I can almost hear every carry permit instructor in the Twin Cities writing down the details of this case as their prime example of what never, never, ever to do with your firearm and permit:
The complaint said [Matrix Richard] Lee got up and ran at the woman to retrieve the purse, but she drove at Lee and lifted her arm making some sort of gesture that, in fear of being shot, prompted Lee to grab his handgun, insert a full magazine and fire around the fleeing vehicle. The driver apparently gave him the finger, and angrily, he fired an additional shot at the car in effort to pop the tires, Lee told police.
Pro tip: if they are fleeing, and so far away that you have to steady your arm for a long range shot at a moving target, you are probably not “in immediate fear of death or great bodily harm”.
If the facts of the case are exactly as presented (always the caveat when the mainstream media is reporting on self-defense cases) then Mr. Lee would seem to deserve to be prosecuted for a whole dogs breakfast of charges, not the least of them reckless endangerment.
And not only will Mr. Lee truly deserve it, but I think we need to take a close look at whoever his carry permit training instructor was, just in case.
Reminds me of an incident that happened in Minneapolis in the mid-eighties. Guy looks out his window and sees a kid breaking into his car. He runs outside, chases the kid a few blocks, finds the kid hiding under a park bench and shoots him dead. The guy couldn’t figure out shy he was arrested.
Unfortunately…and I might be wrong, so please correct me if necessary…reckless discharge is a misdemeanor, and may not strip this idiot of his carry permit.
And I feel justified in my use of the term idiot because only an idiot would also leave a purse in open view in an unlocked car.
According to the Ramsey County Jail bookings, the charge is felony assault…of course innocent until proven guilty in a court of law…
…now, if he had been a better shot when she “drove at him”…he’d still be an idiot, just likely not an idiot sitting in a cell…
If you are chasing someone and shooting at them, maybe it should occur to you that if the person turned around and shot you, they wouldn’t have to go to jail.
“…Lee to grab his handgun, insert a full magazine…”
Throw the book at this idiot for carring around an EMPTY firearm! Or is this just usual horseshit reporting by the MSM that can’t tell a revolver from a semi?
Lee’s permit to carry and handgun have been taken by police, and they found two spend casing in the parking lot.
Forgiving the horrible spelling and grammar (and the fact Lee was an idiot), how can a person shoot AROUND a vehicle, plus a shot at the tires, and only leave two casings?
One knucklehead’s moment of anger can set an entire civil rights movement back 50 years. It also can illustrate Democrat public policy: the streets of St. Paul do not belong to law-abiding citizens, they belong to law-breakers and the entire weight of government will descend upon anybody who attempts to “take back the streets” by any means that does not include a parade with paper mache heads.
Seems like your Hmong neighbors are real hot heads.
Well, one of them is.
And not only will Mr. Lee truly deserve it, but I think we need to take a close look at whoever his carry permit training instructor was, just in case.
Having been a college instructor at one time I think I can confidently state that the quality of the instructor is only very poorly correlated with the quality of the student’s knowledge. Despite multiple instances of talking about how big a 10 Tesla magnetic field really was, I still had a student calculate that his lab electromagnet was putting out 10^38 T. My only option was to shake my head and point out that a field that big could do spin-flip measurements on the galaxy and dock him pretty hard.
In this case, it seems Mr. Lee has a similar understanding of criminal laws as my student had of Maxwell’s.
What about the guy who borrowed a pistol to dispense some payback from his copper\cousin? And there was the guy in Wisconsin who shot a bunch of hunters who tried to kick him off private property. Also, seems like they bump off their wives with disturbing frequency.
No, these people are prisoners to their passions.
Nerdbert; yes, but one can “fail” the student when he fails to grasp the obvious, no? I remember being required to cite the four rules for use of lethal force to pass my permit course. The instructor who does not is a fool. Hey, if I can get junior high kids to understand the term “hypostatic union” in Sunday school, these guys can insist on remembering four–really five–basic principles for safely carrying, no?
It strikes me here that if Mr. Lee had followed even one of the four rules for carrying–fear of death or grievous bodily harm, duty to retreat, force stops when threat stops, use of least possible force–he would not be in trouble today. For that matter, he’d be in less trouble if he’d applied the fifth major rule for carrying; don’t talk to the police without a lawyer.
Oh, and a sixth thing, or really rule zero; situational awareness. If you are in a dicey area, never leave your car unlocked, or valuables in view, even with the car locked.
A cop firing a gun at a car in which the officer a person is contained is considered by Minnesota State Statute to be a use of deadly force, regardless of the officers’ intent; shooting out the tires, shooting the engine to stop the car, etc.
“The intentional discharge of a firearm, other than a firearm loaded with less lethal munitions and used by a peace officer within the scope of official duties, in the direction of another person, or at a vehicle in which another person is believed to be, constitutes deadly force.” MSS 609.066 sub 1.
I’m not sure how/ if that applies to a non-peace officer, but I’d think that shooting at her moving car should constitute some type of unlawful use of force …
Correction of first sentence:
“A cop firing a gun at a car in which the officer knows a person is contained …”
Sorry
To be fair, bikebubba, the pavilion at Como Lake is not exactly a sketchy part of town. This thief commuted to steal there.
Well, yes, but being a popular park with all kinds of people there, I always lock my doors when I go to the zoo and observatory. Put differently, it is sketchy compared to any place I’ve lived except for two summers in LA.