According to an LA Times article here, a top local realtor figured prominently in the recent Laguna Woods shooting:
CBS2/KCAL9’s Stacey Butler spoke with Jennifer Heflin, who said the shooting was prompted in part by an argument over remodeling plans.
Heflin, who runs Laguna Premier Realty, said she sold the property to Paul Mono five months ago and developed a close relationship with him and his wife.
She said Mono showed her his gun and ammunition Monday and said he wanted to shoot his contractor. But she never dreamed the threat was real and made a trip to his new home the following day to deliver blueprints and receipts for the renovation to the couple.
“I walked in hoping I could calm him down,” Heflin said.
Instead, Heflin said Mono snapped after learning the contractor she recommended went over-budget.
“They didn’t want to see him. They wanted nothing to do with the contractor,” she remembered, adding he “had a gun” and had threatened the contractor.
He punched in his TV, then started waving his gun, she said, pointing it right at her.
“I go, ‘Paul, put the gun down … ‘” she said. “I wasn’t afraid.”
Heflin said he did put the gun down and that’s when she walked out and drove away. Neighbors say the screaming continued.
Deputies showed up and neighbors say multiple shots were fired.
Mono was taken to the hospital in extremely critical condition.
According to a separate article in the OC Register, Mr. Mono died of his wounds at the hospital.
Where to begin on this?
- First, realtors need to be gun people. No matter what their politics or feelings about issues, realtors need to be gun people.
- Realtors are in danger. In some years, the aggregate number of work-related realtor murders has approached the number of cop murders.
- A realtor who is a trained gun person would know that a true gun person does not wave a gun around expressing an intent to kill someone. Such a realtor would stay away from such a criminal and would report the matter to police.
- A realtor who is armed and trained would never approach that same criminal the next day to try to calm the criminal down. Again, the matter would have been reported right away.
- A realtor who is armed and trained and in the presence of a criminal waving a gun around after just bashing in his TV would have gotten her gun out, to the ready position at least, before the criminal had a chance to point the gun at her.
- Most of all, a realtor who is armed and trained would have been AFRAID. Fear is a good thing.
A lot of things here just don’t add up.
Anyway, realtors need to get trained. And by coincidence, we train realtors free.
