Hostage-taker is negotiated into withdrawing sans hostage: do you keep your word?

[NineseveN]

If you think a BG who just let your wife go in exchange for your wallet is a threat, wait till you see the DA who will try to make you rot in jail for shooting a person who "AT THE TIME' was not an emediate threat to your life. Because as you said, he was coming down the stairs to get your wallet, not davancing on YOU with the deadly weapon.

You would have to explain how you thought he was an emediate deadly threat while he was complying with your request to do a swap. It all depends on what you tell the Police when they arrive .

(Officer I shot because I felt my Life was in danger. I would like to talk to my Lawyer .) End of all communications with the Police.

Um, who's telling the police about the swap? Raise your hands...good, now give us your guns and here's your bubblegum. That's it, move along....

Officer, I told him forcefully to let my wife go or I would shoot. He seemed to become enraged over my stern demands and pushed my wife aside and came towards me in a kamiakze run, knife in hand. I was in fear for my life, and for the life of my wife who would have been comepletely at his mercy had I been killed or disabled from the knife-weilding attacker. I shot him dead.

End.
Of.
Story.

The goon ain't gonna be swooing a jury with his woe-is-me song and dance, and if your wife is one to rat you out for that, well then she wasn't exactly worth savin now was she?

 

[TMM]

the way i work is, basically, if you F around with my family, girlfriend, wife, or other close people, you are in for either pain or death, depending on the situation. in this case, the guy gets a magful of Golddots to the gut.

~TMM

 

[Biker]

To be perfectly honest, it's not a problem. The guy has a knife within 15 feet, hence he's a threat. Even if he drops it and you grease him after the fact, he's still in the vicinity. Doesn't matter to me. You don't pet a rabid dog, you shoot it.
And you're right: Say as little as possible to the cops.
Biker

 

[Working Man]

Say as little as possible to the cops.

+1

Sad that it has come to that, but that is the best advice.

 

[junyo]

Tactically, as stated before, the situation seems contrived. At the distances described, you could practically touch him with the muzzle of a long gun; why you wouldn't just take the shot from the bottom of the stairs is beyond me, and you'd have to be insane to ever consider conceding a sizable chunk of your advantage by putting down the rifle.

However, assuming that for whatever reason you did, it strikes me as... unseemly to then shot the suspect. Break your word and detain him for the police, certainly. And if he rushes me, or attempts to recapture his hostage, all bets are off. But to negotiate the release of your loved one, essentially in bad faith, and then use that release as an opportunity for a clear shot seems a bit too premeditated, a bit too judge/jury/executioner, especially when you add the component of lying to the authorities about the event. I'm trying to protect my home and loved ones, not dispense frontier justice.

 

[Sam]

A promise made under duress is not binding.
The other point is that if you mess with me and mine you will be subjected to violence.
Do not ever bet on my better nature,
I don't have one.

Sam