepper spray him?  You go down an alley with no exits and the LEO's can't find a bum with a shopping cart.  BS meter is high on this.

Yeah, that is weird that he never sprayed him.

OK wait, the guy charges you twice with a knife and you never pepper spray him?  You go down an alley with no exits and the LEO's can't find a bum with a shopping cart.  BS meter is high on this.

I backed off each time he ran at me. When I pulled out the pepper spray the first time he ran at me he stopped and went back to the cart. I was never closer than 10' from the guy. I was certainly prepared to use it, but wanted to let the cops deal with the situation at that point.

Not too many no exit streets in Nimitz area.  Only one I can think of.  Hmmmm......

I didn't say street. I said alley. See link to google maps location below. The area I am talking about is a long pathway between a fenced in area and the highway. If you continue down it it goes under the bridge. Many homeless in the area live under the bridges.

^^^No alleys, but choke homeless under the overpasses and next to the airsoft and paintball field.  Multiple shootings in that area man.

Pepper spray the mofo or don't even follow him.


If you want follow up go to Forums Hawaii and PM Kalihi Cop.  He patrols that area at night.

Our yard in Mapunpuna got broken into a few times in the past year....

I work on Sundays and once i was pulling in at the end of a work day and a guy was grabbing stuff outta the work vans...

He saw me and ran...

It sucked because it took me a long time to register what was happening...

He jumped over a wall entering into another companies work yard.... He had broke the windows of 2 work vans.....

I didn't say street. I said alley. See link to google maps location below. The area I am talking about is a long pathway between a fenced in area and the highway. If you continue down it it goes under the bridge. Many homeless in the area live under the bridges.

Am familiar with the area and the car dealerships are on the other side of Nimitz which is why it sounded odd to me.  This location is near Kilihau St which does dead end but the area you are refering to is next to the highway, not exactly where I thought you were. 

I was working at the Infiniti dealership on the mauka side.

It seems the consensus is, I should have doused him with pepper spray. I haven't faced similar circumstances much and didn't have any backup. At the time I just imagined that the pepper spray might have just enraged him.

Good choice. Pepper spray has no effect on people under the influence of narcotics. You might of just pissed him off. You defending your property is not grounds for the use of deadly force.

Can't say I disagree with that law. Life is more important than property. Running at you with a knife was certainly life threatening, however. That's assault. Thank heavens you had the tac light and the pepper spray.

But its a shining example of how ineffective the police for is for stopping crimes in progress. Makes me wonder why tasers are illegal here. Would have had the same deterrent effect as the pepper spray and you might have stopped the criminal from leaving long enough for the police to arrive and actually, you know, do something about it.

Glad no one was hurt.

I agree!  Life is more important than anything, with that said the guy ran at you twice with a knife in hand that is a good reason to protect yourself.  Ideally, getting away from the situation first would be best for you and court if any deadly force was used it may be easier to justify your decision.  At times I would like to use a less lethal "tool" as a taser rather than deadly force but I would not hesitate on it if my life or families life was on the line.   

Too bad the police didn't catch the guy because he will right back on the street doing the same thing to someone else.
Im glad the situation didn't escalate,  just be aware of your surroundings. 

Can't say I disagree with that law. Life is more important than property. Running at you with a knife was certainly life threatening, however. That's assault. Thank heavens you had the tac light and the pepper spray.

But its a shining example of how ineffective the police for is for stopping crimes in progress. Makes me wonder why tasers are illegal here. Would have had the same deterrent effect as the pepper spray and you might have stopped the criminal from leaving long enough for the police to arrive and actually, you know, do something about it.

Glad no one was hurt.

I disagree with the law.  One should never have to surrender their property to these scumbags.  The law should read...If armed shoot the SOB trying to steal your stuff. knife or no.  But the law as it sits one cannot do squat except keep on gettting raped by the cronics and scum out there.  Sorry.

Good choice. Pepper spray has no effect on people under the influence of narcotics. You might of just pissed him off. You defending your property is not grounds for the use of deadly force.

^^this^^   pepper spray only as a very very last option.   I've seen guys just get more violent when sprayed.

Good choice. Pepper spray has no effect on people under the influence of narcotics. You might of just pissed him off. You defending your property is not grounds for the use of deadly force.

I disagree about not using the pepper spray.  Something is better than nothing and if it's a fear for your life thing, then one should not even follow because pepper spray versus a knife is not a good tradeoff (for OP).

The decision made has to be the right one for the person making the decision.  Every action has consequences.  In this case, he was obviously out gunned.  Pepper spray is a chemical DETERRENT.  The only thing lethal about it would be using the can as a bludgeon. 

There are people out there that could've really messed up a thief with a knife using a tac light and some pepper. 

Take close look next time.  A lot of those bridge dwelling folks are carrying large knives.

So the question is, are you confident enough in your physical and mental training and daily preparation to take on a psyco with a knife? 

I say good call at the time it was made.

You may or may not have gotten lucky. 

I would start preparation for a possible next time.