Different states have different laws. Florida, in a self-protection shooting, probably has a hold harmless clause that prevents civil suits from being filed against him in the event of a justified shooting.
Man shoots teen who was trying to rob him
STAFF PHOTO / CHIP LITHERLAND
Elliott A. Firby talks to the media about shooting a teen who followed him home and tried to rob him with a shotgun in Sarasota on Thursday.
By Anthony Cormier
Published: Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 10:41 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 1:57 p.m.
NEWTOWN - The man who shot an armed robber outside his home says he began carrying a pistol because he watches police shows on TV and worried that the recession would drive up crime.
Brandon Ellis, Booker High School (2007-8)Soph. WR
Elliott Firby, 54, left his job at the post office on Tallevast Road at 2:30 a.m. and noticed that a pickup truck followed him home.
"Something is fixing to jump off," Firby recalled telling himself Thursday afternoon at a press conference at the Sarasota Police Department.
When he arrived at his home, Firby got out of his car to open a gate and the truck turned on his street, Rilma Avenue. A teenager, Brandon Ellis, got out with a shotgun, police say.
Ellis reportedly said: “Give it up, sir. Give it up.”
When Ellis, 16, fumbled with the shotgun, Firby fired his .380-caliber pistol — which he began carrying at all times last April.
“I did what I had to do,” Firby said.
Ellis was shot in the stomach and stumbled toward the truck, which sped off. The teen went to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, where detectives found him.
Ellis underwent surgery this morning. He will be charged with attempted armed robbery, says Sarasota Police Detective Tom Laughlin.
Investigators are still looking for the getaway driver, but found the truck this afternoon.
Target of Sarasota robbery shoots his assailant
By Anthony Cormier
Published: Friday, June 12, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 10:08 p.m.
SARASOTA - Elliott Firby left the post office on Tallevast Road, where he has worked the night shift as a mail sorter for the past 13 years, and headed home on Thursday.
Elliott Firby
Cadereus Ray
Brandon Ellis
It was 2:45 a.m. and he was alone on the road, save for a dark pickup truck that slowed down, let Firby pass and started following him on University Parkway.
Firby was suspicious.
“Something is fixing to jump off,” he recalled thinking to himself, as he sat at a table at the Sarasota Police Department on Thursday afternoon and told the story to reporters.
The truck was still behind him when Firby pulled into his driveway on Rilma Avenue and got out to open a gate. A guy jumped out of the truck with a shotgun — politely telling Firby that he was being robbed.
“Give it up, sir,” he said.
Firby, 54, had followed recent news reports of violence in Newtown, especially a rise in shootings and a recent spate of home invasions. His wife was asleep inside the home and he was concerned that the robber might try to get to her.
About a year ago — worried about the increase in crime — Firby and his wife got concealed-weapon permits.
“You have to do something to protect yourself,” he said. “The police can’t be there all the time.”
Firby started carrying a .380-caliber pistol wherever he went, stashing it in his pocket.
As the robber approached with the shotgun, Firby went to his knees to make him think he was complying.
The shotgun was covered with a T-shirt, police say, and the robber fumbled with it.
Firby reached for his pistol and fired a round, striking the robber in the stomach.
The robber stumbled back toward the truck and Firby fired again, missing as the truck sped away.
A few hours later, officials at Sarasota Memorial Hospital called the police to say that a teenager, Brandon Ellis, 16, had showed up with a bullet wound.
Ellis just finished his junior year at Booker High School, where he played basketball and football.
He has no arrest record, police say. His injury is not life-threatening.
Detectives plan to charge him with attempted robbery when he is released from the hospital.
Late Thursday, detectives arrested Ellis’ half-brother, Cadareus Ray, on an armed robbery charge.
Ray, 18, who graduated from Booker in 2008, was a linebacker on the football team and, after graduation, continued to play football at a junior college in California.
When Ellis was dropped off at the hospital, a surveillance camera filmed the black truck as he climbed out of it. Detectives found the truck later Thursday in front of the 25th Street home where Ellis and Ray live.
Detectives say Ellis and Ray were cruising Sarasota looking for someone to rob, and that it was Ray who gave Ellis the shotgun.
Firby says he had $5 on him.
“It wasn’t a whole lot of money,” Firby says, “but you do what you have to do when you’re looking down the business end of a shotgun.”
For Firby, the ordeal left him shaken, tired and thankful that he was armed.
He first thought about carrying a gun last year, as the the economy’s condition rapidly deteriorated.
People started moving out of his neighborhood and vagrants took over a few empty houses.
Once, someone cut his phone lines. Another time, when he was on a bicycle, someone shot him with a paintball gun. He and his wife figured it was time to take their safety more seriously.
They took a gun course, got the concealed-weapon permits and try to never leave home without a pistol within reach.
Detectives have cleared Firby of any wrongdoing in the shooting. Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law — which allows people to use deadly force when they face bodily harm — was a factor in the decision not to charge him.
“He was looking at dying,” said Sarasota Police Capt. Bill Spitler. “And he has every right to defend himself.”
