Self-Defense by Disarming Attacker, Still Charged

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Dorryn

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http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/buffaloerie/story/219751.html

I found this very interesting. The woman apparently disarms the man attacking her and defends herself (the exact reverse of what many anti's say women who defend themselves with firearms will suffer), yet is charged with the possession of the gun she used to defend herself in her own home.

I wonder if this is the whole story. (I wish there were more in the paper...) SO much for restraining orders, as well.

Woman, 24, retaliates by shooting at attacker

Updated: 12/02/07 7:46 AM


A Buffalo man attacked a Wakefield Avenue woman in violation of a court order of protection, and she retaliated by taking his gun and firing it twice at him Saturday in her home, police said.

Alexis R. Harper, 22, of the 300 block of Highgate Avenue, was charged with assault, possession of a weapon, harassment and violating the protection order after slapping the woman, according to Northeast District police.

Sheena R. King, 24, of the 100 block of Wakefield, was charged with reckless endangerment and possession of a weapon.
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Hmm, either the police or the reported didnt get the whole story.

I can only assume that he had a gun on him but didnt use it. Instead physically attacked the women, she then grabbed the gun out of his holster, or whatever, and fired it at him.
 
I just dont understand why they charged her. If whatever problem they had was serious enough for a restraining order, but not for lethal force in self-defense? As far as I know they are generally issued when threats of violence have been offered.
 
Cannot wrap my wind around any philosophy that criminalizes an act of self defense.
for my money a person who violates a RO with the intent to do violence deserves anything the intended victim is able to dish out including vivisection.
 
If she were firing wildly into a crowd while he was running away, or chasing him down the street and shooting, then reckless endangerment would seem appropriate.
 
I lived in Buffalo a good portion of my life; moved out west in 2002 due to my Navy service.

BUFFALO IS A HOLE. Can't write it any other way (hence the no use of 1's and 0's and $'s)

The cops are outnumbered. The active police force was cut by 150 the year I left;that's layoffs!

Combine than with no hiring in a decade, and nepotism and "federal oversight" in hiring, you have a bad situation all around. You had a partial good old boy system combined with hiring bottom of the barrel candidates in some cases based on federal requirments for racial quotas...
Just recent articles in paper 'bout it... no recent veterans to be hired in the next recruitment as they had to have lived in the city prior to the hire (so a year and a half in Iraq can be a reason you're not hired...thats another fed requirement) The Mayor's son was suspected of stealing his car, and crashing it into neighbors cars(there was only video showing a kid who looked just like him in his letter jacket) and nothing happened... But I digress...

I got the feeling in B-lo that the police would rather stand around at your crime scene(i.e. you raped or murdered) than come out and deal with things proactively... I worked news for a few years prior to my service and from what I could see proactive was not in the Buffalo PD vernacular. Not all of em, met some decent officers in working news, but saw quite a few who seemed genuinely disinterested in their jobs(which actually pay very well for the area, even with wage freezes and such in the recent past)

That area, btw is in the University Heights district... used to be okay, seems like a worse and worse element creeps in more and more every year... If you go back in the Buffalo News Archives and look at crime stuff, the whole city is out of control... The mayor is worthless, as is the council....
 
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Phone call and request for more info from the paper has been placed. Will report back IF I get any new info.
 
If the local PD is indeed understaffed, possibly the police just charged everyone, and decided to let the DA's and courts sort it out. If there is nothing more to this story, the charges aginst the woman will probably be dropped.
RB
 
Since there's no mention of B&E I would think she allowed him to come into the house. Sounds like domestic violence where they both had guns. Police probably arrested both and charged them with whatever they could.
 
My guess is the cops didn't want to take the time to sort things out so busted everyone. A pretty common response in some areas.
 
I just dont understand why they charged her.
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Because prosecutors run for office on their win-loss record. They'll charge anything and everything they can, so long as it looks like they can eke out some kind of plea deal or conviction. So long as it can be shown to have been against the law in any form, whether or not it was truly a criminal act with criminal intent, they'll file. They don't care, they just want to be able to show "the people" that they're "tough on crime."

Think about that the next time your local prosecutor talks about his or her record. My local prosecutor says "we're tough on misdemeanors, and that isn't all bad, is it?" Well, when you figure what passes for a misdemeanor nowadays, it kinda is. They aren't showing discretion other than "can we make it stick?" They have (comparatively) unlimited funds to use in prosecuting, so folks will cop a plea to something they didn't really do because they can't afford to fight it.

We don't have a justice system, we have a legal system. That's why she was charged.
 
Frank Clark, the Erie County DA is notorious for being an a-hole... He dropped the ball on a 19 yr old w/ something like 20 home invasion assaults under his belt... finally the PD went to the news and the "hero" DA Clark came running to re-file charges in the case... He's one of those "I'm gonna make an example of you" guys but he doesn't seem as concerned with the general welfare of the community...
 
Is this an automatic thing in NY? 'Cuz in Texas, I believe it's grand jury for every shooting by law - or is it every shooting that ends with somebody dead? Anyways, the law requires it here, and I'm guessing it might be the case there... or the article may be missing some very major details.
 
There may have been other people in the house at the time, thus the reckless endangerment. I'm guess that the "possession of a weapon" stemmed from something else she had in the house after she said, "Sure, officers, look around. I've got nothing to hide."
 
Cannot wrap my wind around any philosophy that criminalizes an act of self defense.
Click to expand...

It will be interesting to know the story when the whole story comes out. The paper may not know squat, but they seem to emphasize the "retaliate".

If he had ceased the attack, and been walking away when she shot at him, that would no longer be self defense.

There could be any number of scenarios where her shooting at him was not in self defense. Without knowing the details, it's hard to know whether or not it is in self defense.

In addition, I think Massad Ayood emphasizes in one of his books, that you will be on weak legal grounds if you start/provoke/encourage a fight, and then shoot someone. I am pretty sure that the same thing was emphasized in the CCW course my friends took in NC. It would not seem unlikely that there would have been some long verbal altercation preceding the whole incident.

Mike
 
I just don't understand why they charged her.
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You don't think it could be that the prosecutor had more information about what transpired then what is revealed in this short news article, do you?

Naw, couldn't be, that would get in the way of a good long thread full of speculation. guesswork and bashing of the system. Can't have lack of information stand in the way of people who want an excuse to vent their frustrations based on their personal view of how things work. :uhoh:

It is totally impossible to draw any conclusions from the minimal information we have.

Jeff
 
You don't think it could be that the prosecutor had more information about what transpired then what is revealed in this short news article, do you?
Click to expand...

The story didn't say anything about a prosecutor. I vote that the cops took the "shoot 'em all and let God sort them out" approach.
 
Maybe LE just did it to prove her innocence? It is NY, and people can be sued for massive amounts of money for trivial things.
 
Sheena R. King, 24, of the 100 block of Wakefield, was charged with reckless endangerment and possession of a weapon.
Click to expand...

Just guessing, but I would bet the weapons charge isn't for the gun taken from her attacker, but for another weapon she might have had.
 
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