I’m thinking if any charges, they will be against the homeowner…it was Chicago after all.
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I think this is a case of how threatened the homeowner was. If he is 6,5" and in good shape and the burglar was 5’6" and not, there could be a problem.
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A person who breaks into a home and continues to come at the homeowner who is pointing a gun at them seems like a pretty clear and imminent threat to me regardless of any disparity in size. Should the home owner have allowed the home invader to get his hands on the gun or put his gun down so he could go hand to hand just because the attacker might have been shorter or smaller?
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I have a fur missile She doesn’t wait for me. Just a friendly fyi in case someone who is asking for a friend about the viability of breaking into Casa Zavier.
My daughter has my other 2 at her apartment.
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What I am saying is the homeowner has to feel threaten to legally use a gun in defense.
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If you are in my home at 1:00 a.m. and you keep coming even though you see I am armed. I’m going to be, definitely, feeling threatened.
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I would sure feel threatened if someone who just broke into my home kept coming at me as I pointed a pistol at them regardless of whether they were 6’5” or 5’6” or 4’1”
Human bodies are fragile. It only takes one hit in the right place to do significant damage. Letting someone of any size get their hands on my firearm would create an immediate imminent threat to myself and my family. Especially someone who shows no fear at the thought of breaking into an occupied home and advancing on a person with a firearm.
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F A F O kind of situation.
Fido warned you. 
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“In a near miracle, given the fact that over half of the highest priority calls to 911 in Chicago don’t have officers available to respond, the cops showed up quickly after the bad actor started leaking.”
Chicago, break in and you will leak!
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What I am talking about, is disparity of force
You want to give a thug a fair fight?
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I’m not a lawyer but I think that is more applicable to situations like bar room fights and similar altercations. Not home invasions or other active assaults where the criminal is presenting an imminent threat of death or severe bodily harm.
I can see a prosecutor in an anti self defense area maybe trying to use a size disparity against you in this case. But the imminent threat is clear and a decent defense attorney should be able to get that point across to a jury.
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@BeanCounter @Shamrock You make a good argument. I just can’t see my self shooting or see as a threat someone in my home that is a lot smaller than me if they are not armed. That is not to say this is what happened in this case.
Size as well as age disparity can sometimes play a factor in someone’s ability to do harm. But they aren’t the only factors that need to be considered. There is a 10 or 11 year old girl in my son’s martial arts class. She is under 4’6” tall but she is very fast and punches and kicks incredibly hard. But even an untrained smaller person can cause serious bodily harm or death with just a single blow that happens to hit the right spot. You have to consider ability and intent as well. A home invader advancing on a drawn weapon is certainly showing an intent to do serious bodily harm. And unless there is a very clear and very large disparity in size, strength and skill in your favor they likely have the ability to cause serious harm as well.
Now if that smaller person breaking into my house and advancing on my drawn weapon was an old lady hobbling towards me I would probably think twice about pulling the trigger. While her actions show clear intent to do harm she may not have the ability to do so. Though I would still feel very threatened based on her actions and very concerned she might have a weapon or abilities that I am not aware of at that moment.
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I woke up this morning thinking about this and thought it needs more attention.
My main agenda is to save lives; innocent lives over criminal lives when there is a choice. The man in this scenario put the intruder in serious condition. The hard part for me to get over is did the man actually fear for his life or did he think he had a gun so he might as well use it. The scenario seems to imply that to me. He does have the right to protect his belongings and his life but not to take someone’s life which he didn’t. I am a carpenter so I know how easy it is to think when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail. It is helpful to me to be aware of this dilemma. But when all one has is a hammer sometimes it is helpful to use it.
I don’t ever want to harm another human being. I feel bad when I squish the occasional black widow spider that gets into our garage which I only do because they are a threat to my son.
But someone who breaks into an occupied home has to be considered an imminent threat. Nice well meaning people don’t do that. Confronting a dangerous home invader without an effective defensive weapon in your hands puts yourself and everyone else in your home at grave risk. If that dangerous person continues to advance on you while you are pointing a weapon at them then they have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they are a threat. They don’t need to have a weapon to do you and your family great bodily harm and you can’t be sure they don’t actually have a weapon hidden somewhere that they intend to use.
If they are moving slowly enough or you are in a good defensive position you might have time to shout commands and try to convince them to stop or leave. But if the advance continues I believe it would be completely irresponsible to allow that person to get near you and your weapon.
Sometimes a hammer is the only tool capable of getting the job done.
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I would have to say I agree with you. This is what I found when I looked up imminent threat.
“Some laws allow use of deadly force when imminent danger is present. Typical considerations to find imminent danger include the attacker’s apparent intent to cause great bodily injury or death, the device used by the attacker to cause great bodily injury or death, and the attacker’s opportunity and ability to use the means to cause great bodily injury of death.”
Do you agree?
Source https://definitions.uslegal.com/i/imminent-danger/
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I would consider ANYONE I didn’t know coming into my house at 1:15 am, with that person hearing a dog barking to alert me, and advancing on me while I have a gun pointed at them an imminent threat, but hey, that’s just me. 
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My question is now would you point a gun at them? Is that escalating the situation?
Gun is ALREADY pointed at them. Advancing on me is what escalates the situation.
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