Oakland Confidential...

Here's a story you didn't expect to see from California — a man defending himself with a handgun, and the police back him up!

Patrick McCullough has been complaining to Oakland police about drug dealers for the past 10 years -- and telling the young men who congregate in front of his house at 59th Street and Shattuck Avenue to beat it.

For his efforts, the 49-year-old has endured harassment, threats, vandalism and an assault in 2003.

Then, during an evening rainstorm on Feb. 18, about 15 young men surrounded McCullough and shouted "snitch" and other taunts as he walked from his front door to his driveway.

Someone hit him with a branch, and others threw punches. McCullough told police he had seen a 17-year-old reach for a gun, so he drew his own gun and shot his would-be assailant in the arm.

"I'm a man, not a mouse nor a vigilante. I'm not looking for medals, just a safe neighborhood and peaceful existence," said McCullough, who grew up in a housing project on the south side of Chicago. "I don't believe in vigilantism under any circumstances. What I did and will continue to do is take my safety in my own hands."

Here's the follow-up story from SF Gate, where the perp says he didn't do nuthin' and the police say bull!

Hegler [the perp's mom, proving I suppose that hope does spring eternal] is urging prosecutors to charge McCullough, but police who patrol North Oakland disagree. They have known McCullough for years and consider him to be a good man in an area where drug dealers from the North Pole gang have run the block and nearby Bushrod Park.

"In our opinion, her son was the aggressor -- he instigated the whole event," said Lt. Lawrence Green, who oversees patrols in North Oakland.

Green feels prosecutors should charge Melvin and his friends for assault. He dismissed Hegler's assertion that McCullough was the instigator.

McCullough used a SIG P230 in .380, if you're interested.