Posted on 12/30/2008 8:57:56 AM PST by rellimpank
I’m curious at what point the guy was shot. Was he “pounding” on the door, or was he actually trying to get in? I’d be reluctant to pull the trigger as long as the guy was outside.
...and apparently was confused about which house was his because they look alike he was drunk off his arse...
There. Fixed it!
A drunk Kennedy! Who would have thunk’it!
As long as the guy was outside, what was the harm in waiting for the cops to come and shoot him?
Overtime. He was trying to save the taxpayers of CO some money.
It happened to me a couple of years ago. 3:00am and somebody really pounding hard on the door. I went to the door, gun in hand and it was three drunks looking for somebody - wrong address, I just told them to get the hell out of here and they did. I was prepared to shoot and they knew it even though I didn’t point the gun directly at them.
This is tragic. I can’t say I agree with shooting someone that is pounding on your door if they don’t pose an immediate threat. I guess that is why the police are looking into the matter and not saying it is a slam dunk that the homeowner is off the hook. That being said, there is one less drunk driver on the streets.
Agreed.
You are joking right?
About 15 years ago, I was a single professional female living in a studio apartment, when I was awakened by three men pounding on my door, screaming in Spanish. Just writing this, I can feel the fear all over again. They were tall and black — that’s all I remember (looking thru the window). Their Spanish wasn’t very good. I didn’t have a gun — so I screamed through the door that the police were on their way and to get the hell out of here. Who knows what evil God protected me from that night? I assumed they had the wrong apartment — but still — anything could have happened.
I have considered getting a gun, but I can’t justify it, now that I have four young children — even as a single (adoptive) mother.
That is the challenge isn't it. Determining when a stranger is a real threat prior to being too late to protect your family from harm.
He thought he was trying wake his roommates. I wonder if he yelled some unpleasant things if they didn't open the door...
That’s what I’m saying. Did the homeowner shoot guy shot him through the door?
Seems pretty excessive and MAYBE some manslaughter charges should be brought up against the homeowner? The man was outside his house. Pounding on the door. That’s scary and understandable reaction form the home owner. But since the man was not inside the house, he was “contained outside”. Then there was no real threat, he had called police and should have waited. However, if the man was already inside or about to go inside. Then the man had a right to defend himself. I’m a gun owner and I don’t know what I would do.
This is a tough one.
I had a friend who went to the wrong house drunk at 3:00 AM and luckily for him the police arrived as he pounded the door and shouted for his friends to let him in.
He got charged with burglary, spent the weekend in jail. Judge correctly said “Pounding on the door and asking for friends is not burglary.” My friend pled guilty to drunk and disorderly and got time served plus a year’s probation.
But on the bright side, he didn’t get shot.
If somebody is hammering on my door, you can bet I’ll be armed when I go to check it out, and after 9:00PM, I’d be expecting the worst.
However, knowing that I had an equalizer, I WOULD attempt to ascertain the situation before taking a life. You can, after all, shout from the other side of the door.
‘Course, in Kalifornia, you’re not allowed to protect yourself, so you’d be without a doubt criminally charged if you did have to defend yourself.
I absolutely subscribe to “better judged by 12...”
“Tragic set of circumstances started in motion by the young man’s excessive drinking.”
I’m somewhat sympathetic to the young man and his family. When I was new to an area, I once mistakenly walked into the wrong apartment, then quickly realized my mistake when the furniture looked all wrong. I wasn’t drinking, but had absent-mindedly walked up one flight of stairs too many. Luckily there was no one there to confront me. My point is, don’t be too trigger-happy, because sometimes well-meaning people end up in the wrong place by accident. All this having been said, it doesn’t seem to me that the homeowner should be charged in this case, because the drunken young man probably seemed to be an imminent threat, and was actually in the backyard at the time of the shooting.
My Grandfather had a house in Detroit years ago, and all the houses were built and painted almost identical along the street.
A few times each year their house would be woken up by a guy beating on the door wanting in, only to find it was the drunk neighbor wondering why his wife locked him out of the house again.
Grandpa always laughed about that when he told the story.
A friend of my husband's did the same thing, only the door to the house was unlocked so he let himself in and passed out on the couch.
He was awoken by the police handcuffing him.
Sad story here. I think it is reasonable for the police to investigate.
I’m with you. A sad story.
Amazing how many of the readers’ comments on that site think that this was an “attempted robbery” or the guy was some sort of “thief” and that this was “instant justice.” Can’t these people read?
You don't get the point. The guy in the house had the right to kill him.
It's not as though there are any rules of reasonableness to consider here. It's not like having a right entails a need to behave responsibly. < /end sarc >
It's things like this that get laws changed in such a way as to make it harder for people to defend themselves when they really need to. Poor dear Mr. Kennedy could end up as a poster child for the gun grabbers.
Why is the D.A. even considering bringing charges against the homeowner?
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