So I read an article this morning about a lady who saved her life by having a CCW. Well, sort of…
The details are a little foggy here, but in short, she pulled into her parking spot in her apartment complex around 2:30 AM and two guys who were part of a larger group of nefarious characters walked over to her car, demanded her purse and then tried reaching through the window to take it from her. So she pulled a gun from her purse and shot off two rounds – all that she had in it. The story ended with them all fleeing and one of them in critical condition.
So, in the end, she saved her purse with the exercise of lethal force. Right now we don’t know if the police will file charges but we do expect the robber to face charges as soon as he heals up. Nevertheless, will the law support her?
The first question you need to ask if you were in Texas and hearing this case is, was she the aggressor? I think we can say that she was not. We don’t see anything in the article that would indicate she started the confrontation.
The second question that you need to ask is was she in fear for her life? We don’t really know other than in the article she claims “I saved my life”. I think we can imply from that that she had an honest fear of severe harm or death.
Now if this weren’t Texas or another ‘Stand Your Ground’ state, you would be asking a final question which is “did she have any way to retreat?” The power of the SYG laws is that they don’t clutter the thought process in these severe situations.
Now the final thing that we would look at is the propensity for them to deal harm to her. In this case, let’s assume she is a reasonably sized woman and they are two reasonably sized men. They could definitely rough her up or kill her so I think she is good there. All in all, I don’t think that we will see charges.
Now, what if it was Myself in the car. Would I be able to have the same grace as she did from the law if I am a larger man in good physical condition?
This is where we see the Castle Doctrine mentioned. The idea of CD is not a new one hence the term castle, but it has been at the forefront of the conversation in the last 10 years. State have begun to extend their definition of a ‘dwelling’. For a long time, this needed to be a house or an apartment, but recently many states, including Texas, have extended it to any place you live. Can it be your car? The first question you need to ask is if you regularly sleep in your car. If the answer is yes, then you may be covered. But back to the situation at hand, If I am parking in my parking space at my apartment complex you now know that my CD stoped at my entrance to my apartment and does not extend to my vehicle.
Now when I think back to a time where I was sleeping in the back of an 18-wheeler, I most certainly was able to claim that as my castle at that time.
So for a larger man in this purse-snatching situation, the law is going to be a little fuzzier about whether this was a good shoot or not and it will most definitely need to play out in the courts. Most Sheriffs won’t file charges here, but you may find that the DA sends sit to a grand jury just to wash their hands of being on either side of the case.
Let me know what you think by putting a post on this story with your take on it. In the meantime, here is the article that I referenced:
https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-woman-shoots-suspected-robber-trying-to-grab-purse-i-shot-until-i-couldnt-shoot-anymore
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