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Old September 13, 2005, 05:30 PM   #19
leadcounsel
Junior member
 
Join Date: September 8, 2005
Location: Tacoma, WA
Posts: 2,119
Whitefalls,

Scenario: You are walking in the city along a public street and you see one man beating another man with open hands in the alley.

You wisely evaluate the situation (who knows, it could be a self defense situation, a mugging, or an undercover cop) and determine that a BG is mugging and beating another man.

You take cover, draw and aim your pistol. You shout a command "STOP."

The BG stops and and turns toward you. Do you shoot him? Say you do shoot him.

He (or the state on his bahalf) can claim self defense and you are the assailant if, when you draw your gun, he stopped his imminent threat severe of bodily harm or death. First, how could you tell that there was threat to someone's life. Second, the BG stopped the threat when you shouted the command. Third, was this the LEAST amount of force necessary to stop an unarmed assailant, who stopped when you shouted the command?

This whole scenario changes if the BG has any weapon in his hand, and that's the whole point. I think you have a much greater chance of prosecution in the unarmed situation than in the armed situation.

I'm afraid that my friend will escalate what would otherwise be a non-lethal conflict into a leathal conflict by carrying his knife.
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