Self Defense

Gov. Jeb Bush said in Tallahassee that he intended to sign a bill that would allow people who feel threatened -- even on the street or at a baseball game -- to "meet force with force" and defend themselves with a weapon without fear of prosecution. The measure, the top priority of the National Rifle Assn. in Florida this year, passed by a 94-20 vote in the House on Tuesday. It had been approved by the Senate.

When the first sharp cracks of gunfire erupted across the street from the West Los Angeles balloon store where he works, Monet Delapaz figured it was just a car backfiring on Santa Monica Boulevard. But when the blasts continued in a furious burst--from five to 10 to somewhere around 15--he knew what had happened. "Another one bites the dust," he thought to himself. "The watch store again." Delapaz was correct. What he heard Thursday afternoon was yet another gunfight at The Watch Co.

Toting collapsible white canes, their eyes shrouded in dark glasses, the group of blind Los Angeles-area residents gathered Saturday because they feel they have little defense against an often violent world. After six hours of specialized training in how to kick, punch and deliver a debilitating blow to the most delicate areas of would-be assailants, the participants said they now have a fighting chance. "Ugh!"

Sharon Kawai looks tiny and helpless in her wheelchair, an easy mark for muggers. But when her instructor, Philip Axelson, lunges at her, she moves her hands and arms with surprising speed and dexterity. Kawai quickly deflects Axelson's arms, then twists one of his wrists, forcing the 6-foot-tall, 210-pound man to his knees, and thrusts her fingers upward to his eyes.

Investigators say an off-duty Costa Mesa police officer acted in self-defense when he shot and killed one man and wounded another after he was attacked last month outside a restaurant in Old Town Temecula. Riverside County sheriff's detectives interviewed more than 20 people in the area where the incident took place, including eyewitnesses, before concluding that Officer Scott Dibble, 31, a nine-year veteran, was the victim in the assault. Shaun Vilan, 30, of Temecula was killed in the shooting.

Clad in matching black T-shirts and armed with flashlights and handcuffs, four members of a gay street patrol marched through shadowy alleys and parking lots on a recent chilly night, on the lookout for gay-bashers. They patrolled past gay bars and restaurants along West Hollywood's Santa Monica Boulevard in a formation taught to them by the Guardian Angels, a national anti-crime patrol group.

A security guard who tried to stop a group of teen-agers from shoplifting three 12-packs of beer ended up defending himself against a barrage of bottles by shooting and wounding one of the suspects, police said Sunday. The guard was then fired at by the wounded youth's companions, police added. The guard was not hit by the gunfire and was not seriously hurt by flying bottles. The incident occurred just after midnight Sunday in front of the 7-Eleven convenience store at 902 W. Edinger Ave.

An 85-year old Santa Ana man who repeatedly complained to police that vagrants and drug addicts were living in a trailer in his back yard, picked up a shotgun Monday and marched outside to confront them. When one of the inhabitants lunged at him, he shot him dead, police said. Police confiscated a 20-gauge shotgun belonging to Ferris H. Scott, owner of the home in the 1300 block of North Broadway, but declined to arrest him while their investigation continues.

A controversial bill that would allow certain victims of domestic violence--usually women--to invoke a justifiable homicide defense in the killings of their attackers was approved by the Senate Friday. Carried by Sen. Lucy Killea (I-San Diego), the legislation was supported by a variety of women lawyers and victims rights organizations and opposed by Dist. Atty. Gilbert L. Garcetti, Atty. Gen. Daniel Lungren and other prosecutors throughout California.

The knife-wielding man lunged at his opponent. One hard upward jab and the weapon's blade would slice into the soft flesh under the man's chin. But the would-be victim was having none of it. Using forearms and hands, he neatly deflected the attacker's lunge, punched him hard in the chest and then quickly delivered a stinging kick to the groin that was felt empathetically around the room. "I'm striking more than once," the man calmly explained, "because that's the way it is in the streets.