Wounded burglar dies in minutes while hiding from police.

[GreenStormCloud]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20091220/NEWS01/712209890
Video shows last minutes of burglar's life

A wounded burglary suspect died early Saturday but might have given up a chance to survive had he not hidden from police.

Over a 10-minute time span following the shooting, video surveillance at a south Omaha used car lot shows the man several times standing up, looking around and crouching back down beside a car. He continued to stay hidden even after it appeared he spotted police.

SNIP

The video surveillance from Widman's lot, Preferred Auto Sales at 24th and I Streets, revealed details of what happened before and after a break-in and shooting at a neighboring retail store.

The video shows the suspect in the car lot about 4:15 a.m., then headed north toward Bazar Latino, where authorities say he broke in and was shot by the business owner. The owner lives in the basement of the building.

A few minutes pass on the video before the suspect is seen back in the car lot, finally crouching beside a Nissan Maxima.

The article continues to tell the time-table of events recorded. The video has not been released.

Here is a link to the shooting story:

http://www.nebraska.tv/Global/story.asp?S=11704682
Police: Suspected burglar shot and killed in Omaha

Associated Press - December 19, 2009 4:45 PM ET

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Omaha police say a business owner has shot and killed a suspected burglar.

Officers were called to the south Omaha business about 4:30 a.m. Saturday. Police say the owner fired his gun during a confrontation with the burglar, who then fled.

A man matching the suspect's description was found dead nearby.

[pissedoff01]

1. Link:

http://www.omaha.com/article/20091220/NEWS01/712209890

“If he would have just said, ‘Hey, I'm over here,' he may still be alive,” car lot co-owner Mike Widman said Saturday. “He might have gone to jail for six months, but he would have still been alive.”... Widman said that, other than police, no one else appeared in the video. He said he was told by police that the man had been shot once. Widman said he suspects the man “probably bled to death.”

[opihimoimoi]

3. Why save a useless waste of food water and air?...he deserved this fate...more food for the rest of

us I say...

[Arctic Dave]

5. I feel the same way about all douchebags when they die.

[Th1onein]

7. What do you know about his life?

His family? Why he was trying to burglarize? There are so many reasons people do this kind of thing. Should he lose his life, because of his attempt to take the property of another? I don't think so. This is just a tragedy.

[GreenStormCloud]

8. He lost his life over his threat of violence to the resident.

"detached reflection cannot be demanded in the face of an uplifted knife." When he broke into the residence, by his very presence he placed the resident in fear of death. The resident can not be required to further endanger himself by asking the burglar if he is armed and what his intentions are. The resident defended himself, and fired to stop the threat. That the burglar died is an unfortunate side result of his felonious actions.

Why he was trying to burglar is completely irrelevant. Death by gunfire is simply an occupational hazard of being a burglar of occupied dwellings.

[Euromutt]

19. Point of order: this wasn't a residential burglary

The updated story is rather muddled (http://www.omaha.com/article/20091220/NEWS01/712209851) but from what I can gather, the late Mr. Franco broke into a womens' clothing store called Bazar Latino. The owners live in the basement under the store, but Franco did not break into their living area. The store owner went upstairs to investigate the noise, and in the ensuing confrontation with Franco, Franco was shot once. Franco fled and hid in the lot of a neighboring used car dealership, where he bled to death.

Now let me make it clear in no uncertain terms that I think residential burglars are scum. They steal items of sentimental value and, more importantly, trash people's homes, the place where they're supposed to be able to feel safe. Burglars who hit businesses, I have less of a problem with, though I'm not very warmly disposed to them either. My stepmother-in-law's bodega got broken into a few weeks back, along with several neighboring businesses, and the annoying thing is that the financial damage the burglars caused was significantly higher than any material profit they made from their crime. For example, they stole the cash register; since it was practically empty, the burglars didn't gain much, but it's going to cost my SM-i-L quite a bit to replace the cash register itself.

Be that as it may, we don't know that the late Mr. Franco was aware the owners of the Bazar Latino lived in the same building, but we do know that he broke into the store, not the residence. So I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume his intent was to steal from the store, not confront the owners.

[tburnsten]

20. When he was confronted and didn't immediately run

he made his choice, assuming that he wasn't shot while trying to escape. If he was, police, coroner, and court system will be taking that up with the owner shortly. Not very likely considering that the police haven't charged the owner of the business.

[Euromutt]

22. Oh no, I quite agree

Mr. Franco made a series of rather stupid decisions which resulted in the store owner being, in my opinion, perfectly justified in using lethal force and Mr. Franco's subsequent demise. But I also subscribe to the maxim that one should not attribute to malice what may be adequately explained by stupidity; that is, in hindsight. The store owner obviously couldn't know whether Mr. Franco broke in knowing that there was a residence in the building, and intending harm to the occupants, and we cannot reasonably demand that he (the store owner) should have taken any chances with regard to Mr. Franco's intent.

What I'm getting at, though, is that even though the store owner was justified at the time and in the circumstances in assuming the worst about Mr. Franco, we--who have the benefit of hindsight and the luxury of being able to take a detached view--are not. We can think that what the store owner did to stop Mr. Franco was right, without necessarily thinking that Mr. Franco deserved to die (or even did not deserve to live in the first place).

[virgogal]

9. He's breaking into my home at 4:15 AM and I'm going to worry

about his background and why he would do this?

I think not.

[proteus_lives]

10. He was a criminal.

He was willing to steal and hurt others for his own benefit.

Screw him.

[Th1onein]

12. Whatever he was doing, he wasn't a worthless piece of shit.

The fact is that we don't know anything about him other than that he was a burglar. There's no reason to say that we con't give a shit at all about our fellow man. ALL criminals must die? ALL criminals are worthless and don't deserve to live? I thought better of liberals.

[GreenStormCloud]

13. Nobody has said that ALL criminals must die. Those are your words, not ours.

You first tried to minimize his crime by leaving out the threat of violence that he posed. Then you tried to put words into other posters mouths. Both are intellectually dishonest. A person who illegally breaks into an occupied dwelling has to have already considered the possibility of meating the resident and dealing with the resident. Maybe he planned to run away, maybe not. The resident can't afford to bet his life on the outcome.

A few weeks ago there was a thread in which the family of an armed robber was talking to the media about all the good things the robber had done. He was a pastor of a church, worked with kids, etc, and so on. They tried to claim that the store owner had used excessive force in shooting the robber. At the time of the shooting, the robber was holding a gun on the store owner. He was threatening the life of the owner, who then defended himself. Nothing else mattered at that point, and nothing else mattered when this burglar got shot.

It is amazing how so many liberals rush to defend and excuse violent human predators. The real victim in both cases was the resident, who was forced against his will, into a violent confrontation.

[Th1onein]

15. Quote: Why save a useless waste of food water and air?...

he deserved this fate...more food for the rest of us I say..." End quote.

[GreenStormCloud]

16. He chose to threaten the life of an innocent citizen. His choice, not the citizens.

Again, you ignore the crime and the threat he posed. And the quote you list does not say that ALL criminals deserve to die. It does show a complete lack of sympathy for this particular criminal. FWIW, I am not shedding any tears over him either. I do feel some for the real victim who now has to deal with the emotional trauma of having killed someone.

[Th1onein]

17. I responded to the quote I just sent to you.

I'm not ignoring anything. But I think it's a callous way to look at the loss of another human being's life. More for the rest of us, indeed.


No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

[GreenStormCloud]

18. Nice poem, but humanity's population is increasing.

And the guy wasn't killed for the crime of burglary. He died because he placed another human in realistic fear of death. And he died of stupidity. He could have waved to the officer and been rushed to an emergency room, where he might have made it. However, given how quickly he died, it is unlikely an ER could have done anything.

I am not quite as calloused as that poster, but pretty close to it. I don't feel diminished by that human predator's demise.

[Th1onein]

21. Whatever.

Our compromises are what define us.

[PavePusher]

24. ooops.

Deleted after reading the rest of the thread. Doh!

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

14. If he had chosen a different profession he'd be alive. His fault no one else's.

[one-eyed fat man]

25. Pollyanna lives!!!

Hey, can you consider the possibility he was exactly that, a POS? He demonstrated for sure he was miserable, but I bet you he wasn't Les Miserables. He was forced into a life of crime trying to feed his poor starving children because crop failure, flood, famine and being held down by the man, yeah sure. NOBODY FORCED HIM TO STEAL!!!! It was his choice, and he reaped the whirlwind.

I guess as long as most folks continue to see thievery as reprehensible rather than entrepreneurial wealth redistribution without government red tape, burglars will get shot!

[tburnsten]

11. It's still kind of sad

There was a chance, however slim, that he would have become a productive member of society and a good person at some point during his recovery and incarceration, even though he certainly put himself in that situation without anyone else's help. Hopefully the business owner won't for some reason feel responsible for it, sometimes these things have quite an impact on the victim.

[petronius]

23. It is sad. The man made some stupid decisions, and he bears the responsibility

for them (to the extent that the dead can be responsible for anything), but a dead man in the snow isn't the ideal outcome here...

[GreenStormCloud]

4. Thanks. Error corrected. N/T

[hobbit709]

2. Darwin Award contender.

[taurus145]

26. Life is tough. It's tougher when you're stupid.

Props to John Wayne

[Turbineguy]

6. "I must have lost my presence of mind"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZUJLO6lMhI

[spin]

27. K&R (n/t)