August 4, 2025
Predators & Self-defense
Andrew James McGann is 28 years-old and hails from the sleepy and somewhat out-of-the-way place called Springdale, Arkansas. (Forgive me, I think everything in Arkansas is out of the way). He’s a teacher with a background in early childhood education and all that wonderful stuff. Andrew, it seems, loves children. He loves learning and believes that every child should have a good education delivered through trained and loving teachers. I mean…at least that’s what one assumes when they hear that a fella is an elementary school teacher anyway.
So, yeah. There’s all that. Great guy.
Oh, and he’s a double murderer too.
I’m not going to say alleged because the evidence is rather strong and I’m more sure that he killed two people at Devil’s Den Hiking Trail than I am that today (as I write this) is Friday. (Forgive me…I didn’t sleep well…I may have missed a few hours or something).
Anyway, we all know he deserves his day in court and an attorney and all that. But the point here is one of self-defense, not legal philosophy. We’ll let the lawyers split hairs. What’s relevant to us is that this dude stabbed two parents to death for no apparent reason. Their two children survived but one imagines the terrible horrors they’re left to live with. ABC News tells us this:
“Andrew James McGann, 28, of Springdale, Arkansas, was charged with two counts of capital murder in the killings of 43-year-old Clinton David Brink and his wife, 41-year-old Cristen Amanda Brink, Arkansas State Police announced Wednesday evening.”
And this:
“McGann was a fifth grade teacher in Broken Arrows, Oklahoma, during the 2023-2024 school year, the school district said. He passed required background checks, a Broken Arrow Public Schools spokesperson said.
“The prior school year, he was employed at an elementary school in Flower Mound, Texas, the Lewisville Independent School District confirmed. He was placed on administrative leave in the spring of 2023 “following concerns related to classroom management, professional judgment, and student favoritism,” and he ultimately resigned, the school district said.”
On to our point: we are never completely safe and are our own first responders. If ever a case proves it, this one is it. I mean, imagine me telling a story about a young elementary school teacher brutally stabbing an innocent mom and dad to death who were out hiking with their children. You’d find that a little remarkable, if not unbelievable. But here we are. And before we pass over it with the obligatory shrug (and shudder) and mutter something to the extent of, “well…ya never know,” let’s pause to think.
The victims were a half-mile into the park when the attack occurred. Police caught the killer at a barbershop where he was evidently trying to alter his appearance to avoid detection. It’s natural to assume that he planned to teach classes when school started. Imagine that. It boggles the mind, doesn’t it? You think the sound of the children crying, whose parents he stabbed to death, would echo in his soul while he taught. Maybe. Maybe not.
The mom, Cristen, we’re told, had rushed the children to safety while McGann was attacking her husband. Then she went back to help him and was killed too. Should she have stayed in hiding with them rather than go back? We have no idea. What we do know, and the point of this whole thing, is to repeat the main points.
You are never completely safe in a fallen world.
You are your own first responder.
We teach the following here, so that you’re ready.
Attitude, awareness, position, technique. Let’s break it down quickly.
Attitude
This is, as mentioned, a fallen world inhabited with sinful and broken people. Not everyone is necessarily violent but there’s always that potential. Just as there are signs that it will rain, there are also signs of both predatory and social violence. McGann is an evil, evil man with horrific violent tendencies. Some people are rude and make off-color jokes. Some people don’t tip well. Some people like the Cowboys. We aren’t talking about social issues and minor squabbles, but that particular evil called predatory violence. Our attitude (philosophy) must be realistic or else we’ll miss the signs that are clearly there.
Awareness
We don’t need to be equally aware of all things all the time. That requires omniscience and is a myth of movies (we call it the Jason Bourne myth). All of us have only so much focus to go around, so what we do is prioritize. You do it all the time when you’re driving, relaxed but on the subconscious lookout for knuckleheads doing knucklehead things like they do in South Carolina all the time, but that’s another article for another day. It’s the same thing with violence. You don’t need to be paranoid or omniscient. You simply need to set your subconscious mind to the same frame as you do when you’re driving and then let your subconscious do its job. Your operating philosophy/attitude is that this is a fallen world wherein you don’t turn your back on Cain. This integration of attitude and awareness sets up everything else that follows.
Position
Just like with driving where your foot hovers over the brake or you ease off the gas because something is happening in front of you, or it looks like some doofus is about to pull out without looking, so you also learn to be cautious of certain people and situations. It’s not the stuff of super-ninjas here. It’s simply learning this formula. Remember, if you don’t philosophically admit to yourself that people are capable of terribly evil things, up to and including the savage murder of you and your family, you can’t actually set your subconscious mind up for this. Evil people are all over the place but, as we’ve said, that’s not the point. The point here is to spot and avoid, or prepare to counter, violently evil people. And the easy way to spot them is to understand the two previous points and then apply them.
Predators seek victims and for this they need positional advantage. This is critical. Let’s say you take the family for a hike (like with this tragic story). In the parking lot, or along the trail, you encounter someone who simply strikes you as, well, off. This is akin to the car that’s inching forward and looks like it’s gonna pull out in front of you while you’re driving. As a driver you know what signs to look for and set your subconscious mind to catch them while driving. It’s the same thing with self-defense against predators.
Don’t ignore the signs of predatory testing. Remember: the predator needs access and positional dominance. He/she doesn’t want a fair fight. (This is the primary difference between a fight with a predator and social violence between angry people).
To take position seriously means that you trust your gut. It means you learn how to spot, test, and evaluate behavior (beyond the scope of this article) and then act upon that information. This is critical. The predator has signs that give them away. Once you learn this skill you must be resolved to act on the information. In the case of going for a hike and then seeing someone you don’t trust, would you be willing to simply pack the family back in the car and go home? Or go someplace else? That’s what it takes! If you let yourself get out of position you all but guarantee an attack if a predator is locked on to you. By learning to spot, test, and evaluate them, however, and then adjust position accordingly, you virtually eliminate the threat.
To spot, test, and evaluate a predator is the application of the attitude, awareness, position principles.
Technique
This isn’t just actual combat, though it might be. It should include evasion or, as just mentioned, leaving the scene of potential danger. Technique for self-defense against a predator subsumes the previous principles and isn’t just “he does this and you do that.” That’s very narrow thinking. Proper self-defense technique includes using your environment, barriers, “ready” weapons (guns, knives), your body, and opportunistic weapons (such as rocks, hot coffee in the face…then your coffee mug to the noggin, etc.). In all, just being armed and/or trained in a self-defense system (that is, you know how to punch and kick) is useless if you let yourself get put in an easily assailable position. And this happens when your awareness is compromised. And your awareness is compromised because your attitude is flawed, causing you not to properly train your subconscious.