“I come back and they see me with a gun, and they run,” 80-year-old Long Beach homeowner Tom Greer told nbclosangeles.com, recalling a recent home invasion. The male robber escaped, but Greer shot his female accomplice. She fell in an alley behind his house. “She says, ‘Don’t shoot me, I’m pregnant! I’m going to have a baby!’ And I shot her anyway,” Greer told the reporter. “She was dead. I shot her twice, she best be dead … (The man) had run off and left her.”
You don’t have to be a prosecutor to see that Mr. Greer has given the state more than enough rope to hang him with. The threat was over when Greer fired his gun. And it seems Mr. Greer administered a coupe de grace to a pregnant woman pleading for her life.
Now I’m not saying that Mr. Greer should escape prosecution for his crime. The laws on the legal use of deadly force are clear enough. And they’re based on common sense. However, I am saying that anything you say after a defensive gun use (DGU) that sounds even vaguely incriminating – to anyone – can and will be used against you in a court of law. An off-hand comment, a simple mistake in your account, could put you prison. Or worse.
Don’t talk to the police, the media, friends and (maybe) even family about a defensive gun use. Talk to your lawyer and/or a state certified psychiatrist (not a therapist, whose discussions and/or note could be subject to a subpoena). Following this advice cold be a matter of life or death.