So.......what's the issue here? Is this a "Hooray, armed citizen drops two scumbags" thread or "Boohoo, armed citizen drops two scumbags" thread?
^I don't see what that has to do with it. Of course, If someone is breaking into YOUR home, then you're obviously in danger, and you have a right to defend yourself with deadly force if necessary. If someone breaks into your neighbor's home, I don't think you have the right to shoot them as they're running away, as was the case in this situation.
Maybe if a few more people got offed while robbing homes, fewer people would choose home-robbing as a vocation...
Im all for defending your own property and if guns are allowed then fair play, my thoughts on gun control have changed somewhat in the last few years mainly by arguments put forward on WF by responsible gun owners, Shoes, Forbin etc, but…… this guy was nothing but a trigger happy red neck. He’s dieing to kill somebody. Consider. The police officer told him on the phone a number of times, “ain’t no property worth shootin someone over” The officer told him on numerous occasions not to go outside. He said he barely knew his neighbours, so this wasn't even Im going in to defend my buddies property. He told the officer quite rightly he was allowed to use his shot gun to defend himself, however he wasn’t defending himself when he shot the burglars. He wasn’t shooting someone who was robbing him, nor was he stopping a robbery in progress. He deliberately went outside and shot people who were making a getaway, who had committed no crime against him. Let me get this clear, if the two burglars had attempted to get into the callers home, then I would have been 100% behind him shooting them dead, but they never. They were leaving the scene. The scene of what he had already said was an empty house. No lives were in jeopardy and no firearms were discharged in self defence!
That may or may not have been the dispatcher's opinion, but the law disagrees. Among other things, I'm allowed to use deadly force to stop robbery in any degree or burglary in any degree.
Do you mean you as in any average American citizen? or YOU as in Elwood the POLICE OFFICER. The two are quite different.
All are held to the same standard when it comes to the use of deadly force. If a peace officer was justified in shooting, any other person would have been justified too. If another person was justified shooting, a peace officer would have been justified too.
I can't get the video to work, but from the comments I'd agree the guy should have stayed in his house. None of my neighbors' stuff is worth me going to jail for. And NJ has no sense of humor over shooting bad guys outside of your own home. Or in, for that matter.
I think I might have confronted them on their escape and attempted to make a citizens' arrest, holding them at gunpoint until the police arrived, but I wouldn't have just gone out and blasted them unless they made a go at at me. Off my property, that is. On my property, they're toast.
Oh...wait... They were trying to flee the scene? I...missed that part. That makes the situation decidedly more complex from a legal standpoint.
I'm not clear on what was happening when he blasted them, except for the fact that he left his house to confront them directly. Not sure if the one he shot was on his own property or his neighbor's.
Y'know, either way, I don't get broken up over burglars getting shotgunned. My only concern is for the upstanding citizen who didn't want to just stand by and let it go. I hope the law goes easy on him if he was technically in the wrong.
I could've sworn that this story was discussed here when it first happened three weeks ago, but a search yields nothing. Horn claims that he confronted the two men on his property and that they lunged for him, at which point he fired in self defense.
If it went down as I now imagine it (take it with a grain of salt as I've already missed one very important detail), he should have done just as you described, which is legally justified. Burglary in the 3rd Degree is a Felony. A private person is authorized to use physical force, other than deadly force, to help effect the arrest or to prevent the escape of suspected felon unless he specifically believes the arrest would be illegal. At that point, a private person may use deadly force only in defense of himself or a third person (say he confronts them and they attack him).
It's hard to know without seeing what happened, but judging by the delay between his shout and his shots, I don't think those guys rushed him. I think he got all worked up and just stepped out and blasted away.
61 year old man with balls. Unlike the current generation, that's mostly been castrated. It's amazing to me that it's even a question of whether or not Mr. Horn should be in trouble. If it was my house he'd have my profuse thanks. The family members of the burglars evidentally are ticked off at him, but other than that, I doubt you are going to see a jury in Texas convict an old man for shooting two burglars on his own property.
