Welcome to Aftermath, a portion of our First Line email newsletter where Attorney Anthony L. DeWitt walks you through a real-life self-defense incident and shares his key takeaways.
A Norwalk, California smoke shop owner was confronted with four armed men looking to rob the store. He resisted, and the robber pepper-sprayed him. As the armed men were enjoying the owner’s pain, a co-owner produced a handgun and shot one of the robbers in the chest. The others took off running, as did the one who was shot in the chest. He made it as far as the alley. Police took him to a nearby hospital where he later died.
How can business owners prepare for potential robberies? What are the key considerations when deciding to use lethal force in defense of property?
I would imagine that it depends on the state that you are in. This being california, the shop owner will probably be charged with murder. And infringing on the robbers rights.
Is it truly a defense of property? When four armed men come into a store to rob it, it seems there is already a threat of great bodily harm or death. It would seem to me at that that point it is the co-owners discretion as to what to do. Not for the property, but their own safety. Are you certain they will not kill you after they get what they want? It’s been done before and will certainly be done again. The first owner could possibly been more situationally aware and armed but I doubt that would have helped him much. The co-owner drew all attention to him with the gunfire. After that, it is the robbers who have to make the decision to run or fight. Seems they made the right choice, at least 3 of them did.
Respectfully - is this a trick question? “How can business owners prepare for potential robberies?” You mean other than say arming themselves to defend their lives and livelihoods from earth pigs like these? Of course, this is Commiefornistan so defense of life and liberty probably takes a back seat to the rights of the would-be robbers. I guess the state would rather the law-abiding citizen who was WORKING for his living just lay down and pray (Oops. Prolly can’t say pray as it might offend the God-less heathen crowd) the aggressor(s) will just rob the place and not inflict any (more) harm on their victims. Key considerations when…? You mean like being incapacitated by chemical agents while “the armed men were enjoying the owner’s pain?” Uuuhhh…yeah. “Neutralizing” one of the oxygen thieves is what I would call a “good start”. The only downside I see is that the defender didn’t take out any of the other ne’er-do-wells while he was at it. The police really should have left the dead one in the street for all of the other would-be violent offenders to see. “Wanna wind up like this guy? FAFO!” Maybe I’m just too insensitive to the underlying causes of what motivates the poor disenfranchised to commit such despicable acts of senseless crime.
Clearly train all staff that deadly force can never be used to protect property (including animals), only to protect humans from death or serious bodily harm.
Develop and train on policies of how to respond to unarmed theft (which might justify use of non-deadly force).
Have very employee and owner fully trained in the legal requirements to justify use of force and deadly force for self defense. I recommend two books, Branca’s Law of Self Defense and Ayoob’s Deadly Force, 2nd Ed.. If at all possible, have all staff complete Branca’s online Law of Self Defense course, and attend Ayoob;s MAG 20 class.
Have full time surveillance cameras with sound that cover the entire interior of the business and the entrance on the outside. You will need the videos to support your testimony if there is ever an event. Have the cameras placed, and preferably hidden so they will not be disabled by bad guys.
Provide every employee who asks or agrees to be armed with training on these topics: (1) Introduction to handguns; (2) how to recognize and avoid threats; (3) selecting the right self defense handgun for you; (4) effective self-defense draw and fire handgun use.
Topics 1 and 4 should be two-day courses, while topics 2 and 3 can be covered in half-day classroom-only classes. Do not cram all of these into a single week; spread them out over 4 to 6 weeks.
Do not stage guns in the business; have each armed staff member carry concealed.
As any Business owner will tell you, the money is not worth your life. If you are in fear for your life and you are in danger, then defending your life matters. A business owner also may say I cannot tell you, you can carry a gun, but I will not tell you, you can’t either.
One key factor is do not keep any substantial amount of cash in the till.
Do not have a cash machine in the store.
Have large products like cartons of cigarettes locked up.
Have cameras where they can see them.
Just make the store look like it is undesirable to want to be robbed.
CA does not have a Duty to Retreat law, and it does have a Castle Doctrine. However the Castle Doctrine only applies if you are in your own home. In CA you are pretty much at the mercy of the DA,who is probably a lib democrat. Good luck.
I like it.
Good stuff. The only thing is what state you’re in and the laws about defending yourself in that state. It’s a shame we have to be aware of this for a few state due to the constitution does and should cover all. But I do like being ready and trained is always the best way to go.
No offense but store owners are just going about their lives as provisioned in the constitution. Maybe the store owner should hire an attorney and a shrink to cover the counter. While the owner cowers in the corner!
Similar to what was done to our military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The question should truly be as follows.
How should the potential robbers ( scum of the earth ) prepare for the shop owners wrath?
Look at what a free people have to subject themselves to while going about their day lives. All the robber has to think about is which store or innocent are we going to hit today.
I firmly believe in the following philosophy.
Questions like these convince me that we are to become the sheep.
If we abide Lt. Col. Jeff Coopers thinking, the 4 or how ever many creeps, wouldn’t be entering businesses in the first place.
The business owners around the world can prepare till the cows come home, if they don’t protect what’s rightfully theirs, the robbers will be back again and again and again, eventually the robbers will now own the business, the block and the community.
Because we as “LAW ABIDING CITIZENS” are now living on their “turf”.
Prepare you say, if that owner happens to be “enjoying” the pain of my wife, my kid, my employees! I’ll tell you how I would prepare these days. Automatic locking unbreakable doors and windows and mag dump on all 4! We are the sheep! The bad guy doesn’t give a crap about how much you prepared unless you are prepared to use force!
Say what you want but in states like California, Chicago and NY the population are sitting ducks!
I’m also speaking from real life experiences.
In NYC/Brooklyn I’ve met the wrong end of the robbers good intentions.
The .38 plugged into my temple while parked in front of a restaurant, obviously the “Da capos” parking space.
Sitting in a park when gang rivals decided to kill everyone they saw, so my friend and I decided to run like hell out of the park only to meet up down an alleyway, my only escape route, with a double barreled shotgun shoved in my mouth. We are the sheep constantly running from the bad guy or paying for some type of training and preparing for things we can’t do. Unless in our brain we’re discussing shoot or don’t shoot while someone you care about is enduring the pain.
What are the key considerations when deciding to use lethal force in defense of property? The answer, is survival at whatever cost!
In certain cases the ‘Property’ they can have—IN NO WAY WILL I LET THEM TAKE MY LIFE!
UM… When it’s 4 against 1 and they have shown the potential for EXTREME VIOLENCE and
the THREAT OF GREAT BODILY HARM?
…when their ‘Taunts’ are backed up by fistfull of weapons?
… When you FEAR for your life and the prospect of your death or hospitalization is eminent?
It’s sort of crazy how all this crap changed from when I was a child. All this run for your life garbage didn’t exist when I was young. Everybody I knew had guns and would kill you if you tried to rob their house or business. This idea that your property isn’t worth defending…maybe those who think that way should be paying my bills. Blood,sweat and tears got me what is mine and if some scumbags show up to take it from me, get ready to meet the guy who ain’t gonna run.
Just to reiterate… (and BRAVO for saying how I feel in my h art) .
This question posed said…
…and you may not know I’ve ‘CREATED’ (3) businesses in my Life (nuthin’ fancy, but sold them all for a profit years ago) and 2 of the 3 still prosper today. The reason I 'splain all that is @ my age there’s no way in hell I’d start up another business these days in this crappy climate. So, working for somebody else is the only way I’d be an Earner anymore.
IF the skells came in like the above example and the choice was them taking sh!t or a FIREFIGHT
well, that’s easy for me. IF MY LIFE WAS IN PERIL, or an INNOCENT COULD BE RAPED OR KILLED then it’s game on and when the smoke cleared God willing I’m still behind cover reloading a fresh mag, but if they just smash and grab and out the door they flee there’s no way I’d either give chase or fight for some Company’s stock.
I’ll defend me and mine Lives but with the Cops 'n Courts being FAR LEFT of Center in Albuquerque and the Cops so willing to gun down or arrest an INNOCENT 'Take the sh!t and be gone! (if I can) Any crap comes my way after I was just robbed I’ll simply quit instantly.
Saying all that, IF YOU COME TO MY HOUSE THINKING YER A BADASS? ? ‘PICK A PLOT!’ ----Winston/John Wick.
Uh oh, I went back and reread and circumstances say that the robbers were armed which I apparently assumed guns. I guess pepper spray could possibly be an arm but not a deadly weapon. If so, then I have to retract what I said above even if I feel the co- owner did what most would have done.
As mentioned, local laws need to be factored in to your response.
Aside from that, if the 4 bad guys were armed, shooting one of them is very risky. Even if one perp is dropped, you still have 3 weapons pointed in your general direction.
It is risky but have you ever noticed how quickly they run when someone in their little gang gets hurt (shot). It is rare to see them stick around and fight it out.
I think you got it right the first time.
If I were partially incapacitated by pepper spray, I would be like a sitting duck. Fear of serious bodily harm or death is reasonable.
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