self defense shooter charged mith murder in VA

[tyler34]

VCU student charged with murder in Union Hill shooting - NBC12 News, Weather Sports, Traffic, and Programming Guide for Richmond, VA |

RICHMOND, VA (WWBT) - The man who police say shot a robber in the Union Hill neighborhood is now being charged with second degree murder.
Witnesses say Eric Driver, 25 and a student at VCU, came out of his home to find his girlfriend being held at gunpoint by a masked thief who was attempting to break into her car. They say he rushed to her defense, shooting the man six times.
The man shot, Jamal Holman, 24, was rushed to VCU Medical Center with his mask still on, where he later died.
Police confirmed that Holman did break into the vehicle. Originally, police were not calling the case a homicide investigation.


so my question is what changed?

 

[Fletch]

Careful now... you don't want to be seen as cop-bashing or criminal-coddling, do you?

 

[Nathan]

justifiable self defence. an innocent 3rd party's life at stake, and a criminal with a gun. 6 shots, eh.....

 

[tyler34]

Careful now... you don't want to be seen as cop-bashing or criminal-coddling, do you?

I said nothing to insinuate anything negative about any LEO, I quoted the news story in the link. and criminal coddling? given these facts the only way I would be criminal coddling would be if I had sympathy for the dead guy. my question was what happened in between when they weren't charging him and then charging him.

 

[Frank_N_Stein]

Careful now... you don't want to be seen as cop-bashing or criminal-coddling, do you?

The decision to charge someone with a crime is the job of the prosecutor, not the police. Just because you get arrested for something by the police doesn't mean you will be charged with it.

And just because the story has to do with someone getting arrested/charged for a justifiable act (IMO) doesn't mean you have to try to turn it into a flame war between LE/non-LE.

 

[Fletch]

I'm just trying to be sensitive to all the possible hurt feelings (except of course, for the accused, since he doesn't count).

 

[tyler34]

I'm just trying to be sensitive to all the possible hurt feelings (except of course, for the accused, since he doesn't count).

I really hope your being sarcastic, and if so use smilies because we obviously aren't getting it.

 

[Fletch]

Oh yeah, huge sarcasm on this end. No doubt about it.

 

[tyler34]

call me stupid I still can't tell

 

[Scutter01]

Alright, everyone settle down. Can we get back on topic before this turns ugly?

Thanks!

 

[Fletch]

Well, it is sad that the dude had to defend himself physically and is now going to have to defend himself legally. I've always thought that there should be some sort of fund set up for defraying the legal costs of armed self defense. I think I might have read about one such thing somewhere. But most of the advice I seem to see is "get a bigass liability policy".

It's not just the lawyers that cost, it's the expert witnesses. Folks like Massad Ayoob can run $30 - $40k or more without breaking a sweat. All to prove to some knucklehead jury that watches too much "CSI" that what you did was OK to do.

 

[bartonmd]

I think there's something more to this... It was posted on ARFCOM, and somebody found another news story where it said the guy walked out of his house and found somebody breaking into his car. Guy shot car thief. The other article didn't say anything about the woman being there at all during the shooting...

Mike

 

[CarmelHP]

Originally, police were not calling the case a homicide investigation.

......

so my question is what changed?

Well, theren't calling it a homicide investigation but, obviously, that's what happened. Now, the prosecutor apparently believes the evidence shows manslaughter.

 

[SavageEagle]

<--- Ugly has arrived! Bwahahaha

I'm not sorry, but this is complete and total

He should be hailed a HERO! This is sickening. This is wrong. Someone needs to beat the living out this prosecutor. There's obviously no precedent except to push an agenda. His property, life at stake from a deadly weapon, Felons being committed. I don't see a problem here. I betcha if the prosecutor was in the same situation he'd probably just watch as his GF got robbed raped and murdered.

I can't stand this crap. Something needs to be done in this Country before it slips into the pits of hell itself.

 

[INRanger]

I'm an easy going guy. I dont start **** and I'm nice to just about everybody(until nice time has passed). I dont believe in an eye for an eye I think that is total B.S.. If you take my eye I'm comming for your whole Fu@#in head. This guy did nothing wrong in either version posted. Sadly though there is sometimes a great chasim between right and legal. I hope he is found legaly righteous.

 

[tyler34]

for me the root of this issue is virgina.

 

[Fletch]

for me the root of this issue is virgina.

Ain't it the root of all men's problems? (except for about 10%, I guess)

 

[Hoosier8]

I believe the confusion is the guy breaking into the car did not actually have a gun, which wasn't reported, so the shooters life was not in danger, which is the defense you would use for using maximum force.

 

[CarmelHP]

I believe the confusion is the guy breaking into the car did not actually have a gun, which wasn't reported, so the shooters life was not in danger, which is the defense you would use for using maximum force.

Where did you see that?

 

[HICKMAN]

If the badguy was pointing the gun at the girl, it's justified.