In stark contrast to the last couple I’ve seen, this one looks pretty legit:
The owner discovered the unidentified man had unlocked a gate where he kept his trailer and was trying to hook the trailer up to a truck, police said. “The business owner asked him what he was doing,” [Houston police Sgt. Ryan] Chandler said. “[The intruder] starts in with a story: ‘I’ve got permission from the owner to take it.’ But the business owner says, ‘Well, I’m the owner and I didn’t give you permission.’ … Suddenly, “the suspect puts (the truck) in drive and takes off in the direction of the business owner,” Chandler said.
Fearing that the truck would run him over, the business owner fired his weapon multiple times, striking the suspect in his side.
I’m still very interested to see whether statistics can show that this law is having the intended effect of discouraging criminals from robbing people’s houses.
I suspect that at least that particular thief has been discouraged. Obviously the thief was willing to kill the owner.
Actually, the intended effect is to allow honest citizens to protect themselves and their property under certain circumstances. Of course, in Texas at least, we assumed that we already had that right. The Castle Doctrine does clarify things and it offers some protection from being victimized again in the courts by the criminal or the criminals family after the fact.
Well, that particular thief is dead now, so it’s not like he had an opportunity to learn from the experience.
And Bruce, you may be correct about the motivation for the law, but I would suggest that the preferred long-term outcome would be for nobody to get shot, because criminals would realize that the risk isn’t worth the payoff.
Tekel, you might say that one thief had the ultimate learning experience.
I agree. I think that the fact that any “Castle Doctrine killing” seems to receive more press than it really deserves may encourage more criminals not to attack us and not to invade our homes and property. Or at least, find some form of theft that isn’t quite so dangerous to criminal as well as the victim.
Of course, in Texas, killing a burglar on your own property (especially at night) was already permitted in most cases. We may have already benefited from the de facto castle doctrine here in terms of discouraging criminals. It is possible that folks who are here illegally might not know the facts of life yet.
I remember that a professional car thief, who might steal a dozon cars in a day, was interviewed on the radio during one brief stay in jail. He said that he would never attempt to steal a car out of a garage or a driveway. He thought that it was just too dangerous. He said that mostly he would take them from parking lots where the owner was not likely to be armed.