Posted: 5/7/2009 6:08:56 PM EDT
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I understand that this took place in TX, and that TX is a whole nother country and all...but HOLY JEEZ WHAT WAS THIS GUY THINKING?
CCW Shoot in TX |
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“Our concern in a situation like that is the number of people in the immediate vicinity of an individual who don’t have a way to know who or what he is,” Myers said.
“A uniformed officer is easily identifiable. But the public doesn’t know who (a citizen with a handgun) is, or how to help.” On the other hand, this particular citizen did choose the most restrained use of his weapon, firing only at the tires of the vehicle and ultimately helping catch a car full of suspects. The chief has mixed feelings?!? 
He had no way of knowing what these petty crooks were up to and ended up shooting at them over $50. I'm at a loss for words. I bet there is a certain degree of deterrence because of stuff like that. You know, deterrence like "I was going to go to the store and get something for dinner, but, fuck that! I'd rather live" |
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Quoted:
Idiot. That does NOT fit into any rules of engagement that I know of! 
Some people just simply can not restrain themselves. The fleeing driver seemed to be headed straight for the citizen, who fired at the vehicle, striking a front tire. Having an LE background, I may or may not do this in that situation, but if this quote is accurate, it sure as hell meets my rules of engagement !- |
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i think the key thing here is was he just some random guy walking through the parking lot and happened to stray into the path of a car driven by thieving morons, or was he running over towards the shoplifters with a hardon thinking 'oh boy, i get to shoot somebody!!!!!' like a dumbass.
Guess which one i think happened. |
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Quoted: Chasing the suspects was a questionable option. If aforementioned statements and facts are true and accurate, it was a great shot. A vehicle is considered a deadly weapon. Use of lethal force would easily be justified in that scenario (If you are going by our case law, not so sure about Texas and their case law). Two eyewitnesses said the same thing, the shoplifters tried to run the armed citizen over. With the details provided by that article, it was a good shoot. However, I think the chase of the suspects will bite him in the ass. Quoted: Idiot. That does NOT fit into any rules of engagement that I know of! Some people just simply can not restrain themselves. The fleeing driver seemed to be headed straight for the citizen, who fired at the vehicle, striking a front tire. Having an LE background, I may or may not do this in that situation, but if this quote is accurate, it sure as hell meets my rules of engagement !- I take a stab and say that the armed citizen will most likely get charged with police interference. I could be wrong on that one though, facts and details are left out of the story. He will probably get charged with something for sure. I see a future court appearance for him.  |
| I'm not sure I see the problem. He didn't fire at the robbers, he had no intent to harm, he took out their front tire, a difficult shot to be an accident as the windshield and the front tire are a considerable distance away from each other for a close distance shot, and I don't see any problem with him "chasing" their getaway car. I "chase" people in their cars all the time, when I am following them to go somewhere. He alerted the police as to where the robbers were (notice I didn't say "suspects" as it was absolutely clear that they were the perpetrators). I'm no lawyer, but the worst I can see him getting is a scolding from a Judge, but IMHO I think he did the right thing. I tell my wife all the time, that serious criminals would have a lot less motivation to commit crimes if they were just as worried about the citizenry and victims as they were about the police. I'm not advocating anyone becoming a "vigilante" in the violent sense of the word. I'm simply saying that criminals who commit robbery, assault, murder or attempted murder, even shoplifting should be worried not just about the police, or the manager/owner of whatever store they are ripping off, but everyone around them who can see what they are doing. If you can witness it, then you can stop it. Our prisons would be a lot less crowded if this were the case. I think what this man did may have been questionable, but as I was not there, I am giving him the benefit of the doubt, and I find his desire to prevent criminals from fleeing justice admirable. |
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Looks like someones been watching Lethal Weapon on TBS. That guy probably got more action than most officers would in their whole careers. Seriously though, I agree with GlockSarge...if someone tries to run me down then it's weapons hot for me. I think I mentioned a while back in one of the threads about a somewhat similar situation when a former coworker of mine shot out the tires of a suspected (turned out to be a) drunk driver who rear ended as he tried to flee from the accident over by Lynnhaven Mall.
....Riiiiiiiiiiiiigs... |
| I think we just need to not monday night quarterback it. The Police had trained officers and investigators and they obviously determined that it was a "good shoot". So who are we, sitting behind our computers reading a news article, to overturn thier judgment. - Just a thought |
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If I find myself in front of a vehicle gunning me down, I'm looking to get out of the way. If I can't (walls, etc) I'm shooting the driver. If I'm amped on adrenalin, I guess I might yank the trigger and send one down into the tire ... ?
But my official guess is that the good guy followed the theives out of the store, got in front of thier car in an attempt to make a citizens arrest, drew and ordered them to stop, they gunned the motor and he shot the tire. They tried to get away and he followed. But that's speculation on a strange case, I would love to know more. One thing for sure, this whole "mind your own business, let the bad guys go" attitude seems to be evermore present in todays society. Might have been better to have written down a license plate, but the reality is not much would have been done with it, not enough damage to follow up on. I used to work in a fraud dept. We could monitor criminal activity and localize it to a particular gas station but we couldn't get police to go and do anything about it. Credit card fraud just doesn't ruffle enough feathers. BTW, as for yanking a shot that far low .... I've seen guys get excited at pistol matches and hit the dirt way in front of relatively close targets .. would almost seem impossible, but it happens. |