Personal Defense and the Rising Threat Of Business Revenge Violence

Unless you’ve been vacationing under a rock somewhere for the last few weeks, you probably heard about a man named Luigi (no, really) who allegedly murdered the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in cold blood. While the killer’s full motive is still being…explored…if you believe media reports, it appears to have been a mixture of the political (via his short manifesto) and the personal, as he appears to have been experiencing a host of health problems, including some serious back pain.

In short, the shooter blamed his victim for perceived problems with America’s healthcare delivery system and possibly his and others’ health problems. He tried to do something about all of that with a brutal act of violence.

Luigi Manginone is  far from the only person to ever do something like that. It hasn’t happened very often, though, and it’s been rare enough that people and businesses even joke about it. For example, there’s this commercial from Discount Tire . . .

Recently, a man in Utah took the Discount Tire approach a little further when registering his dissatisfaction with a car he’d purchased. After buying a used car in an “as-is” no warranty transaction, he apparently found a problem and wanted his money back. When he talked to the dealer about it, he was reminded that he’d bought the car without a warranty. The conversation ended with him threatening to drive the car through the dealer’s front door, a threat that the staff seemed to have dismissed as bluster.

NEW: Utah man drives his car through the front of a Mazda dealership just hours after purchasing the car from the same dealership.

The incident happened in Sandy, Utah, after the man was told he couldn’t return the car.

The man told the dealership that he would drive the car… pic.twitter.com/nNASSjOw0y

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 10, 2024

No one was injured and the dissatisfied customer apparently provided enough warning that employees got out of the way and someone had time to turn their camera on and film the dramatic act of dissatisfaction.

That kind of demonstration, however, is clearly the use of a deadly level of force and should be taken very seriously. If it happens to the business where you work, there may be no warning at all.

Physical Defense Is Difficult For This Kind Of Violent Attack

Whether it’s an ambush on a city street, a vehicle attack, or something else, someone engaging in premeditated violence against you or the company you work for has the element of surprise and the initiative on their side. You, of course, want to always be watching and aware of your surroundings to the extent that you can.

If you run a large enough company, you probably want to be paying people to help watch your back. But as we’ve learned very clearly this year, even having Secret Service protection doesn’t mean that someone can’t find a way to hurt you if they really want to.

The legalities involved also get murky for these kinds of attacks. For example, can you use deadly force to stop someone from ramming a building with a car? Can you or your security staff shoot someone who reaches into their jacket near you? While these would be effective responses against actual threats, who wants to be the one explaining in court why they thought a random unarmed person scratching an itch took a bullet. Or why you shot a man driving toward a lobby everyone had just vacated?

While I would never say you should give up on being prepared to fight back against these kinds of attacks, you’re already pretty far behind the curve if something like this happens and you may be facing a problem that a gun can’t necessarily solve.

Let’s Rewind A Bit

If you’re reading this, chances are nobody has ever shot you in the back or tried to ram your place of business with a car. That means you have time to think about heading problems like this off at the pass instead of dealing with them in the moment when most of your options are already gone.

The best defense against these kinds of incidents is to keep them from happening in the first place. Whether you run or own a business or you’re just an employee, there are two big things you can do: mitigate the problem early with honest business practices or respond early with tactical communication to diffuse things if you encounter an irate customer.

The first one sounds simple, but it’s becoming more of a problem in today’s world. Many people are more concerned with legality or what they can get away with more than they are with proactively doing right by people. Or so it seems.

If you work for a company with unethical leadership or business practices, you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, you can do what’s right, but on the other hand, you’ve got a family to take care of, so it’s easier to go with the flow and rationalize business as usual. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if that’s you, the best thing you can do is start job hunting. Changing jobs is hard, but losing your soul for a buck is harder.

But even if you and the people you work with and for are trying to be 100% honest, situations can and will come up where a customer isn’t happy. If you’re dealing with something essential like medical care, transportation, or housing, a person can get angry enough to lash out with violence. That seems to happen more often these days. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have non-violent options that can work out if you use them early.

It’s far beyond the scope of this article to explain these techniques, but I recommend reading this book and watching the video below. Knowing how to get people to calm down, redirect their negative feelings, and keep your own ego in check during such discussions can help keep situations from getting out of hand.