Posted on 05/09/2009 5:36:40 AM PDT by marktwain
A citizen with a “concealed-carry” handgun license shot out a tire on a car full of fleeing shoplifters, then followed them in his own vehicle Wednesday morning, helping Azle police apprehend four people who were subsequently charged with robbery.
Police officers from at least three agencies caught up with everyone in a neighborhood behind Allsup’s convenience store off Highway 199 west of Azle.
Four accused shoplifters had been spotted by employees of Albertsons grocery store and were attempting a getaway with less than $50 worth of miscellaneous items when they were spotted by a citizen in the parking lot. The citizen was carrying a properly licensed concealed weapon, Azle police chief Steve Myers said Wednesday afternoon.
The fleeing driver seemed to be headed straight for the citizen, who fired at the vehicle, striking a front tire.
Another citizen called 911 and reported “an undercover officer shooting at someone who tried to run him down,” Myers said.
That “undercover officer”, it was later discovered, was the armed citizen, Myers said. Both the caller and the “shooter” remained unidentified by police in the interest of their safety.
However, the man with the handgun got in a pickup and followed the suspect vehicle, which could no longer be driven by the time it arrived in the neighborhood, Myers said.
“I guess they thought they could turn off the highway and get lost out in the county,” he said.
However, that area is made up of just a few interconnected streets, with no other way out besides the highway, he said.
Arrested were Michael Reiser, 38, of San Angelo; Kyle Scott, 21 of Fort Worth; Jennifer Jeffrey, 35, of San Angelo; and Tami Mickey, 32, of Fort Worth.
Three of the four were apprehended at the vehicle by Azle police in the 400 block of Oakwood Street. Reiser, the driver, was caught by Azle officer Chris Negrete and a DPS trooper about 30 minutes later in the 1600 block of Willowwood Drive.
Both are off of Pearson Lane, north of the highway.
The four reportedly discarded the shoplifted items as they drove from the scene.
They will be charged with robbery, a felony, instead of shoplifting, a misdemeanor, because the car was used as a deadly weapon in their escape, Myers said.
Albertson’s is in Tarrant County, so charges will be filed with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office even though the suspects were caught in Parker County. Azle police, Parker County Sheriff’s deputies and at least two Department of Public Safety troopers helped in the chase, Myers said.
The chief has mixed feelings about the help officers received from an armed citizen.
“Our concern in a situation like that is the number of people in the immediate vicinity of an individual who don’t have a way to know who or what he is,” Myers said.
“A uniformed officer is easily identifiable. But the public doesn’t know who (a citizen with a handgun) is, or how to help.”
On the other hand, this particular citizen did choose the most restrained use of his weapon, firing only at the tires of the vehicle and ultimately helping catch a car full of suspects.
You never know how a bullet will behave once it cuts into sheet-metal or contacts the pavement. Even a well aimed shot into the rear rim could make it’s way back into the passenger compartment.
They tried to run the guy down! Should he have just stood there?
I don’t see how you could hit a tire if the vehicle was coming straight at you. Must have been looking at a profile.
I can see a car coming at me and act rationally [move out of it's way].
No, he should have moved out of the way. As I understand it he shot the back tires so the car had already passed him so he was safe. Again, as others here have pointed out, bullets do strange things and he could have killed a passerby.
In other words, he was not in danger at the time of the shooting.
No it isn't. In most jurisdictions firing at an occupied vehicle under almost any circumstances is usually a bad idea unless it is obvious that the occupants of the vehicle are using the vehicle as a weapon to do you bodily harm. The article isn't clear whether the shooter was under that kind of attack or was acting as a vigilante, but since he apparently isn't being charged with anything the cops must be convinced that he was deliberately endangered by the thieves' using their vehicle as a weapon. Fortunately for the shooter, TX is a pro-gun state in which a majority of sensible lawmakers and LEOs look favorably on private citizens using firearms in self defense.
That would not have been the case in some other states, NJ or CA for two examples, where law enforcement personnel and prosecutors are generally opposed to private individuals taking the law into their own hands, even in self defense. I'm not saying I agree with that kind of anti-self defense policy, in fact I vehemently disagree, but it's a fact of life in many jurisdictions and we have to live with it or face the very serious consequences.
Sounds like a remake of “Raising Arizona”.
Life is full of risks....
Possibly not, but I don’t think it would make much difference here in Florida. Don’t know about Texas. Either way, he’d not likely be prosecuted, unless he had no license to carry. Maybe one of the witnesses or officers threw that detail into the story in order to protect the guy from prosecution, though.
Not sure how safe it is to shoot at a tire from close range. There’s gotta be some kind of kick back from that. Sounds like he wasn’t that close, but then it’s kinda hard to believe some of the details of this story. If you were betting the farm on shooting out a tire, you’d probably want to get a good shot at it.
I'd rather my life or my loved ones' lives didn't end because of a Rambo out in the middle of a parking lot going after the Pop Tart gang.
Yeah, the car probable didn't have reverse too.
Yep a person that tries to run over folks, certainly would dodge my wife and kids with a shopping buggy in a similar situation.
If you're referring to my previous post, I only pointed out that in many other jurisdictions the shooter would likely be in more serious trouble than the shoplifters. I am not personally opposed to private citizens using deadly force to apprehend a fleeing criminal as long as an innocent bystander(s) are not endangered by his/her action.
However, most LEOs and prosecutors are opposed to intervention in a criminal act by a private citizen unless it is crystal clear that the armed citizen was in danger of death or bodily harm, and a legally armed citizen who believes he is doing a good thing for society by using deadly force in the kind of situation the shooter in this incident saw taking place often ends up being in deper trouble with the law than the fleeing criminal.
IOW, I was not taking about the way things SHOULD be in my first reply, I was talking about the way things actually are.
yeah, don’t you wish people would read the article (and not just the misleading headline) before commenting.
Moreover, the police have NO legally enforceable duty to protect ANYONE. That's a fact that most citizens are unaware of. The primary duty of the police is to draw white lines around the bodies of dead citizens and collect evidence in an attempt to solve crimes and apprehend criminals after the fact. Crime prevention is an afterthought.
If you want protection in real time, you'll just have to provide it yourself.
My concealed carry instructor put it best. He said, "I would love to have an armed police officer everywhere I go to protect me from the bad guys. But at my age a police officer is just too heavy to carry. That's why I carry a concealed weapon instead."
All it takes is for good people to do nothing...
Congrats to the shooter for being willing to take the risk to make this a better place.
Time to upgrade, .40 or .45?
I agree. That was not a smart move.
Murphy’s Law comes to mind.
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