Via KR Training’s Facebook page I get this story:

Mike Archambault told KMSP-TV that his longtime friend, Brian Vander Lee, was at a restaurant in Andover on Saturday when a stranger at another table asked him to be quiet.

“He did a Superman punch,” Archambault recalled. “Brian went back, feet up in the air, and the guy landed on top of him and his head bounced off the concrete.”

Archambault said the suspected fled the scene and Vander Lee was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors performed emergency surgery for bleeding on his brain.

Full story.

The assailant is a Sergeant on the Minneapolis SWAT team, but that doesn’t really matter other than you’d think a police officer would know better than to assault someone. In the end, he’s still human and who knows what led him to act this way, but we all make mistakes.

The point I wish to make is one I’ve made before about “unarmed”. Just because someone is “unarmed” doesn’t mean they are not dangerous. Just because someone is unarmed doesn’t mean they cannot do serious damage — Brian Lee has had 2 brain surgeries and is on life support. Yes, you can be put in fear of your life by someone that is unarmed.

The presence (or lack of presence) of a weapon is orthogonal to the threat and ability for harm.