Posted on 12/02/2003 2:27:12 AM PST by FlJoePa
Elderly St. Petersburg man arrested for firing gun at assailants
The Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.
A 71-year-old man was arrested for firing a gun at three men beating up his 63-year-old friend, striking one of the men in the arm, deputies said.
Melvin B. Spaulding held up his .22-caliber pistol and told the men to stop hitting and kicking his friend George Lowe. When they didn't listen, he fired the gun, Pinellas County Sheriff's spokesman Tim Goodman said.
"I'm sure he was concerned for his friend's safety...," Goodman said. "The use of a weapon to stop a confrontation is not the right way. He would have been better off calling 911."
James T. Moore, 20, was treated for the gunshot wound at Bayfront Medical Center and was arrested for an unrelated battery charge earlier the same night.
Lowe said the altercation began Sunday night when he heard loud noises outside his home and discovered a group of young men pounding on cars and shouting. When he told them to stop, they attacked him, he said.
Spaulding, who had no criminal record in Florida, acknowledged firing the gun, according to sheriff's records. He was being held without bail in Pinellas County Jail.
The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's office would carfully investigate the case before deciding whether to file an attempted murder charge against Spaulding, prosecutor Bruce Bartlett said.
"As far as I'm concerned, he's my hero," said Lowe, who suffered a torn leg muscle, bruises and a sore back in the fight. "He's my friend, but he's also my hero."
It could not be determined whether Spaulding or Moore had attorneys.
How f(*&^%g stupid is this sheriff? The guy should have waited for his friend to be murdered and then called 9-11? Does anyone live in this moron sheriff's district to follow-up on this?
"No. He was supposed to call 911 and then stand and watch as they beat his friend to death."
It is Pinellas county, he was expected to withhold food and water.
CHAPTER 776 JUSTIFIABLE USE OF FORCE
776.031 Use of force in defense of others.--A person is justified in the use of force, except deadly force, against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to prevent or terminate such other's trespass on, or other tortious or criminal interference with, either real property other than a dwelling or personal property, lawfully in his or her possession or in the possession of another who is a member of his or her immediate family or household or of a person whose property he or she has a legal duty to protect. However, the person is justified in the use of deadly force only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.
776.08 Forcible felony.--"Forcible felony" means treason; murder; manslaughter; sexual battery; carjacking; home-invasion robbery; robbery; burglary; arson; kidnapping; aggravated assault; aggravated battery; aggravated stalking; aircraft piracy; unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb; and any other felony which involves the use or threat of physical force or violence against any individual.
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