Homeowner shoots fleeing home invader in back

[Wayne Dobbs]

As we tell our students in class who are not police officers....if the bad guy flees, you won, and it is a good thing. Let the police go find them.

And to add another angle on what we teach: human threats usually run away when you shoot them in the torso with a pistol, just like those white tails and elk do when shot through the torso with rifles. Don't shoot more and don't pursue because nothing good will come from either choice. As Darryl said, let the cops deal with the problem. For that matter, LEOs that are involved in a shooting should let their backups do the follow up pursuit also.

[Chuck Haggard]

I should note that I have been told, but have not confirmed, that this case may involve what were described as business associates in an amatuer pharmacology distribution business, which would add significantly to the shady factor involved.

[ffhounddog]

Well threaten a gunpoint is where I say they are still a threat retreating. Breaking contact still makes them a threat.

Chuck is correct there are other circumstances but one of them had a gun. That is where it gets dicey in my view.

[DiscipulusArmorum]

My memory may be faulty, but I think Claude Werner has discussed on Ballistic Radio or elsewhere online that time and again in both FoF scenarios and real-life incidents, you frequently see that people who fight back against an attacker end up pursuing the attacker even after the initial confrontation is over and, as nyeti put it, you have "won." I believe one of his recommendations for the home was to pick a hardpoint, like say your front door frame or a column on the porch that you can make contact with and drill it into your head through mental/physical repetitions not to go beyond it in an incident.

[Chuck Haggard]

From police work we know that chasing after people who have guns is amongst the very most dangerous things one can do. I would argue that not only is it legally ill advised for a homeowner, it's tactically stupid as hell.

[Alpha Sierra]

Well threaten a gunpoint is where I say they are still a threat retreating. Breaking contact still makes them a threat.

Chuck is correct there are other circumstances but one of them had a gun. That is where it gets dicey in my view.

Still retreating while they're in your home, pretty legit

Chasing them out and shooting them as they haul ass down the street, not so legit

[RJ]

It's not from ORC, but I found a legal blog on the topic.



http://ohiocrimlawblog.com/tag/duty-to-retreat/

Yeah buddy. Here in Floriduh, we'da dragged 'em back over the threshold of the house.

Kidding, of course.

Sorry to see this. Hard to make an argument I'm in danger of great bodily harm or imminent death, if dude is outside my house running away.

[Hambo]

I should note that I have been told, but have not confirmed, that this case may involve what were described as business associates in an amatuer pharmacology distribution business, which would add significantly to the shady factor involved.

I always think dope when I see home invasion robbery.

[BehindBlueI's]

I always think dope when I see home invasion robbery.

And you would be correct in nearly all of them.

Anyway, this sort of thing is real fact dependent. Yes, we can think of scenarios were it is justified. Yes, we can think of situations where it isn't. I'd not want to be the guy who chased someone down and shot them after they had fled without firing a shot themselves, though. It's a lot tougher to argue fear for your life then when they situation is still ongoing, or even if they fired at you before you began to resist and could conceivably be repositioning, etc.

[TAZ]

I must have missed it in the article, but where did it say that he chased after them and shot them down outside the home??

If he did chase after them and continue to engage after they were running away then he is going to be in for a rough ride as in most cases he will now be seen as the aggressor rather than the victim.

If he shit them and ended up putting rounds into their backs I'm going to cut him slack as he could very easily have been blasting away while the targets moved and took some rounds in the back.

Love it how they state that one if the suspect had been arrested before. Shocker there. Does that make the legal system as culpable as the partner? I mean if the system hadn't let this guy free the crime would never have occurred. LOL. Not holding my breath on that one.