This is the kind of shootings that makes cops smile. Bad guys gets what he had coming. Reminds me of the time in roll call when the sergeant was describing a complicated shooting in Sector One on Barclay St. or Greenmount Ave. It was a confusing tale of a Mexican guy, a black guy, a woman (perhaps girlfriend to one and prostitute to the other), money, a gun, and finally a man shot and killed.
A friend of mine interrupted to ask, “Who got shot? The robber or the rob-ee. I kind of like it when the robber gets shot.” But in that case is was the rob-ee.
Not here:
Sometimes people are surprised to learn that yes, you can (and should) shoot a man holding a gun at somebody. No you don’t need to say anything. No, you don’t need to give a warning. In fact, doing so could endanger an innocent life. If somebody is threatening people with a gun and he points it toward you or anybody else, you cap him. Double tap. Plain and simple. That’s a good shooting.
In this case it just so happened that an on-the-ball 65-year-old retired police captain was working security. If there had been no security guard, it is true that the odds are nobody would have been killed. But those are odds I wouldn’t want to play.
The retired officer shot the robber four times (quadruple tap?) and is not being charged. Nice bit of shooting, I would say.
This robbery and violence related to a legal and regulated drug. That goes against what I say about regulation and drug violence (namely that the former prevents the latter). Too bad there was no legal way for the addict to get his drug. If there were, robbery prevented, addict lives to stay addicted another day, and the retired police officer wouldn’t have to shoot anybody. Everybody wins.
Seems the captain hasn’t lost a step. Criminals hate it when citizens unexpectedly defend themselves…or each other. Good post, Peter.
Well done, sir.
PM, you seem to be catching on…a mere mortal citizen could have done the same thing.