Intruder shot by NSW homeowner

[DW98]

Nice work by the homeowner. Hope he comes out of it OK.

An intruder was shot in the leg during an alleged violent break and enter near Lake Macquarie in NSW after he struggled with the owner.

The 58-year-old owner of the Teralba property was alerted to his shed allegedly being broken into by his dogs barking and confronted three men in the early hours of Saturday morning, NSW police say.

A firearm was discharged during an ensuing scuffle and a 30-year-old man was found after fleeing the scene with a gunshot wound to his leg.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/nsw/a/31599730/intruder-shot-in-nsw-break-and-enter/

 

[davidmcbeth]

Good for the owner protecting his shedded property. I store all my Olivia Newton John memorabilia in my shed ... he would have gotten much more than just a shot in the leg but would have been also given a stern lecture.

 

[davidmcbeth]

Was this a proper use of deadly force, separately considering legality and morality, protecting property? Arguably the homeowner was not innocent of instigation, was not in fear of bodily harm, and so on.

When a person is on your property doing evil ... do you have to wait for him/her to pull out her ankle-holstered gun that one cannot see?

That's the problem with many state laws today -- they assume that the interloper means not to kill you. I would think the opposite, that a person on my land w/o my permission or invitation is looking to harm me, not just steal things.

I support legislation that would allow an owner to shoot anyone on his land w/o having legal permission to be there.

I think once such laws are passed, people are aware of them and the ones not wishing to harm you will stay off your land. Makes sense to me.

And the requirement of "fear" ? Fear is a state of mind .. not everyone who encounters a life-threatening event will feel fear...even when many others would. What scares me might not scare you over the same life-threatening event.

 

[DW98]

If the intruder had been shot trying to break into the house, then the owner would have been fine. The shed makes it a bit more complicated, because as mentioned, he wasn't in direct threat of being physically harmed. Basically, the self-defence legislation in NSW covers property theft and/or destruction, as long as the action taken is determined to be 'reasonable'. As it turns out in this case, the burglar was the one with the gun. There was a struggle and he was shot with his own gun. I really doubt any charges will be laid against the homeowner, thankfully.

 

[davidmcbeth]

That was a twist ! Reminds me of a song..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2hawbp5XT4