Musician Is Killed for Banging on a Door
The musician was up at 4am, locked out of his house by his girlfriend, and pounding on the door of the neighbor. Neighbor retrieves a pistol and shoots through the door striking the man in the head.
From the article:
Marsha McCartney, president of the North Texas chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, called Mr. Albrecht’s death “one more gun tragedy.”“I’m sure the man who did the shooting feels terrible about it,” Ms. McCartney said, “but legally in Texas he can do exactly what he did because he feels frightened.”
Emphasis mine.
I call bullshit. This man will, and should, go up in front of a grand jury for this. You can’t go shooting at people simply because you’re scared. There has to be a reasonable fear of your life or great bodily harm.
If this guy skates because the “Castile Doctrine” law that just went into effect legalizes this kind of behavior then the law should be amended.
Shooting through a door is a violation of Rule #4 of firearms handling:
RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGETKnow what it is, what is in line with it, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything you have not positively identified. Be aware of your surroundings, whether on the range or in a fight. Do not assume anything. Know what you are doing.
Contrary to what The Culturologist thinks:
The World the Gun Fetishists Want
It’s a world where people shoot other people dead because they are knocking at the door at night.
This is not what I want. The FexEx and UPS guys have scared the shit out of me a couple o times but I have never had the desire to start blasting at them through the door.
Were the FedEx and UPS guys tried to break through the door at 4:00 a.m. when they scared you?
Actually I wouldn’t have fired through the door. I would certainly have fired when he came through the door. But the homeowner was obviously frightened and had good reason to be frightened. What he did wasn’t unreasonable. He attempted to fire over the fellow beating on his door (you left that part out). Unfortuately, the musician was unusually tall. Had he been average height he wouldn’t have been hit.
I doubt very seriously that this one will ever go to the Grand Jury. The shooting was justified. The musician should not have been beating on his neighbors door like a crazy person at 4:00 in the morning.
I’m sure we’re missing much of this story. The story DID mention that the man banging at the door was told to go away. Was he told repeatedly? Was “or I’ll shoot” added? Would that make a difference?
What was the hallucinogenic man screaming back? (Yes, hallucinogenic, the girlfriend said he was having “hallucinatory dreams” due to the combination of alcohol and anti-smoking drugs). Was he shouting threatening statements?
Perhaps the shooter was frightened for his life after telling a man who’s describe as having hallucinatory dreams, was described as having a reaction to alcohol and anti-smoking drugs, who had just BEAT HIS GIRLFRIEND, and was demanding entry into his home.
Perhaps.
I left that out because while one would naturally think firing at the top of the door was meant to miss him, the shooter hasn’t been quoted as saying that.
For his sake I sure hope he didn’t tell anybody that he was planning to miss the guy!
Failure to plan around the dead man’s height would indicate to me that he hadn’t made any sort of visual identification on the man.
Oddly enough, I don’t disagree. I simply think it was irresponsible. If ID’d the guy, determined that he was a serious threat (like Jason said, we don’t know what he said through the door) shot the idiot in the head and got on camera saying, “Yep. He was fixin’ to killin’ us. I shot ‘im in the head.” I’d be all for it. But he didn’t do that.
He shot unseen and grossly violated #4. I can’t get behind that. You admit yourself that you wouldn’t do it, and while I wouldn’t want the guy spending 20 year in the pokey for his error in judgment I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s brought in front of a Grand Jury on the matter.
As an aside, this comment box is way too freaking small. I need to fix that.