A long-range question of law...

[Bozo]

Purely hypothetical, of course, but you may recall the mall shooter this past summer in Munich, Germany who ended up on the top level of a parking garage where he killed himself. You may also recall that an old man on his balcony in the building across the street had yelled at the shooter, and that a German prosecutor stated the old man could be charged with a hate crime for what he said.

So we know NY law allows a citizen to use deadly force to stop the commission of a felony. I'm not sure if that has been colored by case law over the years or not, but my question is this - is there a practical limit on the distance from the crime a citizen can be and still utilize deadly force? If the Munich situation had happened in New York, could the old man have legally taken his Mauser and killed the shooter? Or if you were in a parking garage with a rifle in your trunk and the Dallas shooter was firing from the other end of that same level, could you legally shoot him?

Unless I'm mistaken, the duty to retreat clause of the NY statute does not apply in those types of situations, but I wonder what law enforcement would have to say?

 

[Darth]

S 35.15 Justification; use of physical force in defense of a person.
1. A person may, subject to the provisions of subdivision two, use
physical force upon another person when and to the extent he or she
reasonably believes such to be necessary to defend himself, herself or a
third person from what he or she reasonably believes to be the use or
imminent use of unlawful physical force by such other person, unless:
(a) The latter's conduct was provoked by the actor with intent to
cause physical injury to another person; or
(b) The actor was the initial aggressor; except that in such case the
use of physical force is nevertheless justifiable if the actor has
withdrawn from the encounter and effectively communicated such
withdrawal to such other person but the latter persists in continuing
the incident by the use or threatened imminent use of unlawful physical
force; or


2. A person may not use deadly physical force upon another person
under circumstances specified in subdivision one unless:
(a) The actor reasonably believes that such other person is using or
about to use deadly physical force. Even in such case, however, the
actor may not use deadly physical force if he or she knows that with
complete personal safety, to oneself and others he or she may avoid the
necessity of so doing by retreating; except that the actor is under no
duty to retreat if he or she is:

Reading that, 100% justified.



And who cares what LE has to say? I'm worried, not in this case, about a jury of my peers.

 

[spat]

Can you leave the guy on the parking garage alone without risking *anyone's* life ?

No. If the guy is an active shooter, then it doesn't matter how far away you are, the people he is endangering are still in danger, then shoot.

I don't care if you are sitting in Japan logged into some building maint system and you drop an elevator on him, if he was a danger to *anyone* when you dropped it, you're good.

 

[MikeyCNY]

I won't say I'd never take the shot, because until one is actually in that situation you don't know for certain.... that said, you better be DAMN sure of your target. How do you know it isn't a plainclothes cop or another armed citizen? (obviously if you see them shooting at innocents that doesn't apply)

I see it as similar to this situation - be very very certain of your shot, because if you miss you are screwed. Although at long range, if you (safely) miss maybe you'll make the shooter stop?

Either way, be prepared to explain yourself in court.

 

[camper4lyfe]

After the ambush of the firefighters on Christmas Eve here in Rochester (Webster), I got to thinking about what I'd do. I have a 2 story house with a walk-up attic with windows on 3 sides. If a person next door or across the street was doing what happened that morning, I wouldn't hesitate to take a shot from a safe and secure position. I had also contemplated calling 911 prior to, and communicating my intentions and to prevent the possibility of a misidentification.