Posted on 12/01/2008 4:16:59 AM PST by marktwain
DYERSVILLE, Iowa --- A Dubuque shooter changed the locks on his victim’s apartment shortly before firing at him twice.
Officials with the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Department and the Dubuque County Attorney’s Office refused to release the identity of the 48-year-old Dubuque man who voluntarily went with police after shooting and killing 24-year-old David V. Herman of Dyersville.
However, authorities have established a basic timeline of what happened Saturday afternoon before the incident.
According to the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Department, the shooter had been hired by Bonjour Estates of Dubuque to change the locks on at least two residences at the seven-apartment complex in Dyersville.
He changed the locks at the apartment where Herman lived with his girlfriend, Jen Farver. Farver had been evicted, and the couple spent Saturday loading the last of their belongings.
The shooter moved onto another apartment, where he was working on changing the locks, when Herman arrived and confronted the shooter. A physical altercation occurred, with punching and shoving. The shooter went to his car. Herman followed, got in the car, and another physical altercation took place, authorities said.
“In some point during the second altercation, shots were fired,” said Capt. Bob Lynn of the Dubuque County Sheriff’s Department.
The shooter performed CPR on Herman until emergency workers arrived, and then he went voluntarily with police. He was not charged and was released the same day. He told police he acted in self defense.
Dubuque County Attorney Ralph Potter said the investigation now centers around the justification to use deadly force.
Wow, they like the word ‘shooter’ a lot.
He was even labeled a ‘shooter’ when he was just changing the locks...
and I thought it was just me who had to backup & reread!
‘Strewth!
It’s a sobering thought that in America every physical confrontation has the potential to escalate into somebody getting shot.
Do you Yanks find that it makes you a bit more careful about getting into fisticuffs? It would certainly make me think twice. Or three times.
Very good move. It will definitely look good to a jury if it should happen to go to trial.
my tagline says it all.
Anyone other than an LEO or member of a PC-protected victim group is likely to be rolling the ball uphill in Dubuque County; the maintenance guy had better be lawyered up pretty good.
Mr. niteowl77
It’s a sobering thought to me that there are actually places in the world that the law does not allow citizens to protect themselves.
> It’s a sobering thought to me that there are actually places in the world that the law does not allow citizens to protect themselves.
In NZ we can use “reasonable force” to protect ourselves or someone else, which the courts tend to interpret as “the minimum amount of force necessary to bring the situation under control”.
All of which, of course, gets second-guessed in Court under the benefit of hindsight.
In the heat of the moment, it is difficult to gauge how much force is “minimal”, as you can well appreciate. It’s a farce, actually.
If the author of this article has a degree in journalism, she should get a refund from her college. If she has a degree in the psychology of propaganda, then she should make a large donation.
She managed to make it sound as if the guy changing the locks just suddenly opened fire for no apparent reason. I had to read the article twice to get an idea of what happened.
Alot of it is how the story is told. When I heard about it on the news last night, I got the impression that the maintenance worker had gone to his car and then went back towards the dead guy. In that case I thought it was unreasonable since he should have just left in his car and got the police.
If the dead guy followed the maintenance worker to the car, then the dead guy got what was coming to him.
I have been carrying just about every day since I got out of the Navy in 1992. I also hold a 3rd dan in Okinawan Kenpo. The knowledge that I have the means and the ability to kill tempers my judgment every day. I avoid altercations when possible, but am prepared if I am forced into one, and then I act in a measured way appropriate for the situation. My wife and I were accosted in a parking garage several years ago and I subdued and disarmed all three attackers myself and held them at gunpoint for the police. I could have just as easily shot them, but the situation didn’t warrant it.
So does mine. ;^)
LLS
Roscheks (?) Department store. Potosi Beer. the 4th Street (?) elevator? Eagle Point Park. The Locks. Love that town!
bears repeating, that an armed society is [should be] a polite society...
sure it aint likely, [Ive been hit hard enough to think I was gonna die] but its a possibility that 'fisticuffs' could get deadly in a hurry, especially if someone is chemically pumped or has training...things that i cannot possible know at the moment someone closes to grappling range...
Just being knocked down onto concrete can kill you, or incapacitate you to the point where you are more vulnerable to further attack. Physical contact, or the threat thereof is enough motivation to produce a firearm...further evidence of aggression is all that's needed justify the deployment of some lead.
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