Posted on 02/27/2007 12:17:55 PM PST by kiriath_jearim
ROCKFORD, Minn. -- For Eric Cegon, the past few months have been filled with sleeping pills, anxiety and visits to a therapist.
His girlfriend, Samantha Simons, is having chest pains she also attributes to anxiety and has also turned back to the religious faith she abandoned as a teenager.
In December, Cegon used a shotgun to fatally shoot Simon's ex-boyfriend, Erik Richter, when he broke into the couple's Rockford home at 3:30 one morning, armed with a gun.
"You killed me," the couple heard Richter gasp after dropping a half-cocked handgun. Cegon shot him a second time, just to be sure.
The Wright County attorney determined that Cegon, 30, was acting in self-defense and filed no charges against him. But he and Simons, 22, say they have endured nightmares and violent flashbacks ever since.
"I blocked it out of my mind for a while," said Cegon, who had never owned a gun before he borrowed one from a friend shortly before the shooting after multiple threats from Richter.
Richter was the father of Simons' 2-year-old son, Jackson, and he and Cegon had been friends who worked on cars together. Simons said she ended the relationship because of his increasing meth use and violence.
Richter reportedly had been threatening to kill Cegon and had threatened Simons with a knife.
Cegon said the shooting left him in a complete daze for about a week until he looked at the program for Richter's funeral.
"He broke down and started crying," Simons said. "He looked at me and cried some more. Then he started playing his guitar. I think he tries to block it out because he doesn't want to feel the sadness and the hurt."
That's a normal response to direct involvement in a fatal shooting, said Minneapolis police chaplain Jeffrey Stewart, who counsels officers involved in on-duty shootings.
"We have a desire not to take a human life, even if you are forced and it is the right thing to do," Stewart said.
Cegon and Simons moved out of the apartment where the shooting happened and are living with Cegon's parents in this town about 20 miles west of the Twin Cities while they look for another apartment.
Cegon was rehired for an auto parts delivery job he'd quit shortly before the shooting, fearing that Richter would be able to find him there.
The couple, together only five months, have already been through a lot but said the shooting put a dark cloud over their relationship that's tough to get out of.
"We both are not as happy because of it," Simons said. "I hope we will stay together."
Simons said she knows she'll someday have to explain to Jackson what happened to his dad.
"I don't know how I am going to answer when he brings it up," Simons said. "I won't lie to him about anything. I hope he understands why we had to do what we had to do."
The couple would have felt much worse afterward if the intruder had shot them instead...
At least there's not a prosecution in the works to add to the stress of this. Shooting another human being isn't a pleasant experience even on the battlefield. Altho you do, more or less, get used to it. Can't imagine having to shoot someone you used to be friends with.
Said repeatedly on here, 'better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.'
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Someone breaks into your home,at night,armed with a gun.. you shoot first and ask questions later.
They're actually very nice people.
</sarcasm>
"Cegon shot him a second time, just to be sure."
Well done!
""We have a desire not to take a human life, even if you are forced and it is the right thing to do," Stewart said."
Clearly, as the article reports, that is not a universal truth.
Richter reportedly had been threatening to kill Cegon and had threatened Simons with a knife.
Time, perspective and counseling will help. This man was a walking time bomb, and it's sad that it ended so horribly -- but the family is no longer in danger. Hopefully they can make some good beginnings of such a bad ending.
The nightmares never go away.
If you convince the shooter that what he did was absolutely reasonable under the circumstances (as was the case here) the nightmares will go away.
Love that sentence!
Had it been me, after shooting him I would have spit chewing tobacco on his forhead (ala "Outlaw Josey Wales). I don't see why he feels bad about shooting him, but I can understand that he feels emotional about the taking of another human's life. My Army experiences have given me insight on how this is hard to do...but it helps to know that they are bad guys. Then you get over it.
Lucky for them that Fitzgerald wasn't the Prosecutor.
I've heard of going off half-cocked, but never being offed half-cocked.
The nightmares never go away.
That seems to be the part that never comes out that often in deadly force discussions of things like the Castle Law.
Yes, you can if you must, even if there is no prosecution, even if the Mayor gives you a medal, you probably will not like it much.
Law-abiding people do not believe in killing, though they should certainly believe in surviving.
Years ago I had a co-worker who aided a LEO who was cornered. No matter how many congratulations he recieved, he was pretty messed up for a long time, even though all agreed he did the right thing.
The only reason for that article is to bash those who protect themselves from intruders.
Every human has a right, and an obligation to protect his/her own life and that of family. Repelling an agressor with deadly force is an obligation.
Feeling something over the loss of a life is a normal emotion.
Cops who shoot crooks to protect their own lives are very shaken up over it. It's not fun to kill someone, even if it is necessary.
"Cegon shot him a second time, just to be sure."
As Clint Eastwood said in "Unforgiven:"
'It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have.'
I'd probably have a panic attack or two after something like that, were I the shooter or not!
I can understand the emotions of taking another life. But do you notice how the whole article is about "shooting"? Would he have felt better if he killed his attacker with a knife or a baseball bat. The reason this article was printed is to show that "guns are bad" even when used properly and effectively.
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