“[H]e confronted them and started shooting to defend himself’
“Self defense” would make more sense it they had confronted him, rather than he being the aggressor.
“Hey you guys, you don’t mind if I keep my stuff, do you?”
“Confronted was the word used by the local news reporter, probably a kid.
Elsewhere in the story it appears the owner of the car attempted to stop a crime in progress - people breaking into his car.
Things got out of hand, the owner feared for his life, and shots were fired in self defense.
Authorities in Atlanta will probably put the car owner away for life.
>>Self defense” would make more sense it they had confronted him, rather than he being the aggressor.<<
Protecting your property IS self-defense.
When they attacked his car while armed they made themselves the aggressors. At least one of them was armed. Had the car owner not shot he may well have been shot himself. the fellow running away was shooting.
Call me old-fashioned, but breaking into someone’s car/house makes YOU the “aggressor”.
The story did say that one alleged thief was firing as he ran away. That is why he lived, he was ABLE to still run away. If the shooter had chased him and killed him, the courts would have certainly ruled against him. Now, the citizen defending his car has a chance.
They were the aggressors by breaking into his car. He had every right to yell at them to stop (confrontation).
Reward thieves, you get more thieves.
Uh no, taking someone else’s stuff is “aggression,” not walking towards one’s own parked car.
Confronted them in the way of 'hey get away from my car'? Then one of the perps draws a gun and that's that.
The article is too poorly written for us to judge the sequence of events or what really happened. What level of danger the victim was subjected to before firing is omitted. Were someone engaged in robbing you to pull a gun, thus giving you reasonable cause to fear death or serious bodily harm, “self-defense” would apply, even if the victim fired first. The logical deduction from the article is that at least one of the robbers was armed, since he is said to have fired shots. Bringing a firearm to a break-in demonstrates the criminal’s plan to use deadly force to evade being caught, or to perpetrate armed robbery if circumstances evolved that way.