{"id":64004,"date":"2017-08-04T07:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-08-04T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=64004"},"modified":"2017-08-03T22:59:03","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T03:59:03","slug":"a-good-guy-with-a-gun-heroic-actions-of-self-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=64004","title":{"rendered":"A Good Guy With A Gun: “Heroic Actions Of Self-Defense”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henco has affirmed that a Minnetonka man shot an attacker \/ stalker in self defense<\/a>, and all but carried him down Excelsior Boulevard on their shouders:<\/p>\n

Following the strong recommendation of investigators, the Hennepin County attorney\u2019s office said this week that 65-year-old James LaCount, of Minnetonka, will not be prosecuted for fatally shooting Thomas Luetzow on June 23 at the Public Mini Storage in the 2800 block of Hedberg Drive.<\/p>\n

LaCount \u201cdescribed elements consistent with heroic actions of self-defense\u201d when he shot the 58-year-old Luetzow with a facility employee close by, police Sgt. Troy Denneson wrote in a summary of his department\u2019s 20-page report submitted to prosecutors. \u201cPhysical evidence and eyewitness recollections appear to confirm LaCount\u2019s explanation of events.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given that it took place in Henco, that’s bureaucratic shorthant for “Mr. LaCount’s actions were pure as the driven snow”.<\/p>\n

He was one of the good guys:<\/p>\n

The retired refrigeration technician also credited his being able to legally carry a gun in public with sparing him more serious injury, or worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I hadn\u2019t had [the gun], I\u2019d probably be dead now,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It absolutely is.<\/p>\n

Minnesota put its permit-to-carry law on the books in 2003, but not until after substantial public debate about whether the streets would become more dangerous.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Substantial” meaning “A lot of it”, not “of intellectual heft”.<\/p>\n

And after the Castile incident, the LaCount episode shows a very different result when interacting with the police:<\/p>\n

Police Chief Scott Boerboom also credited an exhausted and bloodied LaCount with properly interacting with officers as soon as they arrived on the chaotic scene in order to help them properly assess the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the onset, when we approached Mr. LaCount, he immediately said it was self-defense and he had a permit to carry,\u201d Boerboom said. \u201cHe wanted to make sure, and it helped us initially get an idea about what was going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case file also disclosed that LaCount, weakened from abdominal surgery, was sitting down and leaning against a vehicle when police arrived. He also made sure to not have his handgun on him, leaving it on the ground for officers to recover.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s another good Minnesotan with a gun alive today.<\/p>\n

Wes Skogland? \u00a0You’re still a lying sack of garbage.<\/p>\n

Mr. LaCount has been added to my “Good Minnesotan with a Gun<\/a>” archives. \u00a0It’s up to six justifiable homicides now – and that doesn’t include who episodes from the late ’00s that involved bouncers shooting lethally-aggressive patrons (if you can find the link, shoot it over to me…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henco has affirmed that a Minnetonka man shot an attacker \/ stalker in self defense, and all but carried him down Excelsior Boulevard on their shouders: Following the strong recommendation of investigators, the Hennepin County attorney\u2019s office said this week that 65-year-old James LaCount, of Minnetonka, will not be prosecuted for fatally shooting Thomas Luetzow […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[346,265],"class_list":["post-64004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-victim-disarmament","tag-a-good-guy-with-a-gun","tag-self-defense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64008,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64004\/revisions\/64008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}