Pharmacist charged with murder for defending himself

He should get a medal not a trial.

Not sure about this case, I know that from talking to some of my old HS friends parents who were sherrifs/police their training at the time had it that if firing in self defense and the criminal clearly has a lethal weapon (IE Gun) they would fire as many times as they felt necessary. There were obviously more details than this and who knows the truth and different states/counties probably have different laws but still...if you are being attacked you defend yourself till no longer threatened (or Run Away!)

give the man a medal...

i'd do the same thing

it's too bad it was a teenager, though. i guess his friend will think twice about robbing a store in the future...

Edited by tri_d00d 2009-05-29 2:39 PM

What they are going to get him on is the guy was down and he could have taken the other employees and went out the back or something.

In a some states if someone breaks into your home and you are upstairs or in another part of the house and leave that part of the house and shoot the intruder guess who goes to jail.

The story is even worse if you watch the clip I mentioned to the right on the link. $100,000 bail and the judge wont let him have aweapon even after the DA said he was all for letting him have one because now his life is danger.

Edited by Imjin 2009-05-29 2:41 PM

In the video his mother assures everyone that he understands that he might have made a mistake.

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That's the big issue. I think he would be cleared if he did not shoot the robber while he was unconscious, but because he did, im not sure if he will be cleared. I hope he does, though.

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He wasnt unconscious. The shooter said he was still moving and after watching the surveillance cameras from every angle the prosecution will have to prove that hes lying because there is no video showing that he was NOT moving.

I hope that he gets cleared also but who knows these days. I expect the ACLU and Jesse and Al to make an appearance very soon if he gets off.

Oh, I haven't watched the video yet. The article I read about this said the robber was unconscious.

It is a close call, but the guy was hyped up on adreneline. He made a split second decision to shoot someone who was moving and had threatened him seconds before.

The two teenagers clearly had minutes or hours to make their decision to rob a store. They put themselves in harm's way. In my opinion, when you make a concious decision to threaten to kill someone, many of your rights are gone. I give the victim, the pharmacist, the benefit of doubt.

I wish I would be picked for such a jury.

I admit I am prejudiced against people who commit armed robbery. The video clip was pretty clear about that.

Guilty as charged.

Wait, He went back over there and finished him off. 

He shot the kid...Walked away...checked outside...walked away again...came back and shot the kid again...

I am not so sure he was still threatened...I was not ther but...

Where exactly did I say that "everything is justified?"

It is all over the local news here in OKC.  The one thing that caught my attention was when the sheriff or DA or lawyer (I wasn't paying much attention at 5 a.m.)  "The irony of it is that, had the first shot to the head killed the armed robber, he wouldn't be on trial for murder."

Curious how the DA knows that when you cant see it on any of the camera angles. Again as I said earlier that is the only way they could possibly convict this guy.

Exactly. He is getting in trouble for "degrees on dead". The head shot ( great shot btw) would hopefully do him in but since it didnt immediately kill him he finished the job to make sure he and his employees were safe. So which shot is it they are upset with 2-3-4-5-or 6? Which one was too many?

Realsitically given that he is a Marine I am shocked that he didnt double tap the guy right away to be sure he was down. Would he still have been in trouble for that? It seems so as the result would be the same.

We had a guy killa police officer and his dog  near here last year or the year before. It was a traffic stop if I recall and was just a cold blooded murder. He was being oulled over for atraffic violation. So the guy has shown that he has no problem not just killing but killing a police officer.

Heres how it ended..

"Deputies were canvassing the area Friday when they saw the suspect moving around at about 9:35 a.m. Deputies asked him to show his hands. He slowly lifted one hand and was attempting to raise the second hand when deputies saw a cloth covering his hand. A deputy pulled the cloth off, saw a gun and the deputies began shooting. They may have fired as many as 100 rounds.

"Nine of the 10 SWAT Team members fired, shooting the suspect, the deputy killer, many, many, many times," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.

People immediately ( a small number of them, mostly family) and said they shot him too many times. I was always curious which bullet they were upset about or what they expected the deputies to do when confronted with a know cop killer. Technically once one of them pull the trigger the bad guy SHOULD be dead.

From  a tactical standpoint the pharmacist may have been thinking that the guys buddy might return and when he saw him move he shot out of instinct. If trained police officers above shot an average of over 11 times each at one target then what are we to expect a scared business owner to do?

I am still stuck with the only thing he did wrong, and its the angle I would you if I were prosecuting him, is that he could have wne tout a back door or into another room. And if I were his defenders I would argue that he had no idea how many more there were and that he was afraid of 3 or 4 of them rushing in guns blazing and thats why he came back out.

Which is why you need to double or triple tap immediately.  Better yet empty the clip before the body hits the ground.

The US Military no longer teaches the double--tap, we teach to fire until the reason you pulled the trigger stops.  Also, it is a magazine, not a clip (sorry, but as a Gunners Mate, this is a pet peeve of mine).

I am of the the personal belief that two in the chest and one in the head always makes sure that they are dead!

Not that I am condoning overutilization of ammunition, I believe you should use the least amount of rounds possible just in case he does get up or his friend comes back.  ONLY if you have a valid reason.

Edited by NavyTRIChief 2009-06-01 7:58 AM

Exactly. Im still kind of surprised he didnt  do that instead of what actually happened.

Edited by Imjin 2009-06-01 8:12 AM

I practice the way my police friends (L.A. Sheriff Deputies) told me they were trained.

2 to the body - 1 to the head.

I would not even dream of reassessing unless I knew that I had 1-2 hits after that initial set.