Joseph Wilcox, a legally licensed concealed carrier, came to the rescue of fellow Walmart shoppers when Jerad and Amanda Miller started shooting up the place, screaming of “revolution”. Joseph made a fatal mistake: he didn’t see Amanda Miller.
Because there was a degree of separation between Jerad and Amanda, Joseph incorrectly identified one threat but missed the other. From the surveillance footage in this video provided by Active Self Protection, we see him properly use cover and concealment on his approach towards Jerad.
In regards to Joseph Wilcox’s decision to carry — he carried for all the right reasons. He wanted to protect himself, his family, and those who would be the victim of violent men and women seeking to selfishly further their own deluded ideas.
“He was very protective of other people. The reason he got that gun was because he got tired of people like that,” people who would pick on others, Debra Wilcox said.
Unfortunately, Joseph suffered from “Tunnel Vision”. He correctly identified the target in front of him but failed to see another adversary behind him. He was shot in the back and killed by Amanda Miller.
SEE ALSO: 5 Cures For Tunnel Vision
Perhaps it was because he assumed a woman wouldn’t have been helping out Jerad or he just didn’t notice her at all, he got too preoccupied with dealing with one opponent and discarded everything else.
We can learn from this situation and develop our own training habits and methods for ensuring we consistently scan our arena for threats.
Just because we see one bad guy doesn’t mean there couldn’t be another.
In this case, he likely assumed Amanda was just another shopper entering lazily through the door. In a Walmart filled with people, it’s hard to personally scan each and every one of them to ensure they’re not also accomplices to a violent crime.
This is a mistake none of us can afford to make.
Carry everyday, defend yourself, your family, and — when possible — others. Scan your surroundings, take cover, and judiciously put rounds on target(s) if required.
