Armed Homeowner Responds To Four Burglars, Shoots One
Garden City, Alabama — Residents in a Garden City home woke up to find four suspects breaking into their house, early August 17th, ending in one of the suspects being shot.
Once inside the home they were met by the homeowner who was armed, and ended up immediately leaving the house after coming into contact with the armed resident. The homeowner then followed the suspected burglars with a short exchange of gun shots.
One of the suspects was shot by the homeowner and, as of the latest reports, remains hospitalized with charges pending.
According to reports, three of the suspects were caught at or near the scene, while one was able to get away in the car. This person was later apprehended after police gained a search warrant. That search yielded drugs, drug paraphernalia, and a 12 gauge.
For the three who were not shot and hospitalized, criminal charges have been placed ranging from first degree burglary and robbery, to trafficking illegal drugs and other drug charges.
All three are currently being detained without bond, while the other recovers in the hospital.
One of the most important aspects about gun ownership is having a plan of defense and sticking to it. I don’t mean just knowing that you’d shoot the bad guys when they break in, because it can and should go much further than that to include how you prevent the bad guys from even getting inside.
Then if that fails, you have a solid plan put in place. We cover all aspects of home defense in our comprehensive course, Complete Home Defense: Tactics for Defending Your Castle. It’s the best $58.45 you could ever spend in learning how to defend your house and gives you more than 8 ours of content.
This type “scenario” is liable to double or triple in areas where the Demorats cut back funding for the police departments or eliminate them completely, people are going to need to defend their families and properties in the best way they can.
He shot them as they were running away? Most places he’d be the one in jail.
The thing we OFTEN don’t think about is “What is behind what [or who] we are shooting at…
Not just out on the street… but IN our HOMES !! Are you shooting from your bedroom… toward your KIDS’ room ??!! Are you in an apartment building, with neighbors in every direction.?? Are you shooting toward your front door… and your NEIGHBOR’s Front door, or windows ? If you are using a powerful weapon, will it penetrate your exterior walls … and your Neighbor’s walls? What is the neighbors’ floor plan? are their bedrooms on the end of their home that is closest to your bedrooms.?
LOTS of things to think about, and plan for BEFORE you ever find yourself in a “situation”…
Do you have SECURE doors & Windows? Do you have Alarms and sensors that will let you KNOW someone is intruding your home? Weapons ‘safe’ from kids, but where you can get them FAST? Do you have motion-sensitive CAMERAS that will show what happened and positioned to get views of their Face(s)..?? Do you have Valuables — like paintings on the walls, or Collectibles and figurines and sculptures, or valuable furniture, a Piano, etc — that are in the line of where you are most likely to be shooting ?
You might want to do a little re-arranging.
And get the Book… so you can plan ahead … and Actually Practice the movements so you don’t ‘forget’ when it counts..!! And let your family know what THEY need to do.
Joshua —
I have enjoyed your gun-related articles for quite a while, and have purchased some items from you in the past.
First, I am not an attorney — I am just a citizen who takes very seriously the obligations I assume every day when I carry concealed and/or defend myself and family in my home. One of today’s articles contains information that seems to conflict with what I have read and learned in classes. I will point it out here, and ask that you let me know if my information is correct or not.
The article states:
Garden City, Alabama — Residents in a Garden City home woke up to find four suspects breaking into their house, early August 17th, ending in one of the suspects being shot.
Once inside the home they were met by the homeowner who was armed, and ended up immediately leaving the house after coming into contact with the armed resident. The homeowner then followed the suspected burglars outside; there was a short exchange of gun shots, and one of the intruders was wounded.
In Arizona and California, where I have homes, the actions of the homeowner would most likely result in prosecution for aggravated assault with a firearm, attempted murder, and unlawful display of a firearm in a threatening manner.
The reason for this is that according to our factual pattern, the intruders LEFT the home immediately and the homeowner FOLLOWED them outside where the shooting occurred.
While the homeowner was certainly justified to use his gun to deter the threat while he was in his home, the use of deadly force is only justified until the threat of imminent serious injury or death has been defused. At that point, the legal right to use deadly force ends. When the intruders left the home the threat of deadly force against the homeowner and his family ended.
When he chose to leave the house and pursue the suspects and then shoot at them, he became the aggressor, and had no right to fire — he had lost the shield of self defense, and became the aggressor, even though they shot at him. The homeowner was no longer in imminent danger. He did not have a duty to retreat, but he also did not have the right to pursue with deadly force outside of his home. Thus, the prosecution would be pursued by a (most likely anti-gun) prosecutor, and would probably be followed by large civil lawsuit against him by the person he wounded.
Please clarify. Thank you for your enlightening articles.
Jim Moir
The Real Person!
Jim I agree.
He chased after them and shot one that was in the process of leaving? That sounds like trouble to me.