Case closed.
Wow. I hate to sound like a lib but lethal force is not called for when “protecting your property”. Only in self defense or justifiably perceived threat of personal harm!
Almost everyone knows “you cant shoot someone unless they break into your house” and even that doesn’t hold up in court these days. If you are going to use your car to ram someone just to ‘stop them from getting away’, then you might have to expect to do some prison time if that person dies. I understand they MAY have been committing a crime.
Not wanting somebody to get away is not considered grounds for justified use of deadly force. Mr. Reid was not being threatened in any way. It is likely that he’s in a lot of trouble.
-bflr-
Sometimes one’s luck just runs out.
In most places and cases, you can’t use deadly force to stop a property crime... and using a car is deadly force, since the weight alone can crush a person (and clearly, in this case, the suspect died).
If Reid is tried, he should plead insanity-in the heat of the moment he "lost all resason", etc.
Probably a P.H.D., I have two P.H.D.s by the way.
How is a sincere criminal, trying hard, going to get ahead in his profession if his victim fails to cooperate?
Almost all crime depends on the cooperation of the victim.
If the victim refuses his assigned role, the criminal is placed at a disadvantage,
one so severe that it usually takes an understanding and compassionate judge to set right.
LAZARUS LONG
I am pretty strongly on the "right to defend and protect" side as a general proposition but the bit above is pretty damning.
Ironically, if Reid had stopped at blocking or ramming the perps' car, he would have recovered his property and they both would have undoubtedly been caught, even if they fled on foot.
I guess my sympathy with protecting property would stop a little short of what Reid seems to have done -- deliberate ram a man on foot (not buying the old foot-stuck-on-gas-pedal story).
umm and if he didn’t give a statement to police before talking to a lawyer, he might have remembered in the excitement he thought the guy was going to shoot him and he ducked down and his foot slipped off the brake...end of story...
Getting charged with Vehicular Manslaughter is the likely outcome. He’ll get his azz sued 7 ways to Cleveland in civil court by the family of the perp.
Let’s see—SELMA.
Black man killed by white man, regardless of reason.
Expect the Rev-u-rund Jackson and Al Sharpton and the NAACP to be there before sunset, claiming racist premeditated murder on Mr. Reid’s part!!
(no, there’s no /sarc because I’m telling the truth...)
Some of you lawyers: Can the perp who was unharmed be prosecuted under the felony murder rule?
Never bring a brown sedan to a farm pickup truck fight.
From the aerial video, it is clear these guys where still on the property by quite a bit. The damage to the car and truck are minimal. He says he hit them hard, but it doesn’t look that way.
They came at him with deadly force, so I would think he couldn’t be charged with deadly force trying to protect himself. The guy should have first said he was in fear of his life since a car was speeding at him. He tried to miss being killed by the car and succeeded but it didn’t work out well for the other guy. So, he saved his own life.
He said exactly the right thing publicly: “As Brown tried to scramble out of the car and run, Reid said, he hit the gas pedal by mistake.”
Sheriff Bizzell certainly gets my vote in the next election.