Being unarmed was the problem

Anahad O'Connor and Mick Meehan have a story in The New York Times about a hapless, if well-meaning volunteer patrol in Brooklyn:

Four members of an Orthodox Jewish volunteer patrol in Brooklyn were shot after they followed and confronted a man in a vehicle who had been acting suspiciously, police and witnesses said.
The men, members of the Brooklyn South Shomrim Patrol, a licensed unarmed civilian group, were shot about 8 p.m. near 49th Street and 10th Avenue in Borough Park, the police said. None of their wounds were considered life-threatening. The man in the car was also hit in the arm by a bullet from a gun he had fired, and he was seized by patrol members, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said late Thursday night. The police said the man, whose name was not immediately released, had an “extensive” criminal record.
Members of the security patrol said that the man had been reported sitting in his car and fondling himself while leering at groups of young girls on 25 August, and that they had given his license plate number to the police. They said they had chased and tried to apprehend him, and had made a plan to confront him.
They spotted the man driving up 46th Street in a silver Hyundai after residents called their hot line. Members of the patrol began following him in an unmarked car, and contacted Shomrim members in other vehicles to help box him in, said Sam Follman, a coordinator for the group. “He noticed we were behind him, and he was scared,” Mr. Follman said. “He’s a known perp to us.”
As the man drove along 46th street between Ninth and 10th Avenues, he had to stop behind a double-parked car on a one-way street. “When he saw he was blocked, he got out and started running,” Mr. Follman said. After a brief chase, members of the patrol converged on him from several directions, tackled him and forced him to the ground. The man then pulled a .22-caliber gun and started firing, Mr. Follman said. “Probably he got off five, six shots,” he said. “While he was on the floor, he kept shooting.”
According to the police, four members of the group were hit. They were taken to Lutheran Medical Center. Mr. Follman identified the injured patrol members as Abe Kaztow, a baker, who was hit in the hand; Motty Brauner, a dry cleaner, who was hit in the neck; Joel Klein, an insurance salesman, who was shot in the abdomen; and Motty Pearl, also a baker, hit in the hand.
At a news conference at the hospital, Mr. Kelly said the suspect had a record that included arrests for public lewdness, gun possession, and robbery. The Shomrim has been patrolling Hasidic communities in Brooklyn for more than twenty years, and works closely with neighborhood precincts. Mr. Kelly said the police “have a strong relationship” with the group.

Rico says these guys are way lucky: "hit in the neck, shot in the abdomen" would have turned out a lot different if the 'perp' had been carrying a larger-caliber pistol, and not that wimpy .22 thing... So, Lesson Number One: assume the criminal is carrying a gun, and Lesson Number Two: shoot him first (and second and, if necessary, third) with a real caliber gub...