KHQ 6 News – by Alex RozierSPOKANE, Wash. – Two Gonzaga Seniors were placed on probation Sunday, as a result of the way they defended themselves after a six time felon attempted to enter their apartment.
Seniors Daniel McIntosh and Erik Fagan got a knock on their door around 3:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon. When they answered, they were hand delivered the ruling from the University Discipline Board Hearing they attended earlier in the week. Both students have been placed on probation for the rest of their time at Gonzaga University.
“Well granted they didn’t give us the big chicken dinner of expulsion or suspension, but they gave us something that will follow us,” said Gonzaga Senior Daniel McIntosh.
“It’s now on our educational record and it’s going to follow us around, job interviews, anything like that,” said Gonzaga Senior Erik Fagan. “People that look at our transcripts are going to see that we’ve been charged with violating weapons policies on Gonzaga’s property, so that’s something we would like to not have on there, because we feel like we didn’t do anything wrong. We were just defending ourselves.”
In the ruling it states that the students violated the University’s weapons, fireworks, and explosives policy as a result of the incident that happened last month at their apartment.
The two share an apartment off campus. However, because it is owned by the university, Gonzaga says the school’s no weapons policy still applies.
On October 25, 2013, Erik Fagan answered the door thinking it was a friend coming back to pick something up. Instead, it was a six time felon named Jonathan Taylor. The students say Taylor demanded money and tried to force his way inside.
“This was going somewhere that I didn’t want it to go. I was starting to be afraid and fearful and when he starts threatening us and trying to come in the doorway, that’s when I called for my roommate Dan,” Fagan said.
That is when McIntosh came down the stairs with his pistol. He never fired the gun, but the sight of it was enough to make the intruder leave.
“I feel like I restrained myself from using the force in a correct manner,” McIntosh said. I used enough force to persuade Mr. John Taylor to leave.”
Both students say they thought their lives were in danger and that this was the only way to defend themselves. They both now plan to appeal the university’s decision to place them on probation. They also hope this will help change the school’s policy in the future.
“Further I would like to open up a dialogue about these policies because I believe if these policies are about campus security, they are ineffective because if we would have followed these policies, campus security would not have been ensured,” McIntosh said.
McIntosh also says he immediately told both Spokane Police and campus security about his guns that he legally owns when they arrived at the apartment after the incident. However, it was not until three hours later around 2:00 in the morning the night of the incident, that campus security came back into their apartment and confiscated the weapons. McIntosh has yet to get those back. He plans to take legal action to have them returned, as well as file an appeal.
Obviously, these 2 students were not playing the “good little victim” role that is expected these days. They’d be honoring them at their funerals if Mr. Bad Guy had killed them, but because they defended themselves, with HORRORS OF ALL HORRORS, a gun, they now carry a probation offense on their records. Well, notice to all bad guys coming to my house, I don’t believe in being a good little victim, and it will be a very bad day for you-as in, dead men tell no tales.
They were stupid for telling the cops in the first place.
They’ve just been schooled.