One of the most common annoyances to me in any debate is the mad dash to take sides, followed by the demand that one side is entirely in the wrong while the other is without reproach. The truth, more often than not, is that both sides are right and wrong. Sometimes, however, they’re both flat out stupid. Welcome to Seattle, where a shortage of IQ recently led to a man in a wheelchair pulling a toy gun on a petulantly derranged leftist who promptly shot him in the chest. You may have heard about this on the news or read the peanut gallery’s reaction to the incident on social media, but I’m going to break it down for you myself by making fun of both sides and laying out a clear lesson plan by which to avoid ever becoming one of these idiots.
Let me first introduce you to Gregory Timm, 32, whose Trump Derangement Syndrome convinced him to plow his vehicle into a Florida Trump voter registration drive back in 2020. After narrowly missing his intended targets, he flipped off volunteers and drove away, only to be arrested later as he told the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office that “someone had to take a stand.” His parents must be so proud. After only 60 days in jail, Timm has resurfaced five years later as the self-appointed arbiter of stolen valor.
The incident took place on July 31 at the Alaskan Way boardwalk in downtown Seattle. Timm was seen confronting 68-year-old Harold Powell, a Navy veteran whose service ended in 1991 when he says a drunk driver struck him. The now wheelchair-bound Powell spends his days playing music for donations, and from all accounts, seems like a pretty pleasant individual who is a regular entertainer on Seattle’s waterfront. So why the ruckus?
Apparently, Timm disapproved of the Navy Veteran’s representation of himself as the veteran that he is, forgetting an ever-important childhood lesson in minding your own damn business. Demanding to see some form of ID from Powell, Timm ultimately snatched away a veteran patch from him, again failing at life by ignoring lessons on keeping your hands to yourself and not taking that which does not belong to you. Here’s where things go sideways.
Powell then drew a knife big enough to earn Crocodile Dundee’s approval. Had he stopped there, holding the knife in a defensive posture, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. The man is in a wheelchair and has already been technically assaulted by a deranged lunatic. But that’s not how the confrontation ended. In a video posted to X, you can clearly see that Timm had created some space between the two before Powell used his wheelchair to charge the man while holding up the sizable blade. This causes Timm to retreat backwards, easily creating additional space by which he could avoid being stabbed or cut.
Powell’s reaction to this was to start reaching into what may have been a bag. It isn’t easy to see as his back is to the camera. Moments later, as Powell seems to be drawing something, Timm can be seen releasing one of his backpack’s shoulder straps, swinging it around to the front of his body before opening a compartment and reaching inside. It is soon clear what spooked Timm, as we see Powell raise what looks to be a firearm. It is at that moment when Timm, who is backing away, pulls his own gun and fires a single shot into Powell’s chest from what looks to be approximately ten to fifteen feet.
Powell was rushed to the hospital in serious but stable condition and has since been released, as he continues his recovery at home with a GoFundMe account tipping just over $10,000 as I write this. The fact that Powell lived is the only good takeaway from an otherwise ghastly display of poor judgment on the part of both men.
You see, although I may seem like the type of conservative who would throw my support behind the jolly likes of our normally good-natured veteran, my loyalty really lies with common sense, and in the case of firearms, safety, good judgment, and responsibility. For not minding his business and what amounts to assault and petty theft, Timm reveals what his record already tells us about him: that he is an abject degenerate.
The problems with Powell’s response, however, start to stack up when he charges with the large knife as Timm seems to be speaking with a bystander approximately six to eight feet away. While I’m not sure if Powell would have taken a swipe with the blade, I can see how he could have felt somewhat demoralized as Timm was easily able to retreat further back and out of the reach of his wheelchair. Still, there was nothing defensive at all about Powell’s lunge. It was purely an offensive gesture.
Having created distance between the two again, Powell reaches for the great equalizer, which turned out to be an airsoft gun. Why in the world would he pull an airsoft gun? It can’t be in self-defense, considering Timm was backing away, and it was Powell who was armed and advancing toward the confrontation. The only reasonable explanation is that he was trying to use the gun to intimidate Timm, either out of anger or in an attempt to retrieve his patch. Neither of these scenarios justifies the brandishing of a firearm, or in this case, a toy gun, which can get you shot by a real one pretty quickly.
That is exactly what happened here. While I’d rather urinate on an electric fence than defend Timm in this situation, there are several factors to consider here. First, he had no obligation to assume the authentic-looking gun was a toy. Second, he had no obligation to assume that Powell, who charged him with the knife moments before, wouldn’t pull the trigger. Lastly, Washington is a “no duty to retreat” state, meaning there is no legal requirement to retreat before using self-defense. I’d also like to add that turning your back to an armed individual is a great way to get shot in the back, unless you can maintain a speed of at least 1400 feet per second for a distance.
I’ll be honest with you. This is a situation that is far too easy to avoid, and most of the lessons on what could have prevented this shameful fiasco in the first place are taught to us around the age of five. Stay in your lane, keep your hands to yourself, and don’t take other people’s things. But the outcome of this situation reflects a culmination of stupidity that escalated things to potentially deadly consequences. Gun owners, and especially those who carry in public, need to be overtly responsible citizens, mindful of behavior that can incite conflict and more prone to de-escalation than otherwise.
Additionally, firearms are not for intimidating people. They are not for saving face, expressing anger, or retrieving property. Firearms are life-saving tools, meant to be used as a last line of defense when facing imminent danger. It is also inadvisable, as we’ve seen in this sad display, to draw down on anyone using a toy gun, because you never know if they’ll pull out a real one. If all’s well that ends well, then all stinks to high heaven here, as we have one man shot in the chest, another being held on $750,000 bail and facing first-degree assault class A felony charges, and the internet clammoring to pick sides without realizing that everyone sucks here.
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