A Utah man is being praised for his quick thinking and armed response to a man who broke into his home in Summit County earlier this week.
Deputies with the Summit County Sheriff’s Office had been called out to an apartment complex in Snyderville on reports of a man who was acting violently and threatening people with a pair of sharp scissors. When the deputies arrived, the man took off running and tried to get into several different apartments before he found an unlocked door and dashed inside the dwelling.
John Santy had planned for a quiet Thursday evening in his Snyderville Basin condo when, shortly after 5 p.m., he heard a loud bang followed by his roommate screaming in the kitchen.
“I quickly stood up and all of a sudden there’s this dude in my living room running back and forth through my kitchen opening doors, bleeding, and I’m like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” Santy said. “He wouldn’t listen to me, so I grabbed my gun (that) I had hidden, and I cocked it and told him to get … on the ground or I would shoot him. He put his hands up, I got him proned out, then I told (my roommate) to call 911 and just said, ‘If you move, I will shoot you.’”
Santy had no idea about the events that led to the stranger seeking refuge from police inside his apartment, but it didn’t take long for deputies to get to his door and take the man into custody. In fact, they showed while Santy’s roommate was still on the phone speaking with a 911 dispatcher.
“I didn’t want to shoot him, but I was ready to,” Santy said. “I’ve had lots of training. My dad taught me when I was 12 years old. I train all the time with my firearms and definitely always keep it safe, which is very important.”
Santy’s father, Jim Santy Jr., was a Park City fire chief.
After the incident, neighbors spoke about the noises that brought them out to investigate as they pieced together the situation.
“All my neighbors are calling me the hero of the neighborhood,” Santy said. “I’m just glad I was able to stop him because I don’t put up with stuff like that. It’s ridiculous. I’ll protect my community at all costs, and I’ll protect my house.”
The news cycle moves quickly these days, and it won’t be long before most folks have forgotten all about John Santy, even in Summit County.
His neighbors in that apartment complex, though? I’m pretty sure they’re going to remember what he did for a long, long time. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of them even quietly reach out to him with questions about owning a gun. Events like this can have a clarifying effect on folks, and after learning about Santy’s defensive gun use, it’s only natural to think about what would happen if a disturbed individual entered their domicile and they didn’t have a gun to protect themselves.
Like the vast majority of DGUs, Santy didn’t have to pull the trigger to defend himself and his roommate. The presence of the pistol in his hand was enough to keep the intruder detained until deputies arrived. We never hear about most of those stories, and this one might not have generated any media interest were it not for the fact that the suspect was already the subject of an active search by law enforcement when he was stopped by an armed citizen.
I’m relieved that Santy and his roommate were unharmed in their encounter with the scissor-wielding stranger, and I’m glad that Santy was willing to talk to the local media and give his side of the story. Hopefully it inspires others to think about their own safety… and to exercise their Second Amendment rights as well.
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