Store Owner Justified in Shooting of Burglary Suspect

[GreenStormCloud]

http://www.whtm.com/news/stories/0110/694794.html

DA: Store Owner Justified in Shooting of Burglary Suspect

New Bloomfield, Pa. - State police will file no charges against the owner of a beer store in Perry County in connection with a the shooting of a burglary suspect, according to the district attorney.

Perry County District Attorney Charles Chenot said he has determined the owner acted with justification when he shot and killed Jeffrey T. Harless during a confrontation at Shermans Dale Beer and Beverage on Jan. 2.

Chenot said a careful review of the police investigation and a look at the store security video clearly showed the owner had a reasonable basis for believing that he was faced with an attack involving the use of deadly force and was therefore justified in the use of deadly force to defend himself.

SNIP

Chenot has said the surveillance tape shows the owner backing away from Harless, who then charged with a hammer above his head as if to strike. The owner fired a single shot that struck the 25-year-old Turner in the chest.

That is really stupid. Charging a guy with a gun when you have a hammer. Darwin Award for that one.

I suppose that this burglar was emboldened to commit the offense by the magic mind rays of the hammer that he used for a weapon.

I googled but could not find an information about Harless past, only that he left a wife and two children. But if he had hit Slike on the head with the hammer, Slike's family would be greiving. So either way, Harless chose to put a family in grief, it turned out to be his.

[slackmaster]

1. Obviously it was the Magic Mind Rays or the store owner's gun that emboldened the burglar

Doncha know

[sharesunited]

2. This story gets its earned point for No Gun as prime cause. Keep them coming. When and if you can.

[slackmaster]

3. I thought the rule was that using a gun against a "lesser" weapon was unfair and cowardly

You're not changing the rules on us, are you?

[sharesunited]

4. No, it is guns as the source of trouble. A man attacking with a hammer earns the point.

If he attacked with a gun or was emboldened by carrying a gun, then it would be a guns-as-solution-to-guns situation and receives zero.

[slackmaster]

6. How do you know he wasn't emboldened by the storekeeper's gun?

I mean, does emboldening require physical control of the gun, or is contact sufficient, or how about just having it in the same room?

How about a picture of a gun?

http://www.sju.edu/academics/centers/ivrp/pdf/guns-testo-aggress.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=OOYhQAAACAAJ&source=gbs_ViewAPI

[TPaine7]

8. By your logic, wasn't the hammer the "source of trouble" in this story?

And since hammers embolden crime, shouldn't they be banned? Or their production curtailed? Or at least licensed and registered?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

9. Now that is priceless and will not be responded to by shares.

[sharesunited]

11. The hammer is designed to build things, not kill. It has a productive, utilitarian purpose.

[TPaine7]

12. Many modern handguns and self-defense ammunition are designed to rapidly stop

a criminal aggressor.

Other guns are designed to supply food. Yet other guns are designed for Olympic and other sport competition.

Defense of innocents is vital as is harvesting foods in some cases. Sport shooting is legitimate, especially as practice for defense.

If my family is being threatened, their defense is a more important thing than driving nails.

[sharesunited]

16. Your family is threatened by the thing you mistakenly believe represents salavation.

That's because there are so many guns and so readily available.

That's because they are so convenient to use and effective at what they are designed to do.

[TPaine7]

17. I don't believe that guns "represent salvation"

though I understand that caricatures are easier to dismiss than more complex reality.

If you boil it down, my family is threatened by human beings--especially men. The real "solution" is genocide; if you get rid of guns, criminals (and non-criminals) will move to other weapons. Short of genocide, I can try to make sure they are aware of the dangers and as prepared as possible for emergencies of all types.

Some emergencies involve agressors needing to be stopped.

Enough said.

[PavePusher]

14. Historically, hammers have been weapons rather frequently.

Your history, it is fail.

[Katya Mullethov]

15. A hatchet is an infintely useful item

And there isnt much difference between a hatchet, a hammer, or a tomahawk . Hatchets usually have a hammer head and some tomahawks have hammers on one side .

Any guess as to what the hammer is used for ?

[taurus145]

18. All your hammer are belong to us.

[tburnsten]

20. So a man using a gun to justifiably save his life against a man with a blunt weapon

when he is completely in the right, and would have been murdered had he not been armed, you see that as either bad or a non-event?

[rrneck]

7. What if the guy was suicidal?

Would it be suicide by beer store owner? And would he still get a point?

[tburnsten]

19. Like the rest of these stories, a gun wasn't the prime cause

Someone without any respect for the safety of himself or others, who doesn't love his family enough to find any way to make money that doesn't involve risking his own life and endangering the lives of others, no respect for the hard work and personal property of others, and just a general disregard for the law and safety.


If you think guns cause incidents like this, I don't know how to describe that frame of mind.

[RussWorld]

5. Thinning the Herd.....

[east texas lib]

10. Should have stuck with carpentry...

Instead he got nailed.;)

[Katya Mullethov]

13. Daddy told me , the best way to avoid the hammer

Is dont be a fucking nail , boy !

[GreenStormCloud]

21. OK, that's a groaner. LOL. Love it. N/T