This is a very Texas headline:
A man whose car had been stolen tracked down his vehicle to a Texas shopping center lot – before shooting dead one of the alleged thieves and wounding the other.
Gunfire erupted in the parking lot outside South Park Mall, San Antonio, just before 1pm Thursday after the man figured out where his stolen car was located.
The owner of the stolen car had ordered the driver and his female companion out of the vehicle – and sat them down by the tire at gunpoint while they waited for police.
But the stolen car victim was hit with a bullet when one of the suspected thieves, a male, took a gun out from his waistband and opened fire.
The owner then returned fire – which killed the suspected robber.
The woman, who was the passenger in the stolen vehicle, was also shot, and is in critical condition at the hospital.
Police said that the owner of the stolen vehicle is in stable condition.
No charges have been filed yet.
The names of the people involved have not been released.
‘Certainly a case of self-defense, is what we have,’ San Antonio Police Department Chief William McManus said. ‘We would prefer that they call the police before taking that into your own hands, but he did what he felt he needed to do.’
I am not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure this was a good shoot.
Texas is a citizen arrest state, so this man holding the two people he caught stealing his truck at gunpoint for the police, as I understand, is completely legal.
He only shot and killed one thief and wounded the other when they shot first. That makes it good self defense.
The police seem to have come to that conclusion as well.
Besides, they stole a man’s truck in Texas.
That’s a state that used to hang horse thieves.
Even if they did prosecute this man, the likelihood they would find a jury to convict would be impossible.
Just one guy with a lifted pickup and a gun on the jury and it’s hung.
Chief McManus says he’d have prefered they call him. Why so a cop can tell the man its a civil matter and they’re not going to investigate or to sue him in civil court?
I’m not cheering for it but this is the way its going.
I’ve never heard of cops treating a stolen vehicle as a civil matter.
Likely a good shoot, but…
A DA might consider that the car owner initiated the conflict, thereby removing any claim of self defense. Of course, without any more info, that’s a big assumption.
.
On the other hand, if the car owner and thief had reached a point where both were calm/peaceful, pulling the gun (thief) would be considered the start of a new confrontation. Tough call without more information.
As J.Kb said, Texas is a citizen-arrest state. So the car owner was exercising his legal rights.
I wouldn’t chase down my stolen car, for the reason noted by CBMTTrek above.
And now the miscreant’s sibling is shouting that his now deceased brother “dindu nuffin,” and that the truck owner is a vigilante.
.
Never mind that his brother shot first and the owner of the truck went all Raylan Givens. “He pulled first. I shot him. I was justified.”