(Elyria, Ohio)
A homeowner shot and killed a man who he and his wife say broke into his Water Street home early Friday.Tip: Wireless Phil
Police said the home at 112 Water St. had been burglarized Thursday night, and the homeowner, Jack Dillon, was sleeping downstairs on the couch with a gun nearby when an the alleged burglar entered through a window. Dillon’s wife, Linda Dillon, 53, told a 911 dispatcher that they believed the man, later identified as Jeffrey Carson, 29, of 701 W. Broad St., had returned to finish the job after leaving the window unlocked Thursday night.
Lt. Andy Eichenlaub said the window was still unlocked when Carson entered through it Friday morning. According to a police report, someone stole a 52-inch Sharp flat-screen LCD television from Dillon’s home Thursday morning. Eichenlaub said police are investigating whether Carson was involved in that burglary.
Then, at 2:44 a.m. Friday, Jack and Linda Dillon told police they were awakened by a noise in the living room. There they found Carson and believed he was stealing the rest of the electronics, they told police.
Jack Dillon told police he called out to Carson, who lunged at him. The couple told police Jack fired at Carson, but Eichenlaub would not say how many times the weapon was fired.
The incident remains under investigation.
5 comments:
Perhaps, rather than leave the window open and lay in wait on the couch with his loaded gun nearby, the homeowner could have simply locked the window, and when he heard the perp return to try to make entry just shout a warning that he was armed and called the police.
Justified use of a firearm in killing an intruder inside the house, sure. But just because the killing was justified, it doesn't mean the event couldn't or shouldn't have been avoided. No doubt, good conservatives will dismiss this nuance as quibbling with facts and counter productive to the conversation as they spotlight this event as why gun ownership rights should be protected. Which, by the way, I'm all in favor of, owning a gun or two myself. I'm just not in favor of Dirty Harry wannabes who go out of their way to set the stage for a confrontation where deadly force will be used. Which, on it's surface, appears to be the case here.
Right. Lock your windows, lock your doors, put bars over everything, barricade every opening and cower in the corner. Only then can it be said you've done the minimum to prevent a poor, poor, criminal from accidentally entering your home to rob it or harm your family. Idiocy. I don't care if the window was unlocked and open to let in a breeze, once you as the INTRUDER decide to trespass, YOU are on the hook for the responsibility for your own life.
We have the Castle doctrine in Ohio. If you feel threatened, anywhere, you have the right to protect yourself.
I live in the area and Elyria is only a few miles south of my city.
Most industry has moved away, there are very few jobs plus there is a big heroin problem in Ohio.
They rob, steal and mug people to feed their habit.
Shooting are almost the norm here.
You'll find his photo here:
http://morningjournal.com/articles/2012/10/20/news/doc50821d12b1ba5313324993.txt
Killing of alleged burglar highlights ‘castle doctrine’
http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2012/10/23/killing-of-alleged-burglar-highlights-%e2%80%98castle-doctrine%e2%80%99/
You missed my point. I'm not arguing whether or not the guy had a right to protect himself.
I'm just saying a guy who has the opportunity and warns someone away from entering the house, and only shoots the perp after the warning is ignored and the house entered, is one thing. It's quite another to intentionally withhold the warning and instead lay in wait with your gun at the ready for the unsuspecting burglar to blunder in.
Conventional conservative wisdom: the guy deserved to die for entering someone's home to commit a crime, and this homeowner was within his rights to allow the perp time to crawl in through the window if he wanted to so that he could legally plug him and put a notch in his gun holster. Sorry, but I just don't believe that is synonymous with responsible gun ownership. In fact, what I described is nothing more than a form of vigilantism.
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