when i did my CCW class, they brought in an attorney to do a Q&A chat on what we can and cannot do. one of the answers was iin just about so many words:
Q: say i am in a liquor store, and its being robbed, am i allowed to shoot the perpetrator?
A: no. you are not law enforcement and you are not allowed to instigate deadly force upon anyone. you can only fire in self defense, so unless the robber has his gun pointed at you, and you can CONVINCE a jury of your peers that you felt that your life was in danger, you cannot shoot him. and if you DO fire a shot, it had best be only on the front side of the individual, or you will be serving time.
I do not know the specifics of your state law, but I know that is not accurate in every single state I am aware of.
In most places you can use force including lethal force to defend another person from lethal force the same way you could use such force to defend yourself.
In most places you could shoot a robber in the back if they are in the process of putting someone else's life in danger. You do not have to be defending yourself. Be sure of anything behind your target though.
If they are not fleeing or trying to get away and are posing a lethal threat to an innocent victim you are within your rights to use lethal force.
You can announce your presence, ask them to give up etc but that is not a requirement and increases your personal risk. It is your call. The situation is clear in a store robbery and unlike some situations on the street what is going on is obvious.
It won't turn out to be a good guy holding someone at gunpoint. It won't be an officer. It won't likely be a boyfriend or husband of the person who will turn on you later because you shot someone they loved (even to save them.)
It is clear.
You have a much better chance of successfuly using force than the clerk would. They have the majority of the robber's attention. They will be less able to defend themselves than a customer who can discreetely draw thier weapon. Even an armed clerk will be worse off than an armed customer.
You don't want to be shot or to get the clerk shot or anyone else. However you also do not want the badguy to hurt or kill anyone.
What you do is your choice.
Sounds to me like he tried to "apprehend the suspect" and got shot for his trouble
Yeah probably would have been safer if he just executed the criminal posing a lethal threat to innocent people with a shot to the head. Perfectly legal in his state.
Instead he tried to give him a chance to do the right thing, putting himself on equal footing with the criminals, giving up his tactical advantage and element of surprise and they exchanged gunfire instead.
To me that is the question. Do you announce yourself putting yourself in more danger for thier benefit or not, not whether you act at all.
With one criminal maybe, but with 2 or more the element of surprise is the only thing in your favor. If you can drop one before the other knows what is going on you may be able to get him before he gets you.
Giving up the element of surprise when outgunned and they are posing a lethal threat to other peoples' lives is a serious tactical mistake. It isn't a wild west movie, badguys don't always drop right away, and I owe nothing to the criminals least of all a fair fight.
I do not want to shoot someone in a robbery, I do not want to deal with killing someone that may have been part of the small minority of guys that could have gone straight later, deal with a court case, court expenses, hospital bills, injuries, any innocent person hurt, or medical bills.
To me it is no different than the person trapped in a fire. Yes I could get burned or injured, pass out from smoke inhalation and die, yes I am not the fire department, yes there is a million excuses to let them burn. I would still try to help, and I may still lose a lot as a result.
That said things happen so fast. The perfect monday morning quarterbacking means nothing. You could expect to help and never make a move before it is over.
You could also choose to do nothing expecting everything to just work out fine, in a split second the gun could shoot the clerk, point to you and fire, eleminating you as a witness, caller of 911 etc. All faster than you can draw a concealed firearm.
This guy acted, and he will suffer for it, but he did what he thought was the right thing at the time, and people should be proud of him.
