The grim reality of dealing with a knife in an enclosed space.
Let’s consider a situation that none of us would want to find ourselves in, being in a car with someone intent on causing us harm with a knife!
In the video below you’ll see a really tragic event unfolding, it’s a long video and the early stages need to be examined closely to take in what turns from a jovial conversation between a taxi driver and a passenger into an event that ends the taxi drivers life .
Please don’t watch the video if you feel it may upset you, I really wasn’t sure whether I should post it as I’m sure there are those who would object strongly. My heart goes out to the family of the taxi driver.
However I can’t really describe the scene with any sense of reality with out it, my apologies to those I may offend. I fully expect the video to be removed.
Warning:- Graphic content
https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=svQR8_1525464720&p=1
Okay, what happens? Around minute mark 4.20 the attacker starts positioning his knife unbeknown to the taxi driver, at the 4.55 mark he’s reaching across to it with his left hand and the driver is looking at him but doesn’t pick up that something odd is going on.
The attacker keeps his hand on the knife tucked inside his jacket for around 16 seconds, this could have been a signal that something was distracting the attacker, he’s clearly starting to prepare himself mentally to rob and possibly stab the driver at this point.
From around the 5.20 mark he starts to go quiet and the driver looks a little uncomfortable.
At the 6.40 mark he’s very clearly preparing himself with a notable change in demeanor.
At the 7 min mark he’s reaching for the drivers wallet, the situation rapidly deteriorates and the knife is pulled.
The driver struggles with him trying to prevent him from robbing him with his left hand and trying to fend off the knife hand with his right hand.
At 7.30 mark the attacker starts stabbing repeatedly, there is a short lull at one point as he tries to get the driver to hand over the goods but to no avail. He stabs roughly 20 times with a couple of random stabs at the end that have little or no effect.
We need to assess the situation from a self preservation first point of view. Without laying blame on the victim as after all he was just trying to protect himself and his lively hood and go home to feed his family.
Yes the attacker was trying to steal his hard earned money, but it’s just not worth loosing your life for.
For sure the driver would have been scared, as you can see by the way he was sending his hands out to defend and keep the knife away. All very natural behavior, but unfortunately it’s just not enough.
As soon as the knife was produced he should have been thinking to exit the car, let him have what he wanted!
Of course if you can’t escape then you must fight with overwhelming aggression and determination and we can train you to have this mentality at Krav Maga Canberra, but most importantly we can train you to think and respond rationally when faced with extremely stressful and life threatening situations.
In conclusion:-
There were some tell tale signs in the behavior of the attacker, the period where he had his hand buried in his jacket after he’d already been poking around in there.
This should have tweaked the attention of the driver, followed by the change in his behavior when he went quiet, then the very clear head forward and facial expression. At that point it should have been very clear something was wrong.
Once the knife was produced submission would have been the best response, once the stabbing started the best option would have been to try to exit the car even though he would have sustained some wounds in the process.
We know he simply reacted as many of us would when confronted with somebody trying to take from us, however the lesson to be learned here is that the natural response from males and sometimes females to resist somebody behaving this way is often the worst thing we can do. For men in particular our ego / muchisimo can be our own worst enemy. No body likes to eat shit in their lives but some times it’s the best option!
Even if you train regularly in Krav Maga and have indeed attended a transport course where you have worked in cars with all kinds of weapons threats, your best bet would be to simply comply and give him what he wanted. If you have had the opportunity to train in a car with plastic training knives then you’ll know how hard it really is to deal with that kind of attack. And you’ll realize that as much as you may feel a great deal of resentment toward your attacker during and after the incident it’s just not worth loosing your life over any amount of money.
Blog post by Dave Sargent, senior Instructor Krav Maga Canberra