David Lopez Charged with Murder in Bristol Shooting

Anyone following this event (see the link below)? Also read the comments after the artical. I know it's very early but I'm curious to what your thoughts are on the shooting. Is this self defense or murder?

This is exactly the type of situation I fear, at what point can you fire to protect yourself of your family. It appears Lopez even fired a warning shot to no avail.

http://www.newbritainherald.com/articles/2011/07/12/news/doc4e1bb42759838254654159.txt

Tough call. His problem might arise here,

"Police reports indicate the cousin ran to get Lopez and his wife, who were physically assaulted when they confronted Ortiz and the others."

He apparently confronted Ortiz when he had the opportunity to walk away without further conflict. On the other hand the 4 on 1 odds make a good case for self-defense. Interested to see how this turns out.

#1 rule of gun carry safety....stay out of the ghetto and you are 99% less likely to need to shoot people. I know where this happened. Don't go there.

AGust82 said:

I know where this happened. Don't go there.

Click to expand...

I can see where this happened from where I work.

People disgust me. The comments on that article defending that scumbag are unreal and yet another sign of how horribly screwed up peoples perception have become. People keep saying... no need to bring a gun to a fist fight.... really? Why was your scumbag kid attacking a 43 year old man and a unarmed WOMAN??? with a glass bottle no less... the bottle to me makes this a no brainer... they had a weapon, one that could have easily been used as a stabbing implement. 20 years old is not a kid... you know right from wrong and should know not to do things like this... add to this the warning shot??? this guy got what he deserved and hopefully his thug friends will know better now than to attack people.

Oh the poor victim he was just a kid. (what age do you become a man these days?)

Why is he the victim the people breaking the law not the people getting beat up.

You can use lethal force in fear of Life or great bodily injury to you or others.
He doesn't have to walk away if the family couldn't.

Punches especially from a few strong men to me is great bodily injury you can easily get brain damage from a hard blow to the head, break bones, damage internal organs. Never mind the bottle.

Not saying what I would do in that case but I think the story should have been told from the other side of the story.

The story should be
Man accused of murder in a self defense act saving his family against a bunch of thugs.


We need the Mayhem law the Utah has.

I hope he gets a fair trial.
~Justin

AGust82 said:

#1 rule of gun carry safety....stay out of the ghetto and you are 99% less likely to need to shoot people.

Click to expand...

That's not really rule #1. But it's very good advice.

Looks like this incident was one part hooliganism, one part territorialism, one part 'respect' violation and several parts testosterone.

Throw a gun in the mix and you get an anti-gunner's exemplar: a routine (for many urban American settings, anyway) dispute/altercation which needlessly and foolishly escalates into gunfire and death over an instigation of insignificance.

The details revealed so far do not provide enough information to determine who was in the right, legally or ethically. But my guess is that HankT's Postulate Of Civilian Self-Defense will be pertinent.

HPCSD: "It is a bad strategy to shoot an unarmed man."

Depends on who was holding the bottle, probably. And if there was one.