Let's Put This Baby To Bed!!
Less Than $5k To Go!!
Please Help End The FReepathon
Posted on 01/29/2011 3:14:52 PM PST by marktwain
A man police are calling a would-be burglar lost most of his calf muscles Monday after an Avenida Cañada homeowner shot him at close range with a 12-gauge shotgun.
“(The homeowner) said he didn’t have the heart to kill him,” Española Police Lt. Christian Lopez said. “He shot him in the legs.”
Joe Quintana, 28, was still in surgery at Española Hospital late Monday evening after he was shot by Joseph McNeil just before 9 a.m., Lopez said. A slug from McNeil’s shotgun tore through Quintana’s right calf muscle, which destroyed it, and went through his left calf, partially removing that muscle, according to Lopez, who said Quintana should be able to walk again with surgery and rehabilitation.
“More than likely it’s going to be a while,” Lopez said.
* Emergency personnel were called to McNeil’s home at the intersection of El Llano Road at about 9 a.m. Monday. The yard was cordoned off with caution tape while officers and detectives walked through the living room and photographed the scene of the shooting. Quintana was lying on a stretcher in the doorway to the home, and was moving his head and talking to medical workers before they took him away in an ambulance.
McNeil declined to comment at his home later that afternoon.
Lopez offered the following account of what went on inside the home:
McNeil was in the house, which he shares with his wife, by himself Monday morning when he heard someone trying to remove an air conditioner in a window. When Quintana couldn’t remove the air conditioner, he broke through a bedroom window to enter the house. McNeil grabbed his shotgun and confronted Quintana at the door to the bedroom.
McNeil ordered Quintana to the ground, but he did not listen. The two men fought over the shotgun, and Quintana lost. Quintana, who was unarmed, ran past McNeil for the front door and tried to open it. However, the screen door to the house was dead-bolted and could only be opened with a key from the inside.
Trapped at the front door, Quintana ignored another command from McNeil to get on the ground, so McNeil shot him. The slug was lodged in the wall after it passed through both of Quintana’s legs.
Lopez said the shooting met a standard for self-defense. He said the only other way out of the house after the front door was for Quintana to run past McNeil for the back door.
“Hell, he already fought him one time for the gun,” Lopez said. “(McNeil) thought his life was in jeopardy.”
Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Hill arrived at the scene shortly after the ambulance left with Quintana. Lopez said police investigators would give her the case against Quintana. He said Quintana could potentially be charged with felony burglary and assault, as well as with aggravated assault because the two men were fighting over a firearm.
Quintana faced charges of felony burglary and larceny last October in Rio Arriba County Magistrate Court, according to an online court records database. Hill dismissed those charges Jan. 10 with a motion stating the case may be presented to a grand jury. So far, Quintana has not been indicted on those charges, according to court records.
Taking a window AC out is often the easiest way to break in.
Or so I’ve been told.
We here at the personal injury law firm of Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, feel that young Mr. Qintana has an excellent case against Mr. McNeil, who shot him for no reason at all as Quintana, henceforth known as The Victim, walked home from Bible Studies Class to change for his cello lesson. Obviously, he became disoriented while pondering a point of Quantum Mechanics, and absent-mindedly entered the McNeil home.
Since Mr. Qintana, The Victim,, had a promising and long career ahead of him in Nuclear Physics, Mr. McNeil will will face a hefty judgment, that in all probability will be for more much more than his homeowner's insurance can cover. The McNeil property will become the Quintana property. The way we and law see it, Mr. Quintana simply mistook the McNeil's premises for his own. Ironically, with our fine firm to reperesent him, it soon will be his own.
Free advice to armed homeowners. Shoot to kill when faced with an intruder, or run the risk of having to support a wounded perp for life. Or worse, run the risk of you or a loved one getting killed yourselves.
Thank you.
I suspected it was New Mexico, but I couldn’t place any of the names.
I am a great believer, if one can afford it, that everyone should own some type of rifle for long distance targets, a hand gun for shorter distance targets, and a shotgun for intruders trying to get into one’s house.
Great, now this emmer effer will sue the shooter.
Espanola, New Mexico?
Thank you. I must have driven through it without being aware...or maybe not. If it is on the way to Taos (from Santa Fe), then yes. What beautiful country in that area.
More on the way from Santa Fe to Chama.
Beautiful land indeed.
What I loved to see on the way to Santa Fe from Albuquerque was the “little stream that runs uphill”…at least that is what it was called then. It is on the left-hand side of the road as one drives up to Santa Fe.
What's your life worth?
You may have misunderstood me. I am saying one should own all 3 types of firearms if one can afford all three types.
But then, maybe you didn’t misunderstand me.
Yes, the burglar will try to sue, but he doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
Shotgun surgery.
Good shooting, Citizen. Civilization thanks you.
>>“Hell, he already fought him one time for the gun,” (Española Police Lt. Christian) Lopez said. “(McNeil) thought his life was in jeopardy.” <<
When the cops are telling you what should go in the report, you know you’ve got it right.
Meaning that some folks might want to forgo a plasma tv in order to afford buying a variety of self defense weapons and training in how to use them safely and effectively.
I spend about $1,200 a year in continuous education with rifles, pistols, and shotguns.
You mean “clips”, right? /s
Yes, but enough about liberals and gun control what did you think of this story? :-)
Interesting stuff, legally speaking.
This man has a NM Constitutional defense as the State Constitution reads:
| Art II, Sec. 4. [Inherent rights.] |
|---|
| All persons are born equally free, and have certain natural, inherent and inalienable rights, among which are the rights of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing and protecting property, and of seeking and obtaining safety and happiness. |
If any of you are on Jury duty, please keep this in mind.
Espanola, New Mexico?
***************
I believe it’s the heroin capital of the world. Could explain a lot....
Yep.... agree.
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