Largo Police: Good Samaritan Acted in Self Defense When He Shot Man

Tampa Bay Reporter ^ | 15 April, 2019 | TBadmin

[marktwain]

The man who was shot is still in the hospital and may face a charge of Aggravated Assault against the Good Samaritan.

LARGO – Officers have determined that a Good Samaritan who shot a man he was trying to help was acting in self defense when he shot the man, the Largo Police Department said.

Michael E. Girardin, 63, was wounded in the upper left leg. He remains in Bayfront Health St. Petersburg for non-life-threatening injuries after the April 7 incident. (For related story, click here.) He is also thought to have been hit by a car.

The incident happened about 8 p.m. in the 11000 block of Walsingham Road.

The incident began after witnesses saw Girardin down in the road and assumed he had been hit by a car. While trying to render aid, police said bystanders urged Girardin to stay down and wait for medical help.

Witnesses said Girardin became angry that they and the Good Samaritan were following him and urging him to stay for medical assistance. Girardin repeatedly told them to leave him alone.

[marktwain]

When a man says to leave him alone, perhaps he should be left alone?

[arthurus]

Indeed. It’s like when a man and a woman are fighting on the street. Do not intervene even if the woman is getting the worst of it. She will turn on you and damage you.

[Celtic Conservative]

When I’m trying to help someone and they they get abusive and tell me to go to hell my response would’ve been “okay, bleed to death, asshole”.

But I’m a touch cranky.

CC

[Boogieman]

“they and the Good Samaritan were following him and urging him to stay for medical assistance”

Well, shooting him is one way to convince him he needs an ambulance, I guess.

[trebb]

Yeah - like when that thug beat the old woman on the subway and folks just passively watched....
I understand your point but too many have decided that letting the thugs have their way is the best way to go...I was raised different than that.

[arthurus]

I mean what is termed “domestic” violence, where the two know each other.

[trebb]

That hit my mind as a possibility after i retorted....there are many situations where i am hands-off but some cases would bother me greatly if I did absolutely nothing...even if only to make a scene to try to get the thug off the woman/other victim w/o physical intervention...would be more likely to draw my weapon and ask the person to stop because if it looked like serious harm or death might occur, I would have to act.
I understand where you were coming from now that you clarified and while what you say is a truth, even those cases cannot be left unopposed if some serious harm is occurring.

[arthurus]

If one intervenes in what turns out to be a domestic dispute, even if the woman’s life is being threatened the serious harm might well come to the intervenor from the woman. I was on the wrong side of a couple of situations a long time ago where there seemed to be a clear cut need of intervention for the woman’s safety. Never again. And Even if I have my gun i would not show it. When the cops come one faces a he said/she said and the other side of it is both the people involved in the altercation.