Burglar shot to death by store owner

[Bill Mattocks]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_9a17c08c-bcd1-11df-92c4-00127992bc8b.html

IMPERIAL -- A shop owner who slept in his Jefferson County auto sales store grabbed his revolver when he heard the door rattle and glass breaking early Friday, then shot a burglar to death, police say.
The shooting happened about 2:15 a.m. Friday at Justice Auto Sales, 5821 U.S. Highway 61/67. The owner confronted the burglar at the door, then fired two shots from his revolver. The burglar staggered back and fell in the parking area outside, said Sgt. Perry Tindall of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department. He died at the scene.

 

[Mark Jordan]

While I believe the owner has the right to defend himself and his business, he doesn't have the right to shoot him dead. As the report says,"the police hadn't found a weapon on the burglar..." The owner could have just shot him on the leg or something but not kill. Although in that tense situation I cannot blame the owner for doing that but we should not also be too quick to side with him.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

While I believe the owner has the right to defend himself and his business, he doesn't have the right to shoot him dead. As the report says,"the police hadn't found a weapon on the burglar..." The owner could have just shot him on the leg or something but not kill. Although in that tense situation I cannot blame the owner for doing that but we should not also be too quick to side with him.

I was trained to shoot center mass, and if I had to shoot at an intruder, that is what I would do.

First, if a person breaks into my home (or my business, if for some reason I am sleeping there), I have to make a presumption. That presumption is that my life is in jeopardy. There are too many news stories of people killed during burglaries (I read them every day when I find these news stories, I just don't post them, they're too depressing). So I know my life is in danger. If it turns out that the burglar just wanted my money or my possessions and would never hurt a fly, that's just too bad. I'm not a mind-reader, and he broke in, nobody forced him to do that.

Second, I wear glasses, I'm not as sharp mentally as I could be when aroused from a deep sleep by the sound of breaking glass and someone thrashing around in my house. I've had my dogs go nuts at oh-dark-thirty over a deer in the backyard, so I have some idea of how mentally together I am at that moment - not very. I can arm myself, take defensive action, dial 911, but the idea of shooting a dark shape advancing at me down the hallway in the leg? Preposterous. Even if I aim center mass (as I was trained to do), I may not hit him. I'm full of adrenalin and fear, I'm possibly not wearing my glasses, my hands are not going to be rock steady. I'm going to aim center mass and fire. If the dark fuzzy mass in front of me remains standing, I'm going to fire again.

As to the 'right' to shoot the person dead...most states have a "Castle Law" which basically states that a person has no duty to retreat inside their own dwelling, and that whatever action they take to stop an intruder is presumed justified. So yeah, they have the legal right to shoot them deader than a doornail. Of course, I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice.

As a Marine, and also as an MP, we often did stress testing of our training, which included rolling out of bed at oh-dark-thirty and arming ourselves in the dark, then deploying to meet a threat within seconds. When you've done that, you begin to realize that shooting someone in a specific body part is nigh-unto-impossible.

Tell you something else, having seen the results of a few gunshot wounds. You can shoot someone in the arm or leg and sever an artery and have them bleed out within a minute. It can be deadlier faster than a chest cavity bullet wound.