DANGER NEXT DOOR

The round struck the man in the right leg. He stumbled. Jeremy backed through the gate and put the wall between himself and the group.

When it seemed the men had gone, he ran upstairs and locked the door.

Then he did exactly what his training had prepared him to do.

He called his wife, Angela, to tell her what happened before she heard it from anyone else.

He called the Delta Defense Critical Response Team.

"Talking to them definitely put me at ease," he said. "It felt like I had someone there for me."

He called 911.

He unloaded his firearm, secured it, and waited.

Within minutes, LAPD units surrounded the building. A helicopter circled overhead. An officer's voice came over a PA system ordering Jeremy out with his hands raised.

He complied.

He was handcuffed, placed in a patrol car, and booked on attempted murder charges.

Bail was set at two million dollars.

"My heart sank," Jeremy said. "I thought my life was over."

Angela found out through a crime-reporting app. A notification. A video. Her husband being led away in handcuffs on the screen in front of her.

"It's really crazy just seeing him like you're watching a movie," she said, "but it's your husband."

The man Jeremy had shot — 26-year-old Carlos Mora — was treated for a gunshot wound to the right femur. He was in stable condition. A metal rod was placed in his leg. The bullet stayed lodged in the bone.

He was also a convicted felon with pending firearms charges of his own.

Attorney Andy Beltran, of Rogers | Beltran LLP in Pasadena and a member of the USCCA Attorney Network, arrived at the scene that night. He had been pumping gas when the Critical Response Team reached him. He drove straight over.

Jeremy would spend five days in jail before his arraignment.

At the hearing, he saw Angela across the room for the first time since the shooting.

He couldn't speak.

He mouthed the words.

"I love you."

What followed was two years of waiting.

Two years of motions, hearings, and a district attorney's office offering one thing: nine years in prison.

Jeremy and Angela said no.

As Beltran built the defense, the evidence began telling a different story than the one prosecutors were pushing. Surveillance footage from a neighbor's camera showed the men advancing on Jeremy. It showed him issuing a command before firing. It showed him stopping the moment the threat stopped.

And in his own police interview, Mora filled in what the camera couldn't see.

He had known Jeremy was an Army veteran.

He had known Jeremy had a gun.

He kept coming anyway.

"He called my bluff," Mora said.

Because the bushes blocked the camera's view of Mora's approach, Beltran commissioned a professional animation company to reconstruct the full encounter from both angles, synchronized to the existing footage. He also retained a use-of-force expert — a retired law enforcement veteran of more than 30 years — to review everything and prepare a comprehensive report.

The animation cost $20,000.

The expert cost $8,000.

Two years in, the district attorney sat down with Beltran one final time. He walked her through all of it – the footage, the animation, the transcripts, Mora's own admissions.

She listened.

"I don't think we would be successful at trial," she finally said.

The felony charges were dropped. Jeremy was offered a path through California's Military Diversion Program, available to veterans, designed to leave no permanent record upon completion. He finished 25 hours of community service and a firearms safety course.

On January 17, 2024, a judge asked the district attorney on the record why the charges had been amended.

She answered.

Beltran estimated Jeremy's total defense costs exceeded $100,000 — for a case that never went to trial.

"If we didn't have this coverage, Jeremy would not be sitting here today, for sure," Angela said.

Jeremy and Angela moved to a different part of Los Angeles. A fresh start.

He joined the USCCA because real-life member stories had convinced him it was worth it … just in case.

"I never thought I'd use it," he said. "I never thought I'd need it."

He paused.

"Glad I had it though."

Because preparedness isn't just about what happens in the moment.

It's about training before danger arrives.

Making the right decisions when it does.

And having a plan for everything that follows.

The McCree story is a reminder that self-defense doesn't end when the threat does.

It's what happens before, during, and after.