Face to face with an escaped murderer in your backyard

[David Scott]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by KaMaKaZe:
Lets just say..

The DA will prosecute me and the public will thank me.
[/quote]

You need to campaign to elect a different DA, man! Around here, the DA would probably say, "Oh well, 'nother dead bad guy! Threatened a homeowner on his own property. Sounds like a good shoot. We ain't gonna waste the Grand Jury's time with this." and go back to cleaning his 1911.

That's what I like about Florida -- I see news stories every week about citizen self-defense resulting in dead robbers/burglars/rapists, and I can't remember one single case where they took anyone to the Grand Jury on a legitimate shoot. Most of the time, the cops just tell the DA it's not worth the trouble.

 

[M1911]

In Massachusetts, you have a duty to retreat unless you are inside your home. If you are outside (whether on your property or not), you have a duty to retreat IF IT IS SAFE TO DO SO.

I'd be retreating to the house as fast as possible, trying to keep an eye on the guy as I went. If I couldn't get there before he reached me, I'd turn and face him. Since there has been no mention of any weapons, I would not judge myself to be in imminent danger of death or grave bodily injury, so I would not yet draw. I would challenge.

If he was in prison clothes and clearly an escaped prisoner, then I might draw anyways.

If I knew there was an escaped convict in the area, I wouldn't be outside in the first place and I'd have a loaded shotgun handy. My wife would have her loaded AR15.

Jared