No idea when or where this happened. If anybody knows, leave us a note in the comments.
I clipped what I feel are the important moments:
Here is the issue for me. Yes, she was hit by a physically superior male but she initiated a retreat and was inside a car which will move faster than the man. The fact that she stopped, opened the door and shot the guy almost the moment he arrived back (I am gonna say she already had the gun in hand) makes it a payback, pure and simple. She drives away showing her path was never unimpeded but she chose to re-engage. She is going to be very lucky and hopefully find a very dumb DA. IANAL but my guess she is going to catch at least manslaughter.
Ego will get you in trouble every time you let them make decisions for you.
It looks like he possibly had her phone? There were two rectangular black objects that he grabbed or fell out of her car? The phone and an Otterbox type cover?
ALWAYS! Keep the doors locked and the windows closed. Get in and immediately lock the doors.
Speculation: I think it was a phone. How many women get in their car, and the first freaking thing they do is open up their phone? She had her phone open in her lap? The male opened her door, and knocked the phone out of her hands when he hit her?
Maybe she stopped to try to get her phone back, but as he ran back to her car, he threatened her? Maybe she took the verbal threats seriously, shot him, and took off before any of his friends could retaliate? She left her phone behind and drove to someplace safer?
-or-
Maybe she intended to stop, get out of the car, and use her gun to get her phone back? (Stupid!). But the male closed the distance too quickly?
I don’t know. But leaving the gas station was a really good idea. I expect he had friends there, and they would probably be happy to even the score.
On one hand I want to agree with you, that retreat whenever possible.
On the other hand, I suspect that the hopefully now room temperature dude is/was no choir boy, and she dispensed some needed chlorine into the gene pool.
Final result might depend on conditions beyond the actual event. If this is a snapshot from a long term relationship “with extreme complications” as in “he’s done this before, knows where to find her and can” fear from a more severe future outcome might be a mitigating factor.
“When he hit me I reflexively hit the gas, but my eyes were watering and I was unable to see, stopped to clear my eyes and noticed my door wasn’t latched. Open door to close it firmly and the suspect ran up. At that point I was in fear of great bodily harm, and discharged my weapon. I then moved to a safe location.” Signed Driver
With the above statement, the driver is likely to find somebody sympathetic to battered women and vote to acquit.
Far too little info to form an opinion. In mho, of course.
(Scenario building can be a useful exercise, of course.)
I saw the thing that came out of the car. I can’t see for sure but it could just as easily have been a weapon as a camera.
Regardless, depending on where she lives, she might not have a duty to retreat. She drove away to disengage, stopped to close the door. She might very well have been one of those people that’s scared of falling out if the door isn’t latched fully.
We’ll have to wait for more information to become available.
If that really was her phone, then I’m 100% on board with shooting a known criminal to keep them from getting it. Think of how much personal (and security compromising) info would be up for grabs, in the hands of someone who has already violently assaulted her.
Fair point, but the law of justification may not be on your side with that argument.