American Hero to face manslaughter charges

[Borderdawg]

By the way, it was definitely a rifle, and not a pistol. Way more accurate...

That is true. Still, a headshot from 70 feet is quite impressive if intentional.

Yeah, if he was using a slingshot! With a 7.62 an average shot should have under 2 inch groups.

[Snorri1234]

By the way, it was definitely a rifle, and not a pistol. Way more accurate...

That is true. Still, a headshot from 70 feet is quite impressive if intentional.

Yeah, if he was using a slingshot! With a 7.62 an average shot should have under 2 inch groups.

That supposes he was a trained gunman not shooting a moving target on a reasonably dark night. And also that he wasn't reacting to a situation of guys stealing his shit instead of standing at the gunrange.

[Titanic]

There's also one life taken unnecessarily. That's a bad thing.

It's only because of the actions of the first, that the second acted. If the first guy hadn't violated the other guys property, this never would have happened. Don't blame the 2nd guy, blame the robber. The second he broke into the guys car, he lost all rights. It was his active CHOICE to do what he did. The other guy just defended himself from the criminal.

No, the other guy ALSO made an active choice. The choice to go get his weapon and then RE-ENGAGE the criminals.He didn't "just defend himself" because his life was not in danger until he acted on HIS choice.

The guy should go to jail for what he did.

[SirSebstar]

.............. The other guy just defended himself from the criminal.

Yes, i can see I need serious weapons to defend myself from a man running away from me, and him being unarmed. Lets shoot them in the head guys...
Now if you had said to defend my property.. We can all agree property is more valuable then a mans life. ofcourse, I also feel anybody with a subwoofer should be shot on general priciple, but hey. Think positive, you can become a hero because you cant shoot! If you could, you'd be facing murdercharges.

[KristenAmazon]

That's rather sickening. The Law states that in self defense you can use force equal or adquate to that action required to defend yourself. It does not authorize you to take excessively overpowering force.

Now... if the man had come back to the car and these guys decided to scramble except for 1 who stayed and pulled a knife on the man, I could very well understand trying to break the robber's arm or knock the robber out. In this case the man has a right to defend himself and if equal or adequate force to that of the robber means that action is taken to protect his life over that of the robbers, then that is where the courts would rule on whether or not it was acceptable to act as he did.

In a moment of rush and heightened senses due to one's life being at stake, the courts would (should) in most cases respect that self defense in it's purest state at climax can often entail: "Either he was going to die, or I was going to die your honour". If it is that clear cut that you can make that statement, then the circumstances are often easily believeable.

Sadly in this case we had a guy who was robbed, decided he wouldn't take it from "those punk kids" and chose to fire on one of them. This is not "equal or adequate force to defend himself" - this was excessive force to defend stolen property.

He didn't defend himself against an attacker bedub, he attacked a fleeing thief. There is a difference.

[PLAYER57832]

Of course this guy goes on trial. he killled someone. The justice system is there to determine whether that killing is a justified or an illegal act.
If a cop kills someone, there's an investigation every time. because we don't want people getting away with murder (or even manslaughter).
Just because someone is called to account for their actions doesn't mean they are going to be punished.

Exactly!

I await the trial before making any judgement. There is no doubt far more involved than that one link could reveal.

[Sackett58]

I would not justify this as a hero action either. But if what happened is true you have criminals on your property not knowing their intentions. So now you go back on the balcony with your gun. Then supposedly the criminal goes to his waistband while running. Now if that is true going for his waistband I am fearing for my life. There are probably hundreds of cases out there where a victim hesitated and found himself dead for that split second of hesitation. Tough call when your adreneline is pumping.

[pimpdave]

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/l ... lly_shoots

[Titanic]

This reminded me of The Simpsons episode where Charlton Heston is killed. "No, its his right as an American to shoot me." - LOL.