The first looks to be a win for the good guys, but given that the homeowner fired a warning shot against an unarmed assailant charging with a knife, I wonder if the homeowner will eventually get charged.
The second one just has me shaking my head in disbelief. The victim was able to share Ring video of the intruders trying to get in for almost an hour before they were successful, but woke up with a gun to their face. Either the system wasn’t set up to alert the homeowner or the alerts were ignored. The attackers were probably aware of the camera(s) and didn’t care. Instead, they threatened the homeowner that they’d be back if the homeowner went to the police.
This second incident raises an interesting question. Say the victim goes and buys a gun and reports the break-in. The perps somehow track it back to the vic and make good their threat to return. The vic is ready this time and injures/kills one or more of the perps. Could a case be made against the vic claiming premeditation?
The prosecutor in the Rittenhouse incident likely would, but no rational person could. If that were so, all persons that own firearms, or any other self-defense tool, could be, too.
Likely did not hear the alert while sleeping. As she lived in a gated community, she just assumed this type of crime could not happen there.
Depends on the relationship between them. If the only relationship is burglary, then a reasonable person would understand the burglar returned to retaliate against the homeowner, and the vic is justified. If this is more like a domestic, you can expect the case put under a microscope.
Northern Virginia has a strong progressive presence. The county attorneys are pushing for no bail and in several places don’t bring charges for theft under $9000. There was also a case 2 years ago in a neighboring county where there was a break-in at a shop, but the shop owner’s brother(?) living there and shot the intruder. The brother was charged since the shop wasn’t considered a residence. This past summer in another neighboring county, the county attorney was pushing for charges and harsher sentencing for the father of a girl who was raped at school by a transgender student for disrupting the school board meeting while the alleged rapist was just moved to another school and given an ankle bracelet. We’ve got some of the craziness here too.
Thinking about the first case, an overzealous prosecutor might make the argument that the threat wasn’t imminent if you were able to fire a warning shot. Additionally, if the attacker was committed to the fight, would you have time for a follow-up shot? Maybe the guy didn’t intend to fire a warning shot and just missed and fortunately, didn’t need a follow-up shot.
The second one did admit that they didn’t think it could happen and even noted that they could have added a security bar to the sliding balcony door. This just reinforces the need to be aware of what’s going on not just in your immediate neighborhood, by in the general area as there have been early-morning home break-ins and overnight car break-ins/theft in nearby towns just a short car ride away. It also reinforces the need for defense in depth. If they had the Ring camera(s) setup to alert or hadn’t missed the alert, they would have had time to prepare and call the police.
I’m not trying to be a monday morning quarterback what each person did, but more looking over what happened and how things could have turned out better or worse.
You might have made that reference, initially, to make it clear the “unarmed” bit was a joke, as it was not in the story you posted. I also agree that the shot into the floor might not have been a “warning shot”, and the story also did not state that it was a warning shot.
