One Thug, Three Home Invasions in Ten Minutes

On 12 July 2025 several homeowners in Bath Township, Michigan were REALLY UNHAPPY because they had left their garage doors open and the doors from their house to their garage unlocked. Police received a 911 call concerning a suspicious person walking through yards and attempting to break into cars. The caller stated that he saw the person enter the garage of a nearby home and fail to exit – presumably having entered the home. Moments later, the 911 operator received a separate call from a homeowner reporting that someone was in his house and stabbing him.

When police arrived at the home, the homeowner’s roommate said that someone entered and began to assault him and the homeowner, and that the homeowner and assailant were still inside. As they entered, police could hear the homeowner yelling for help saying that he was being stabbed. Police bodycam video showed the suspect holding a knife to the homeowner’s neck as he forced him to a nearby open door. The suspect, later identified as Bailey William Glazier, then released his hostage and exited the home.

Glazier has released his hostage and is fleeing home #1

Two police officers gave chase and both officers fired a total of nine shots at Glazier without apparent effect. One officer fired three of these shots while a passing SUV was in his direct line of fire. Glazier continued to flee and at one point stopped at a basketball court. As officers encountered Glazier a second time, each officer fired an additional four shots at him—once again, without apparent effect. There was a house in both officer’s direct line of fire beyond where Glazier was standing.

Glazier continued to flee and encountered an open garage at house #2 which he entered. Officers arrived just as Glazier entered the home through an unlocked door. However, when the officers tried to enter through the same door, they discovered that Glazier had locked it. 

Glazier entering house #2 through unlocked door

Moving to the front door, the officers tried to enter but were unable to breach the door after multiple attempts. The homeowner heard the commotion and opened her front door. The officers informed her of the intruder in her home and had her step out of house. She informed officers that her daughter was in the home, but she did not know where her daughter was located.

As police were entering the home, Glazier exited the back door and ran around the house, encountering the police officers once again near the home’s front door. Upon seeing the officers, Glazier ran toward a third house next door. 

Glazier Fleeing House #2 

As Glazier fled, an officer fired one shot at him. Glazier then entered the garage of a third home; however, pursuing officers were able to take him down and handcuff him before he could enter the home. The officers discovered that Glazier had at least one gunshot wound to the back and began immediate medical aid.

Glazier has been charged with seven felonies including aggravated assault, attempted murder, two home invasions, assault on and resisting police officers, and other offenses. After the incident, video surfaced of Glazier watering a lawn in the area without the homeowner’s permission and a separate video of two young girls who were manning a lemonade stand fleeing indoors at the sound of the police gunfire.

So how do we prevent home invasions?

One step is pretty obvious: LOCK YOUR DOORS! Glazier entered two homes through unlocked garage doors. Get into the habit of locking exterior doors if they are going to be unattended for even a moment when you are outside your home.

But I live in a good neighborhood you say? From the video, the area where Glazier was running amuck was a nice neighborhood. Many of us live in neighborhoods we would characterize as safe. I live in a gated community; however, that did not stop a suspected bank robber fleeing from the police from entering my neighborhood several years ago.

Do you carry a firearm when you are at home? I often ask this question of my students. The vast majority (like 99 of 100) respond: “No.” I then ask, “Where are you most likely to experience a home invasion?” Everyone responds “at home” to that question.

A rolling pin is better than nothing 

When police responded to the first home discussed in this incident, they encountered the owner’s roommate who had armed himself with a rolling pin—as in a device used to shape and flatten dough. Not the weapon I would want when faced with a knife-wielding assailant. Having immediate access to a defense firearm at all times can be critically important. I always carry a firearm at home. It is one the first things I put on in the morning, and one of the last things I take off when going to bed after my house is secure for the night.

Everyone should think through scenarios such as this now and develop a plan based on your particular circumstances. In my house, someone yelling “BEDROOM!” is giving the command for everyone to instantly stop what they are doing and go to a secure bedroom. A reinforced bedroom door provides a safe room you can retreat to if you are in another part of the house when someone attempts to break and enter. From there you can call 911 and prepare to take other necessary action.

Another step is to reinforce your exterior and (if possible) interior doors. Take a quick look at this video. That is how easy it is to kick in a normally constructed residential exterior door. So how do you prevent someone from kicking in your door?

One solution is heavy metal doors similar to those in the picture below. No human could kick in this steel door. For exterior wooden doors, I personally used the Strikemaster II Pro to reinforce the door jam and hinges. I did this as the house was being built and asked the builder to install them so it was relatively painless.

Similar products are the Door Armor Max (formerly EZ Armor) that Armor Concepts produces and Door Security Pro. There are probably others on the market that perform a similar function. As I look at product reviews however, it is clear that some people find the simple install is not quite so simple so your results may vary. You can purchase these products from a variety of vendors.

A final thought. My analysis of the police bodycam video indicates that police fired a total of seventeen shots at Glazier, striking him at least once. From the bodycam video, it appeared that Glazier may have been bleeding from the area of his left ear so a bullet may have grazed him. The other fifteen to sixteen bullets that police fired hit something other than their intended target. I suspect that more than one may have struck the SUV; however, I have found no reporting discussing these errant rounds.

Officers firing at Glazier as he flees house #1

I have watched dozens of police bodycam videos of officer involved shootings. Other than occasionally expressing concerns over officer crossfire situations, many of these videos show officers firing at offenders with little regard for what is around and beyond their targets. If police are actively engaging an offender in your vicinity, the safest thing to do is leave the phone alone and take cover. The young girls running inside their house had the right idea.

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Shotgun Ammo for Self Defense -- Remember Birdshot is for Birds

If you search the internet for the question: “Is birdshot effective for stopping an attacker?” you will literally find hundreds of articles and dozens of YouTube videos debating the answer to this question. Some, like the July 2024 USCCA video imply that birdshot is effective under certain circumstances as a home defense round and perhaps it is. However, the problem that always arises: “Will your circumstances match those being discussed?”

I prefer to use a round that will likely be effective in a home defense role regardless of distance and circumstances. That round is . . . wait for it . . . Buckshot. Preferably the Federal 00 Buckshot with a FliteControl® wad.

A little background discussion is appropriate. There are two main types of shot for a shotgun: birdshot and buckshot.

Birdshot: is tiny shot that comes in a variety of numbered sizes with the higher the number indicating the smaller the shot. Birdshot is for birds and too small for anti-personnel and home defense purposes although many people who do not know what they are talking about will recommend it.

Buckshot: Are larger (and therefore heavier) shot intended for deer sized game and anti-personnel use. Buckshot designations use an archaic numbering system that essentially must be memorized. The zero or “0” is pronounced “ought” so 00 buckshot is pronounced “double ought buck.” The others are pronounced as you might expect; for example, #4 is simply “number four buck.” At .24 caliber, number four buckshot is quite small and too light to reliably penetrate. For home defense purposes in a 12 gauge, the best choices are 0, 00, or 000 buck. For home defense purposes in a 20 gauge #1 or #2 buckshot is the best choice although #3 can be used as well.

A standard 12 gauge 00 buckshot shell has 8-12 pellets in it, with 9 pellets being the most common. A full power 00 buckshot shell has a muzzle velocity of about 1300 fps while the muzzle velocity of reduced recoil loads is typically between 1100-1150 fps.

Remember--BIRDSHOT IS FOR BIRDS. In the video linked below (click on picture) a store owner fires his shotgun at a burglar when the burglar threatens him (the store owner) with unlawful deadly force. The store owner has loaded his shotgun with birdshot. The store owner’s shot hits the burglar in the abdomen, but the shot does not stop him. In response, the burglar fires five rounds from a 9mm pistol; fortunately, the store owner is not hit.

Burglar Firing at Store Owner After He was Hit with Birdshot

Pictures of the front door area after the shooting show a number of hits from birdshot pellets which implies that many pellets missed the burglar, flying past him to impact the door. My rudimentary measure* of the distance from the store owner to the burglar is approximately twenty-nine feet when the store owner fired. A cylinder bore shotgun would normally pattern approximate nineteen inches at this distance so either the store owner did not achieve a center hit or my distance measurement is not accurate.

Regardless, the burglar escaped the store and continued to be a threat to other innocents until he surrendered to police. News reports indicate that the burglar was apparently unfamiliar with his surroundings and fractured his hip while trying to flee the area.

 

Bryan Surrendering to Police -- Notice he has changed clothes

 

Would buckshot have been more effective? A solid abdominal hit from a 00 buckshot load is likely to be very effective. The pattern of typical 00 buckshot loads at ten yards generally puts all pellets within a ten or so inch circle.** However, just like any other weapon, you must aim the shotgun and hit the target. A miss with a buckshot load is no more effective than a miss with any other weapon. Would Dylan Bryan have continued to shoot at the store owner if the store owner’s shot had missed? Impossible to know.

For more information on using a shotgun for home defense, please see the 2025 update to my Home Defense Shotgun Manual 

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*I based this best guess measurement on the width of the oscillating fan which is likely eighteen inches wide and the antique wall clock which is likely 8-1/2 inches wide.

** For more information on patterning a shotgun load see: https://www.sensibleselfdefenseblog.com/2024/01/pattern-your-home-defense-shotgun.html

An ATM Robbery - Use of Force Training Simulation

A legally armed citizen facing a deadly encounter has a number of challenges to contend with--among them is when to start shooting.

I once had the opportunity to run students through a variety of scenarios on a sophisticated use of force training simulator or FTS over a period of months. The FTS had thirty or so scenarios that replicated events a private citizen might face as they went about their daily business. When conducting use of force training simulations, each student received a scene-setting prebrief and then ran through the scenario individually. Instructors noted the student’s actions for an after-scenario individual debriefings.

I noted very common issue among new students – they often tried to engage the criminal verbally when it was unnecessary, they waited too long draw their defensive firearm, or they waited to engage the threat until the threat actually pointed a firearm at them. In general, new students did not know the Texas use of force law and therefore did not understand when they could/should engage a deadly threat or they dithered due to a lack of confidence in their ability.

Under Texas law we can use deadly force when necessary to protect ourselves or an innocent third person from the imminent use or attempted use of unlawful deadly force or to prevent another's imminent commission of aggravated kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated robbery. (see below).

In other words, once it is clear that an assailant is in the process of immediately attempting to use or is using deadly force, or is committing one of these enumerated crimes, an innocent defender can justifiably use lawful force or deadly force. The defender does not need to wait until a firearm is pointed at them to act nor are they legally bound to give warning. The old saying comes to mind: “If you wait to see the muzzle, you will likely see what comes out of it.”

Click on the picture above to see a video of me completing a blind run of one of the FTS scenarios. The lead-up to the scenario was that you and a partner (spouse, friend, child, etc.) pull up to an automated teller machine and your partner exits your vehicle to withdraw money. A violent criminal steps up behind your partner and threatens them with a pistol while robbing them. I always completed each FTS scenario “blind” and on video before I used them to train students. After each student completed the scenario, I then demonstrated my solution to the problem.

In the FTS scenario shown, every new student attempted to verbally engage and/or warn the criminal threatening their partner. During the scenario, if the criminal became aware of the defender (via the warning or from the student delaying their response), he used the partner as a hostage while moving to a vehicle and kidnapped the partner in response. My solution? Quickly draw my concealed pistol, take careful aim, and shoot the criminal threatening unlawful deadly force in the head—no hesitation, no warning.

Was my solution legally justified? Absolutely. The criminal was using unlawful deadly force to threaten an innocent third person. If I was in that person’s shoes, I would have been justified in using lawful deadly force to defend myself and my intervention was immediately necessary to protect that third person (my partner). Further, the criminal was in the process of committing an aggravated robbery so my use of lawful deadly force was justified under Texas Penal Code, Secs. 9.32. and 9.33. 

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Texas Penal Code Sec. 9.32. DEADLY FORCE IN DEFENSE OF PERSON. (a) A person is justified in using deadly force against another:

(1) if the actor would be justified in using force against the other under Section 9.31(non-deadly force); and

(2) when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary:

(A) to protect the actor against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful deadly force; or

(B) to prevent the other's imminent commission of aggravated kidnapping, murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated robbery.

Protecting a Third Person:

Sec. 9.33. DEFENSE OF THIRD PERSON. A person is justified in using force or deadly force against another to protect a third person if:

(1) Under the circumstances as the actor reasonably believes them to be, the actor would be justified under Section 9.31 or 9.32 in using force or deadly force to protect himself against the unlawful force or unlawful deadly force he reasonably believes to be threatening the third person he seeks to protect; and

(2) the actor reasonably believes that his intervention is immediately necessary to protect the third person. 

Update: Setting Yourself Up for a Murder Charge --The James Meyer Incident

 

James Meyer (Dallas Police Photo)

This is an update to an article I wrote in 2019. That article discussed a Dallas man who was charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a burglar outside his Dallas home on 26 September 2019.

Sources stated that James Michael Meyer told police that noise outside his home awakened him about 5 a.m. He looked out a window and saw someone trying to break into his storage shed with a pickaxe. Meyer said he grabbed his handgun, chambered a round, and then exited his home yelling at the person to stop what he was doing and not come any closer or else he would shoot.

Meyer told police the person took several steps toward him, so he fired his pistol at the individual. Meyer stated that at that point, the burglar dropped the pickax and ran toward a park behind his house.  Prior to that moment, Meyer’s use of deadly force was likely justified under the law.  His attacker was threatening/using unlawful deadly force (i.e. brandishing a pickaxe).  Meyer was innocent (i.e. he did not start the incident and had a right to be present in his back yard), the threat was imminent, his action was proportional to the threat, and a reasonable person could conclude his actions were a valid/justified response to the threat.

However, Meyer also told the police that he fired an additional shot "into the night" in the direction of the park as the burglar ran away. He stated that he didn't know whether he had struck the person, so he went into his house and back to bed – he did not call the police

Later that morning Meyer looked outside once again and saw something in the park. Upon closer inspection, he found an unidentified individual lying face down so at that point, he called the police. His second shot had not missed – it killed the fleeing burglar.

Meyer like many people, found himself charged with murder because the incident evolved from one in which Meyer's use of deadly force was potentially justified into one where the perpetrator is fleeing, is not longer threatening unlawful deadly force, and the defender is now the aggressor.

What Should You Do During Such an Incident?

Call the police. If you are involved in any use of force self-defense incident call the police. Don't call your attorney, your neighbors, your parents, your husband, your wife or anyone else before you call the police. Tell the police dispatcher that you have been attacked and that your attacker may be or is down (in Meyer’s case he said did not know).

Stay on the line with the dispatcher and give your location, describe what you are wearing, and remind the dispatcher that you are the victim. Request that the dispatcher provide responding officers a description of what you are wearing and where you are located. The dispatcher will likely ask questions concerning what has happened however, you do not have to respond, nor should you answer those questions. Tell the dispatcher that you will talk to responding officers. The call your attorney and/or your post-incident protection plan provider.

Sign the Complaint. When the police arrive tell them you will sign the complaint. This reinforces that you were in fact the victim in the incident.

Point out the Evidence. Evidence is perishable and can be moved or stolen. Meyer disturbed critical evidence and altered a crime scene when he gathered up his spent cartridges and threw them in the trash. Under no circumstances should you willingly disturb or move evidence yourself. This is altering a crime scene and is itself a crime in many jurisdictions.

Point out Witnesses. If there are witnesses point them out to the police. If you do not, they may (likely will) leave the scene and their information will leave with them.

Cooperate. Tell the police that you will cooperate fully once you have consulted legal counsel. Police likely will ask questions at the scene beyond what you have told them in the steps above. Politely decline and verbally state that you are exercising your right to remain silent and repeat that you will cooperate fully once you have consulted legal counsel.

AND THEN SHUT UP. Do not talk to anyone other than with your attorney about anything, ANYONE or ANYTHING.  Your voluntary statements may constitute a waiver of your rights and may be used against you, even if you previously invoked your right to silence.

This is where a post-incident protection plan such as CCW Safe or US Law Shield offers can be very helpful in finding a qualified attorney. However, you must ensure that your legal counsel is qualified to give you proper legal advice. If there is any doubt, get another attorney.

According to Meyer’s arrest affidavit, Meyer's attorney agreed to allow Meyer to make a statement on 26 September 2019 -- the day of the incident. I seriously doubt that Meyer and his attorney had carefully reviewed Meyer’s account of the incident at that point.

A detective read Meyer his Miranda Warning before questioning him. The attorney then sat (presumably) silent while Meyer made an incriminating statement:

Suspect Meyer stated that the complainant (the burglar) took several steps towards him and Suspect Meyer fired his gun. Suspect Meyer stated the complainant dropped the pick-axe and ran away in the direction of the park. At that point Suspect Meyer, repositioned himself and fired an additional shot "into the night" which in the direction of the park [sic]. According to Suspect Meyer, the complainant had left towards the park when he fired the second shot. From the suspect's accounts, the threat of serious bodily injury against him was over when the complainant dropped the pickaxe and ran off away from him [Meyer].

Note: In the detective’s report the deceased burglar has become the “complainant” – not Meyer. Meyer’s attorney allowed him to confess to unlawful use of deadly force.  Although he was charged with murder, I can find no indication that Meyer was convicted.

Using deadly force against a fleeing perpetrator who no longer poses an imminent threat of deadly force, failing to call the police immediately, intentionally altering evidence, and then making an ill-considered, incriminating statement to the police can be very problematic for how and where you live the rest of your life.

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