Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
A quartet of burglars made the mistake of targeting a business in North Dallas where the homeowner resided upstairs. The noises they made ransacking the business woke the owner, who went downstairs and opened fire on the criminals.
A business owner interrupted a burglary in progress early Tuesday and shot one of the burglars, Dallas police say.
About 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, four burglars pried open the doors of a business in the 10300 block of Plano Road, near LBJ Freeway in far northeast Dallas, police said.
The owner of the business, who was upstairs, heard the break-in and went downstairs, where he saw the burglars taking cash, police said. He shot a handgun at them, and they ran to a nearby vehicle and drove off.
About half an hour later, Jacolby Tremone McCoy was dropped off at Doctors Hospital at White Rock Lake with gunshot wounds, and hospital workers called police.
Police said there was enough evidence to charge McCoy, 29, with the Plano Road burglary.
That is, there’s enough evidence to charge McCoy if he survives. He’s presently in the hospital in critical condition. As the Dallas Morning News was able to quickly post a picture of McCoy that looks suspiciously like a mug shot, we’re fairly confident that this wasn’t McCoy’s first offense.
There’s no doubt at all that this was a legal shooting in Texas, where shooting at someone over property is legal in many instances, but I wonder how a similar situation might work out in other states where laws much more tightly restrict the use of deadly force.
This event took place in a building divided into a business and into a private residence, but they are all in the same structure. Does castle doctrine apply in the entire structure, or just the living quarters in most jurisdictions?
I’m afraid that that the answer to that question is going to vary wildly based upon state and perhaps even local laws, but morally, as the structure was also the business owner’s home, it certainly seems as if castle doctrine should apply here.
What do you think?