Burgulary suspect calls 911

[Rj1972]

While this turned out ok, and perhaps would be considered a legal move in Texas (although I'm not entirely sure of that if the suspect didn't have property that he moved from the residence), I think there's a LOT of things that were done wrong here.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/06/texas-burglary-suspect-calls-11-on-homeowner-with-gun/

I guess the things coming off the top of my head are:

1. I wouldn't have gone outside, but then if he has property then there's a legal justification (in Texas) but still I don't own anything that I want my wife to cash in the life insurance policy for.
2. I surely wouldn't have my teenage son/daughter cover me with a shotgun. I don't really have a problem saying "go in this room, turn on the light, if anything comes through the door that isn't me, you may have to shoot". I don't think you should have a teen thinking things like "someone's going to die tonight"...
3. This is a bit of assumption here, but it SOUNDS like he ended up putting the suspect between himself and the teen (blocking him in with his truck). If the kid DID have to fire, or if he fired then that could get ugly fast. Obviously I don't know the layout of how it happened, but something to think about nonetheless.

4. He says "My husband's FIXING to shoot him"

   Now in Texas, there are a LOT of things we're fixin to do, but I'm not sure pointing out to anyone that you're fixing to shoot anyone is a good plan. Perhaps "WILL" if necessary, but not "I'm about to". I realize this was the wife and she was more quoting the burglar than anything, but still I think this could easily be twisted if it turned bad after this.

Obviously I'm happy that the bad guy was arrested and that no one was harmed. It's easy to armchair quarterback from my keyboard here, but I think discussing the possible failure points here has a bit of merit.

Thoughts?

 

[btmj]

yeah, you summed it up pretty well. As you pointed out, it is easy to armchair-quarterback, but the handling of this situation seems to leave a lot of room for improvement.

I am always amazed at how well things turn out when armed citizens take action to defend themselves. It is really common for citizens to do tactically dumb things, or even legally dumb things... and yet in the vast majority of cases, the citizen is successful in defending themselves. Even with poor marksmanship, and with weapons they are fairly unfamiliar with.