This shooting happened in Florida, and in Florida and most of the other 48 states (if not all of them), shooting a fleeing petty thief testing to see if you left your car door unlocked as he runs away falls somewhere along the assault with a deadly weapon to attempted murder felony crime range, and is a far worse offense than what the criminal himself was doing in the eyes of the criminal justice system.
Source: Elderly Florida Man Shoots Fleeing Thief And May Have Ruined His Own Life – Bearing Arms
There is an old saying attributed to the Spanish general Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba:
Enemigo que huye, puente de plata. (At a fleeing enemy, the Silver Bridge.)
We are predators (even if some among of our species do not behave like that) and as predators we are hardwired to chase and take down a prey that runs away. If we add to that the Ego’s need for retribution of offenses, we end up with a volatile mix that will end us up in jail.
We need to mentally train ourselves to fight both instinct and Ego and give a retreating jackass his “silver bridge,” to let him escape. We are not conducting combat operations, nor we are fighting a dedicated enemy so the chance of seeing the bad guy again are infinitesimal. Plus we have all the laws that say it is a bad thing and you are gonna get orange rompers and a free stay at the State’s Pen for playing that game.
You come out alive at a bloodless confrontation? That is more than enough reward. Trying to score a head for your mantel is just unnecessary… and tacky.
Sun Tzu said something very similar.
If the perp is running off, that’s the point one is in the “race to 911”. You now have the time to safely call 911 and let them know what happened, and who to start looking for- all while keeping your eyes open and awareness up!
IIRC (and I could look it up if needed), Sun Tzu said to always leave an enemy an avenue of retreat. Cornered adversaries who have no options but to win or die will fight ten times as hard and dirty. Think, “cornered cat”. You DON’T want to see/feel those claws.
So if an enemy ceases fighting and chooses to retreat, let him do so. It’s still a victory for you.
Sad but true, sometimes one HAS to let them get away…
Don’t think of it as the bad guy getting away, think of it as you not needing to deal with the aftermath of a shooting in today’s pro-criminal media culture.
On the one hand, if you don’t leave a survivor once in a while, there won’t be anybody to tell of your deeds and spread your reputation. On the other hand, as Kronar the Barbarian learned, if you do leave a survivor they may think you’ve gone soft.
Victory at sea!
Tam-o-linky here for a similar situation: http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2016/08/breaking-news.html