Posted by WinThePennant: The surest way to lose CCW privileges is for yahoos to start running around shooting common thieves.
OK - The thief ran away. Call the police, and let them take care of the rest.
The use of deadly force against
thieves was not permitted under the English Common Law in the earliest days, some eight or so centuries ago, nor was it lawful in the forty nine states and all the territories that based their laws on the Common Law. The single exception today involves Texas, in which it is lawful to employ deadly force against a thief immediately after a theft has occurred during the night time, if and only if there is no other safe way for the actor to prevent the taking of tangible, moveable property.
However, the decedent in the case in hand evidently committed
robbery, rather than
theft. Robbery is considered a forcible felony, because it puts the person who is robbed in imminent danger of serious harm.
In many jurisdictions, the use of deadly force to
prevent a forcible felony is lawful.
However, in the case at hand, it appears that the shooting took place after the robbery had already occurred. No private citizen may decide guilt or innocence, regardless of his or her personal knowledge about a crime, except when deliberating in concert with others as a juror; a private citizen may not decide upon the penalty for a crime; and no private citizen is empowered to impose a penalty for a crime. And except in Texas under certain limited circumstances, deadly force may not be used to recover stolen property.
It would not be wise at all to conclude exactly what transpired from news reports. Nor can anyone reliably predict how a jury would decide the facts, should the actor be brought to trial.
One can, as a general rule, say that to pursue either a thief or a robber is both physically unsafe and legally very risky at best.
Based on what has been reported, which again is subject to question, it would
appear that the shooter in the case at hand faces a most uncertain future.
Those who opine publicly in a discoverable medium that the robber got what he deserved and so forth do us all a disservice in helping to solidify public opinion against the right to carry firearms. They do themselves a disservice by creating evidence that could someday be used against them, should they ever be involved in a use of deadly force incident in which the totality of the evidence does not seem to substantiate a claim that the use of force had been immediately necessary and lawfully justified.
