And nothing of value was lost.

She might be. She's free of him now. no more abuse at his hands. no more fear that one day one of those beatings might kill her... no more fear that he may beat her SON or WORSE.

So she might be happy. might she be traumatized that he was shot? probably but I can't say she's definitely sitting there wishing he was alive to beat her up one last time.

If the worst thing this child faces and being fatherless now then I'd say he's ahead of the game from where he was before. Fatherless is better than having a father that beats on your mother... and possibly also the child.

I feel the opposite. I think I would feel safer knowing someone FINALLY was willing to stand up for me when I couldn't stand up for myself. Safer knowing there are people willing to help me.

I just don't know what this guy should have done. just walked away while this guy beat the tar out of this poor girl? call the police and then stand and watch and hope the girl doesn't get beaten to death in the meantime while waiting for the cops to arrive?

he definitely should have called the cops when he saw what was going down. but I'm not really of the mindset that he should have just washed his hands of it and walked away after calling. The cops don't have teleporters... they can't just appear the second you call them. it's likely going to take 10 minutes or so for them to get there. by then that girl could have been dead and that guy would live the rest of his life knowing he did NOTHING to save her when he could have.

might he just be a thug? he might be. If that guy stopped beating that girl and was just standing there then no he shouldn't have been shot. But if he came after the other guy with intent to do him harm... or kept on pounding on that girl well he got what was coming to him.

she might be traumatized.. but at least she's alive to BE traumatized and now that innocent little boy won't have to watch his mother get the snot kicked out of her everyday by his own father.

I mean if this guy had been beating the tar out of that child in the street would we still feel bad because now he's fatherless? I don't feel bad that he doesn't have that dead beat abusive father to kick him around and ruin his life

If the guy shot him to truly stop him from killing that girl then I am PERFECTLY ok with that.

I think it is scary that it is viewed as okay that one random stranger can take out another human's life. I can't honestly imagine that there he didn't have any other option than to straight up shoot him. Escalation of force maybe? And since there were witnesses around, what if he would have missed and killed an innocent bystander?

The point is, the guy who shot him didn't know all the background, since we take it into such consideration. I will never condone domestic violence, but to put a bullet in someone's head because one person thinks he should have the power to put value on a life, is horrifying.

What if the guy witnesses a driver, he thinks is driving recklessly and pulls him out of his car and shoots him,too?

Chances are a new man will step in to do the beating unless this woman gets some serious counseling

I don't think a huge amount of effort should be put into finding this guy. Its not like he killed a family of four minding their own business,or killed someone during an armed robbery. Why did he have the gun? Who knows? Obviously its not a nice area. Do they have concealed carry there?

If you saw this happening what would YOU do? If you said hey please stop you might get your fragile little head bashed in. Call the cops and you and this girl may be dead before they get anywhere near you. There are people out there who don't care about going back to jail, they know they will probably get back out right away anyway. Some like the atmosphere and want to be there believe it or not! So what if he is high-does that make it ok for him to kill her and possibly you? Because getting high was a choice. Not taking psych meds was a choice. This may sound bad but in the end my life wins.

I want my concealed carry. A bunch of us at work are taking the class this summer. We keep saying that but never get around to it!

Agree completely with everything you've said here.

It's a stretch to go from comparing someone stepping into this situation and putting a bullet through this guy's forehead and doing the same to someone driving recklessly. A better comparison would be putting the bullet through the reckless driver's tires or radiator.

and?

I STILL dont think just because he was beating on someone gives that dude the right the shoot someone in the head?

would you guys / gals still say the say thing if it was two guys fighting, or is all this nonsense because it was a woman?


ETA: a rusty nail and a human life are not at all comparable..

ok so I cannot be bothered to read all the replies, but also, if he wanted to stop the guy, he did not have to shoot him in the face, where he knew he would die. I am sure a shot to the leg would have been enough to stop him until authorities got there. And if the law says that you are allowed to take such measures to stop somebody from hurting another person... the guy who shot would be fine.

ETA: I am also going to go ahead and just second everything that JessMess said, as what I bothered reading, I agreed with.

if a guy was just pounding on another guy and the guy couldn't defend himself? sure I would say the same thing.

When anyone is just beating on someone relentlessly what do you do? just stand there? walk away? call the cops and then wash your hands of it?

I remember one time when I was a kid we were at the trailer on the weekend and one night we were all sitting around and we could hear this woman screaming bloody murder. of course everyone ran to see what the heck was going on....

her husband was BEATING HER with a crutch :yikes: as we were running over a guy at another trailer who was just sitting there told us to mind our own business. he was just fine with sitting back and letting this guy beat his wife with a crutch. She was on the ground bloodied and beaten and he was still pounding on her with it. No one did anything. Just acted like it wasn't happening. We all ran over and he dropped the crutch and ran away. Had he not run away and just kept beating her I would be all for someone putting a bullet in his brain to save that woman.

it was just outrageous that everyone just sat back and acted like nothing was happening. THAT to me is sickening. WAY worse than killing someone who is pounding away and basically killing an innocent person who isn't in a position to defend themselves. I don't know what would have happened to that woman if we hadn't all come along but that man did not have plans to stop pounding on her anytime soon from the looks of it. I will never get those screams out of my head and the vision of that woman bloodied and beaten but more so I will never forget how no one did ANYTHING to help her.

No one has the right to beat on innocent people and people DO have the right to defend themselves or someone else from such a vicious attack.

I so agree. The person doing the beating may have the (inexcusable) "excuse" of being caught up in a rage or a moment of overwhelming emotion, but to decide to stand back and watch something like that happen -- or walk away -- is a cold blooded decision based on perversity or cowardice.

If you shoot someone, you shoot to kill. Shooting to injure is the most idiotic thing someone can do. You may think you're saving a life, but if the law ever catches you, you'll realize you destroyed yours by not taking his/hers.

Yep, if some man is pulverizing another man it needs to have intervention. What if that man was beating his (or any) CHILD? Guess the witnesses should've just called 911 and waited in that case too huh?

And this shooter, well he's most likely a criminal himself if he's hanging around a 'crime magnet' area at night with a gun........maybe not, but probably is. Still hope he isn't prosecuted for his actions in this case *shrugs*

This is one of those things that one side is never going to convince the other so I'd imagine this will be my last post, LOL

So... getting beaten on a regular basis isn't a problem?

My point about that was that while sure, human lives may have some intrinsic value, I refuse to believe that all human life is valuable. There's a lot of people out there that the world would be better if they happened to have an early meeting with the Grim Reaper.

First rule of thumb with the use of a gun. YOU SHOOT TO KILL. You do NOT shoot someone in the leg. If you point a gun at someone, you better be prepared to kill them. And as far as the law, the use of deadly force to prevent another person from being murdered is allowed....at least in most states, as far as I know. A brutal beating creates immenent danger of death. The human body, especially the skull is extremely fragile. If this guy thought there was a good chance of this woman dying before any cops could arrive, he was completely within his moral rights and as far as I know....his legal rights.

If the creep were slapping this woman lightly or shoving her....something that didn't appear to be immediately life threatening, then I'd say...wait for the cops. But if the abuser was using his hands as deadly weapons, beating the woman in a potentially deadly way, then the good samaritan did the right thing imo.

I'm astounded at those who would prefer the vicious monster attacking the woman, to live, rather than the woman or the defender. Threatening with a gun, shooting in the leg would have put this protector's life at an incredibly increased risk. Can you imagine the excalation of the vilolence of the abuser? That low life piece of crap would likely have killed him before he got another chance.

When are people going to stop valuing vicious criminals' rights over victims'? No wonder there's so much crime.

Sure its. As is having citizens who just walk up and shoot people as one of their first resorts to seeing something they don't like and know nothing about.

I am all for him stopping the man. But pulling out the gun, shooting him in the foot etc are all likely going to stop the man. The shooting the reckless driver IS bang on (as they can kill others, just like this abusive guy could have). Shooting out the tire would have been comparable to shooting this guy in the foot.

And simply because the law allows someone to do something doesn't make it good or right. Loads of countries have some crazy laws that I think are unethical.

NOTE TO ALL VIGILANTES: If I am being beaten, please shoot in foot, whack him with the gun, call the cops, but dont' kill him on my count unless that is the only way to get him to stop. I wouldn't want to live
with that.

ETA: you are assuming that this man walked up and KNEW the other man was going to kill the woman. And this is why I dislike guns, the idea that you MUST kill with them and that they have no other purpose. If you can stop someone by taking out his tibia, why end his life?

I can only pray that if some lowlife thug is beating the life out of me or one of my children, that a hero would come along and end it by taking out the thug.

There was a situation here in Baton Rouge a few years ago where a cop pulled over a driver after he cut into a funeral procession all so he could run through a red light. The driver got out and started yelling and the cop and then proceeded to start beating on him. It happened so quick and the cop didn't have a chance to get his weapon. The driver, on the other hand, was trying to get to the cop's gun...or stop the cop from getting to it. And did I mention that this driver was a professional prize boxer? Thus, IMO, his hands were deadly weapons.

A good samaritan in the parking lot, who happened to be licensed to carry a concealed weapon, shot the driver of the car. The cop had already suffered a broken nose, broken jaw, had some internal injuries. The driver refused to let up even when asked/demanded to stop. Thus he was shot. He died.

Who was wrong? Do we just sit back and watch these things go on?

As for the above incident, I was at the red-light right by the Autozone where it occurred. I witnessed the entire scenario and spent 5 hours of my day stuck at that intersection and giving my account of what I saw to responding officers. (as did many other drivers stopped at the light when it occurred as well as patrons at the store)

When someone is actively harming someone, they give up their "right" to not be harmed.

^^This!

I am glad for the woman, her baby and his Mother.

Likely.

Likely is not a good word to have to use to describe the probability actions taken to save myself or someone else from serious harm or death.

Certainly, for sure, will, these are all words I like to have attributed to the method to stopping an attack.


And about the "know nothing about" part. How hard is it to see that someone is getting the **** beaten out of them? I think you're taking this situation and applying it to something completely different, seeing it doesn't work there, and then saying it shouldn't work here because it won't work there.

Is there merit in the "shoot to maim" side of the argument? Sure.

Unfortunately, though, in the real world of courts, DAs, cops and juries, if you find yourself in a situation where shooting comes into play you are likely to be much better off if your story is the only one that makes it to court.

99% of the women I work with have been abused. If I went out tomorrow and shot every man who hit them I can 100% guarantee you it will not make a massive difference WHAT SO EVER.

This man saw something and killed someone with no knowledge. He is not judge or jury. He didn't know about the prior convictions.

He is as big a risk as the man he killed and should be treated as such. How can you teach people not to be violent towards one another if you condone murder.

Hypocrisy at its best.