Before daybreak, on February 19, 1997, Jim Eichelberg stopped at the intersection of Milwee Street and Highway 290 in Houston, Texas. He drove a 1985 Ford van which had been modified to hold products for his vending machine business.
Eichelberg worked early mornings because of the convenience to business owners whose vending machines he serviced.
Recalling the incident, he said, "I looked out my right mirror and saw this guy running behind my truck. He was coming up on the right side. Because the streetlight was halfway down the block, it just so happened that I saw a flash off his gun."
Eichelberg, who held a concealed carry permit, reached down beside the driver's seat for his own gun, a Spl. five-shot .38 revolver. He later recalled, "it took three seconds for me to get my gun out and three seconds for this guy to get to the door."
The man appeared on the passenger side of the van and pointed a gun at Eichelberg. The gunman was screaming, but, because the window was up, Eichelberg was unable to hear what he was saying. The vending operator's first instinct was to hit the gas and speed away, but traffic on the highway caused him to hesitate.
As the assailant became more agitated, Eichelberg feared for his life. He was well aware that one technique used by carjackers is to shoot the driver, push him out of the car, then take possession of the stolen vehicle.
He'd seen enough. Eichelberg aimed his gun and fired. The glass shattered and the assailant vanished.
Eichelberg shut off the engine and jumped out of the van. He was afraid his shot had missed and the gunman would begin shooting into the vehicle. He intended to run to a gas station he had seen about a block away.
As Eichelberg raced past the back of the van, he came face to face with his assailant. They stopped, stared at each other for a moment, then the man raised a .357 Magnum and fired at Eichelberg. The shot missed and Eichelberg fired back. The assailant then jumped across a ditch and began running.
About twenty feet away, the gunman suddenly wheeled around and fired again.
Eichelberg waited for the muzzle flash of the assailant's gun. "It's straight out of the class you take when you get a carry permit," he said. "You shoot at silhouettes. When he fired, there was a perfect silhouette lighted up from the muzzle flash and side flash from his revolver. I pointed my gun in the direction that the fire flash had come from, and I pulled the trigger. He shot five times and I shot five times [total]."
Eichelberg was surprised and relieved that he hadn't been hit.
After he was sure the gunman had left the area, Eichelberg ran back to his van, climbed in, and drove to a nearby service station. There he called police.
Several officers quickly appeared. While one officer guarded his van, another drove Eichelberg to a convenience store a few blocks away.
The gunman, James Turner, was lying at the front door, bleeding profusely. He'd sustained six bullet wounds. The first shot had blown out the window and hit Turner two inches above the heart. Bullets had also passed through both thighs, his groin, and his right hand. Another bullet was lodged in the right cheek of his buttocks. Doctors later determined that the round that had gone through his hand had lodged in his groin.
"That's how you get six shots out of a five-shot revolver;' one of the arresting officers said. Turner was transported to Taub Hospital where his life was saved.
After identifying the gunman, Eichelberg was taken to the police department for questioning. There he learned that Turner had attempted to steal a pickup truck earlier that morning. When that failed, he set out to carjack Eichelberg's van.
Turner, who had been smoking crack cocaine all night, had stolen the gun he used to try to kill Eichelberg.
The gunman, a felon with multiple arrests, was tried and convicted of the attempted murder of Eichelberg. He was sentenced under the state's habitual criminal statute to twenty-five years in prison without parole.
Eichelberg feels that the right-to-carry law in Texas could be a model for other states. Classroom instruction, time on the shooting range, FBI background checks, and written tests are mandatory before a permit is issued.
Jim Eichleberg credits his survival to the skills he learned on the shooting range while qualifying for his right-to-carry permit.
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