Minn. man says he 'fired more shots than I needed' - Yahoo! News

That guy is gonna fry!! Now I do agree that the kids needed to be taught a lesson but they did not need to be executed. I don't have too much sympathy for those kids because after all they were breaking into another mans house for no good reason. But I cannot see how the homeowner sees it fit to shoot them multiple times, up close to the chin at that and then claim "I shot them more times then I needed". Not to mention that he wrapped their bodies up in a tarp and waited a day to notify the police.

Yup. The law has always maintained that you can use whatever force necessary to protect yourself. The key is "whatever force necessary." You fire until the threat is down. Then you call 911, ASAP.

If criminal court doesn't get him, I think a lawsuit in civil court will do just as much damage.

Doesn't really matter whether you kill the intruders in order to avoid their potential legal actions after-the-fact. They still have families, who will sue just as quickly.

A home invasion is a no-win situation for all involved. You're almost always better off trying to avoid a confrontation, if you can.

well the latter will never work, might as well just ask criminals to quit committing crimes, i think sitting at home on your couch watching tv is about the best you can do when it comes to avoiding confrontation, after that point anything that happens is upon the intruder.....

yeah that happens, and shouldn't, but with that said, the families have a much much harder time trying to sue if the intruder is dead unless is was extremely negligent or something like this guy did like waiting days and executing them .... most of the law suits that actually win in court in these cases, is where the robber/burglar or what have you is alive to testify on their own behalf, unless the shooter was way over the top or over reacted the surviving member hardly ever win in court if the intruder is dead, most of the time when they win these cases the intruder is on life support or paralyzed..rarely do they win if the guy is dead....

that said
6 Tips on How to React After Shooting a Home Intruder - wikiHow

I'll add a 7th for the older guys like me...

To keep from spending time in jail tell the Cops/EMTs that you are having trouble breathing and having chest pains.... Then you get a Hospital room instead of a jail cell.

This comes from a friend who is an attorney

Actually, avoiding confrontation usually does work. People do it every day. You can theft-proof your house with as little as a few timers on your lights, a couple of security system signs, a dog (or a sign saying you HAVE a dog), etc. Most petty criminals are opportunists who will only pick the low-hanging fruit. They want to run as few risks as possible.

And for the VERY determined home invaders (probably less than 1%), who will enter ANY home, regardless...if you have the time and the tactical advantage like this guy did, there are always options to simply killing them outright (and his post-shooting actions speak volumes about how 'justified' he thought he was).

I won't put my safety at risk by "sitting on the couch" and doing nothing, but I likewise won't just shoot first and ask questions later.

It's very much in vogue to talk tough about killing a home invader, but I know more than a few people who've had to take someone else's life. Not in a controlled environment, like in the military, where that's your actual mission/purpose (so there's more than enough justification). They had to choose, based on the circumstances. And they certainly don't think of it in the black-and-white terms that many people seem to regard it.

Actually, if i read it right, this guy was in his basement...if so, then where can he go? His tactical advantage is that he is in the basement when the invaders came in and they don't know that he is down there. What do you want him to do to avoid this confrontation? Dig a hole all the way to China????

So, in his situation (minus the post-shooting fiasco), you would try what? Talk to the invaders? Yell out that you have a gun?

I don't know...i would call police (if a phone was avail), but i would fortify myself and get ready to shoot. I would be quiet. I would NOT yell out to say that i have a gun. Up to that point, the element of surprise is in your corner. Yelling out gives out your position and your armament. For a more persistent (experienced) intruder, i would imagine that this is a bad thing for you to do. Remember, up until the guy killed the two invaders, he did NOT know who they were, how old they were, nor how experienced they were.

But, Randy, you claim to be an officer of some sort. You tell me what you would do. I would be interested in your opinion (honestly).

Actually, i would bet that for an educated person, shooting someone is well beyond black-n-white. In fact, i would think that an educated person will likely HESITATE to shoot someone due to this very fact. An educated person will likely have thoughts race across his/her head when confronted with this situation about ways to get out, whether he/she will get sued, etc.. There have been more than a few cases where a CHL licensed individual hesitated to shoot someone (lawfully) and end up getting shot himself due to hesitation. Training physically and mentally for every circumstances help with this.

Mr. Smith certainly wasn't bright enough to realize "anything he says will be used against him" and apparently he sang like freakin canary before he retained an attorney. He sabotaged his defense entirely with those stupid remarks. I am every bit as passionate about defending my home as he is.
It's guys like him that make the rest of us (armed citizens) look bad.
This should have ended with him calling the police while standing over two badly wounded, unarmed, young thieves.

It sounded like this guy was always waiting and dreaming for the right moment to use those guns on someone. The whole story sounds fishy to me...

He was already down stairs in the basement, shot 1 person and then the other came down those same stairs after hearing multiple shots to the guy she was with?!?!? Fishy statement #1 Who does that?

He was in the basement with a mini rifle and a 22 revolver ?!?! Fishy statement #2 Who keeps the guns in the basement that they protect their home with?

The girl laughed at him after he shot her Fishy statement #3 Who laughs after getting shot by a man still holding guns and knowing he has used them on the guy you were with moments before

Then this guy thought about his actions and cleaned up and whatever else he did for 24 hrs before even calling the cops. He had Thanksgiving and stayed in the home with 2 dead bodies...this man is a bonafide psychopath!

I believe in the use of a weapon to protect your home, property and loved ones, but this was a man lying in wait to execute those kids.

Who knows what these upstanding members of society intentions were? They did break into the guy's house. Reportedly two guns had been stolen during prior break-ins. Who knows if they were the ones that broke in previously?

If I were the homeowner, the fact that the intruders might be armed with my previously stolen guns, would be prominent in my mind. Under the circumstances, I don't think I'd wait to open a dialog with someone that had broken into my house, before shooting them.

Now he should've called the Police sooner than he did, but people sometimes have seemingly odd reactions to stressful events.

I've heard of peoples seemingly bizarre reactions to traumatic situations, from a couple of buddies that have been cops for 20+ years, and have seen the aftermath of similarly traumatic situations, many times.

I would reserve judgement of the homeowner, at least until getting a better idea of his state of mind at the time.

One thing is for sure, two home invaders won't be making the same mistake again.

Mr. Smith ought be the next recipient of a good clean finishing shot.

Quote:

Wetzel said that while the shootings happened on Thursday, Smith waited until Friday to report the deaths, explaining that "he didn't want to trouble us on a holiday."

How can you put a guy this polite in jail?!!

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that with today's so-called "justice" system, many people feel this is the only course to take when someone invades their property, because society has given the invader more rights than the homeowner--in all likelihood, this man would've been successfully sued for damages had the burglars lived. No, I'm not condoning his actions, but our legal system has become so compromised and fickle, people feel they can't take the risk of going to court with living witnesses. In this particular case, if the homeowner wasn't such a moron, waiting a day to report, then basically bragging about every last detail, the outcome would've probably gone differently. This situation could've been avoided if there was more logic, reason, and honor in today's courtrooms.

I'm sorry, but our admittedly too-often inept justice system in absolutely no way justifies murdering teenagers.

Try again.

i think if you re-read what he says bob doesn't think it's ok..
personally that's bull hockey.... but bucketbob has a point in this day and age where you better kill the intruders as opposed to wound them and get sued later this sort of thing is bound to happen...don't know about putting them in the tarp and what not...kind of sounds like they broke in to dexter's house from the tv series....that's really messed up....with that said though i do agree with bob's sentiment but think this particular story and guy is one skip away from serial killer....

we should go back to the thing where criminals have no real rights when committing a crime, when i was growing up, and besides it just not being right, you wouldn't break into anyone's home because of the fear of being shot and the rest, it was a known risk the criminals where taking.....and you'd just fill 'em full of rock salt and wait for the police to show up and that's that, no it's like you better make sure they aren't breathing before you call the cops or your may go to jail,get sued, and loose everything you were trying to protect in the first place.....like bob said i think it all comes down to reason, alot of these laws that protect intruders are not reasonable and until they become reasonable your going to have a lot of dead intruders.....