I have similar thoughts. No situational awareness or thoughts that they are dealing with a harmless person; just a chance to kill someone. Many here on FR would disagree - they think any shoot is a good one, even the cop who riddled the kid with the toy gun.
Similar to the Michigan case where the guy shot the girl who showed up at his door in the middle of the night.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3091837/posts
Totally agree with you. The use of deadly force should be prudently employed. Obviously here it was not, assuming this story is accurate.
And some of us 2nd Amendment-loving gun nuts agree with you. Self-defense, including use of deadly force when unavoidable, comes with a heavy burden of responsibility. If the facts are as presented (that’s always a big if), the shooter left a place of safety to confront someone who posed no immediate threat, while police were being summoned. Going outside in the dark chasing unknown potential criminals is a good way to get killed by the criminals or shot by the police who arrive adrenalized and see an armed man roaming around. Hendricks seems to be culpable for negligent homicide at minimum.
You ignorant f***. No one on FR thought that shooting that kid was a good shoot except for a couple of cop apologists.I believe they are missing a idiot over at DU, you had better get back there.
It's not that easy to distinguish a realistic looking toy gun from a real one. A 72-year-old man who's not armed on the other hand, is not a threat, if all he's doing is ringing a doorbell.
It is highly doubtful that a typical suburban newleywed would be looking for a life to take in cold blood for the fun and experience of it.
It is dark. You are rousted out of sleep and you imagine the worst, that your house is being broken into. The adrenaline has to be pounding your heart. If you can’t see well in the dark, then you don’t know that the man is old or if he has a weapon. If you can’t tell he doesn’t have a weapon, then a person is going to be on edge to shoot just our of raw fear of being shot first.
We honestly don’t know the circumstances. After the story is published, we know all the facts. We don’t know what the home-owner saw or how dark and shadowed the situation was. The story is not well written. The elderly man rings the bell and tries the door knob yet is shot in the back yard. What happened in between?
>> Many here on FR would disagree - they think any shoot is a good one, even the cop who riddled the kid with the toy gun.
“Many” as in more than one?
It’s my recollection the vast majority of FReepers correctly condemned the shooting of the young boy with the toy gun.