Man shot by police & imprisoned for shooting at metal thief

Forgive me if this has been discussed but I didn't find any mention of it.

Here are two links to news stories I found disturbing. If the links expire you can search for the story about "David Sturdivant" in Georgia.

Short version of story:
Homeowner wakes up to find metal thief in yard
Tells thief to leave, fires weapon
Nearby cops filming tv show (when is that ever a good idea?) respond
Cops shoot homeowner, unclear if for good cause
Cops let thief go
Homeowner loses kidney and other pieces of insides
Homeowner is imprisoned and threatened with 105 year sentence
While in prison, all of his scrap is stolen and his home is burned down


Charges are dropped only after the news media start reporting about it



First article

Second article

Quote:

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Sturdivant, who had been a frequent target of thieves, said he was just protecting his property when he spotted Dennis Alexander in his yard, getting ready to load a riding lawnmower into the back of a white pickup truck. Alexander, who was not charged in this case, told police he was there to buy parts.

"I fired one shot. I told him to get off my property," Sturdivant said.

Sturdivant said Alexander offered to give him $20 but he responded by firing again into the dirt. Then Alexander shouted to Sturdivant that he knocked on several doors and again Sturdivant pulled the trigger. Finally, according to Sturdivant, Alexander said he thought the property was abandoned and that is when Sturdivant fired for the fourth time.

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The supposed theif stood there and argued with somebody who was shooting at him. He ought to get 105 years for stupidity... :rolleyes:

The law is one sided sometimes but we don't know the entire story. We all know the media will take things out of context most of the time and show only one side of the story, and that side is which ever side is more entertaining and will sell papers.

This may not be morally correct but I was taking with the police chief this past summer and the subject came up about trespassers and invaders on personal property and if it was legal to shoot them if I felt it threatened. The chief told me if you do make sure you kill them because if they survive and talk you will go to jail, but if they are dead you will get off by self defense.

Not I am not condoning shooting anybody, and only doing it as a last resort, but I am not going to let anybody threaten my family or property. I have no trespassing signs on my property and anybody on there without my permission is a threat and will find themselves staring down the wrong end of a double barrel 12ga.

"Make my Day" law here in Colorado may have helped a homeowner with something like this, but may have to show that homeowner felt life was in danger. Benefit of the doubt has gone to the homeowner in most cases.

Here in Florida we have the "Stand your Ground law" . If you feel your life is in danger or bodily harm may come to you, you have the right to stand your ground with deadly force!

I feel leaving the thief alive only makes for a longer time in the courts!

Indiana has a no retreat law..........which is awesome.

people usually dont die like they do on tv so I hope you never have to use deadly force but if the ocasion ever comes up, remember there is always a heavy pipe an old butcher knife of something the thief has picked up to threten your life laying near the body. and of course has his finger prints on it just sayin.

Texas law, you dont shoot to kill you shoot to gain compliance. Gaining compliance could mean that they are unable to resist your command.

So if you are shot and being told do not move and you keep moving you are resisting, they may keep shooting to gain compliance.

That is Texas state law in the short (no I did not say word for word) from the time I took a Level 3 commission and soon to be CHL....I have a small background in firearms and weapons.

I think every man and woman should have the right to use reasonable or deadly force (when necessary) to protect themselves, their friends/family, and their property in any situation.

In my opinion, if someone is smart enough to steal or threaten one's self or property, they are well aware of any person's 'human instinct' to react with force and are willingly taking that risk by doing so.

I have a hard time figuring out what side to be on....

Shoot someone that is stealing a lawnmower. He repairs them so it probably looked like scrap. No, I don't agree with that. Even if someone was stealing my car I wouldn't shoot them... what's a life worth, even a thief? Why is he stealing? Lost a job? hungry kids at home? to lazy to work? Shoot him and you can find out latter... we have all been down on our luck and what if this guy really didn't think he was stealing anything... I read a lot of stories that borderline on this just here on this forum.

This is a forum of scrappers... what would you do if some naked guy comes out and calls you a thief and shoots at you? Try to explain yourself, he shoots again. Try to pay him, he shoots again... run... drive away... he keeps shooting.... Scary stuff.

Now, I hear lots of people saying he was justified. OK, even if he was a thief I wouldn't kill over it. I just wouldn't. Even if I could get away with it by planting a pipe next to the corpse.

Do whatever you need to do to protect yourself and family... yeah. Self defense. I could live with myself for self defense. Scary stuff.

The police... yeah. what a joke. he should have tossed the gun down the moment a squad car pulled up. They should have given him more then a second to react. But, then again, a couple cops here in town approached a guy sitting in his car after getting into a fight with his girlfriend. They asked him to get out... he shot and killed one of them instead. You just don't really know, so I would hate to be in the Cops position also.

"what ever force necessary" is the key, killing is the last resort, and is an unforgetable event for every one involved. includin you. The "thwack" sound a bullet makes when hitting a tree near your head is also unforgettable and without getting too graphic, many times causes bodily functions that are also unforgettable. I personaly am much more afraid of reaction from a stop by todays cop on street then I am a thief. Yes I do agree desperate people do desperate things.

I hope I never have to experience any of that. In basic training they fired live rounds above you and blew up bunkers of explosives around you, but you knew you were safe. Never saw combat... never had anyone fire back... never feared for my life. I feel for anyone who has.

Only killed animals and felt bad about that, so I stopped hunting.

Still can't believe this guy was arguing with the home owner. Nuts.

I don't think any members here were saying they would come out guns a blazing.

sounds like a good sensale law to me. We have the castle law here, pretty similr, with an iminant danger clause.

time for a new keyboard the spelling on this one gets worse and worse.

Quote:

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§ 9.42. DEADLY FORCE TO PROTECT PROPERTY. A person is
justified in using deadly force against another to protect land or
tangible, movable property:
(1) if he would be justified in using force against the
other under Section 9.41; and

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Not enough info. What's section 9.41 say? That "and" means a lot...

Thanks. That (the posting of 9.41) clarifies it.

The reason it's important is that if 9.41 said "on the second Tuesday of next week", then everything in 9.42 would only be valid on the second Tuesday of next week. "And" means the conditions outlined in both sections must be met.

As far as the cops go....they are trained to shoot people with guns.
As far as the home owner goes.....he had a gun.

As for me........being someone that just had their house broke into this morning, good I wasn't there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wdaddy

I have a hard time figuring out what side to be on....

Shoot someone that is stealing a lawnmower. He repairs them so it probably looked like scrap. No, I don't agree with that. Even if someone was stealing my car I wouldn't shoot them... what's a life worth, even a thief? Why is he stealing? Lost a job? hungry kids at home? to lazy to work? Shoot him and you can find out latter... we have all been down on our luck and what if this guy really didn't think he was stealing anything... I read a lot of stories that borderline on this just here on this forum.

This is a forum of scrappers... what would you do if some naked guy comes out and calls you a thief and shoots at you? Try to explain yourself, he shoots again. Try to pay him, he shoots again... run... drive away... he keeps shooting.... Scary stuff.

Now, I hear lots of people saying he was justified. OK, even if he was a thief I wouldn't kill over it. I just wouldn't. Even if I could get away with it by planting a pipe next to the corpse.

Do whatever you need to do to protect yourself and family... yeah. Self defense. I could live with myself for self defense. Scary stuff.

The police... yeah. what a joke. he should have tossed the gun down the moment a squad car pulled up. They should have given him more then a second to react. But, then again, a couple cops here in town approached a guy sitting in his car after getting into a fight with his girlfriend. They asked him to get out... he shot and killed one of them instead. You just don't really know, so I would hate to be in the Cops position also.

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I think the only time people should be shooting at other people is in defense of their own lives or someone else's. Stealing, though reprehensible, is not a capital offense and we are not judge and jury in what could easily be a misunderstanding. Trigger happy people (or cops) scare the @#$% out of me!

NJ sucks when it comes to gun laws. I myself would give them 2 options if I lived in a state like Texas, ect.:

Either you drop/ return what you took and i'll let you walk away all body parts intact
You don't I shoot you in the foot, knee, arm or hand.
I would definitely shoot somebody if it came to it but like CM said if it's between me going to jail because of some scumbag robbed me, he would have his last and worse case of heartburn.
In NJ you can't shoot anybody robbing you or not. That's what the police are for as I was told by my local chief.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ScrapperNJ26

In NJ you can't shoot anybody robbing you or not. That's what the police are for as I was told by my local chief.

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This has to be one of the most assinine things ever said by a police chief that I have ever heard. He said thats what the police are for. So I guess he is saying that there will always be one nearby when you need him. That moron needs to be replaced.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wayne1956

This has to be one of the most assinine things ever said by a police chief that I have ever heard. He said thats what the police are for. So I guess he is saying that there will always be one nearby when you need him. That moron needs to be replaced.

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"When seconds mean the difference between life and death, the police are only minutes away"

wddaddy...

That is usually not the case. The guy that cleaned us out for abou $10,000 in replacement value in clean steel was a drug addict and in an out of prison every three to six months.
The cops said: "Unless you can somehow get it back from the metal dealer, this guy has no money and you will not get a thing. He is well known in the area"

Always good to know people are researching old threads..??

law enforcement has become about enforcement and reaction to a situation. the "peace officer" went the way of the model A. law never has been about justice, and in most cases justice is doled out according to what how much you can afford.

in case you havent noticed lady justice wears a blind fold.