Caterer confronted intruder with gun, and faces charges

When David Crest heard noise in his dark kitchen area, he suspected he was being burglarized again, and crept toward the noise. He grabbed the Mossberg 500 12-gauge shotgun he had kept by his side.

"Freeze," he screamed. Crest believed he had finally caught the culprit who had taken thousands of dollars in meats, alcohol, and equipment from the shop. But when he flicked on the lights, still aiming his shotgun, and saw the intruder, he felt betrayed like never before: It was, his head chef.

I am not a vigilante type, but being charged because you pull out a gun when some one tries to rob you is a bit much. Shouldnt you be able to defend your property?

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/05/15/was_it_self_defense_or_firearms_offense/

Yes.

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Defending your property is one thing. Firing shots at someone who is running in the other direction is another.

But this is a story from MA where you are expected to run and/or hide before defending yourself so none of it is surprising to me.

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The most important part of the story..

Quote:

The man ran out the door, and Crest fired several warning shots. He was determined, he said, to protect his property.

But police say he went too far by trying to take the law into his own hands.

Now there are two defendants. Crest, 39, of Marshfield will be arraigned next week before the same court that arraigned John F. O'Connor, 43, the man accused of stealing from him. Crest is charged with assault with a deadly weapon and discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling.

The man was outside and running away when Crest fired. There was no danger to him but danger to anyone else that might be out.

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shooting at someone who's not physically assaulting/threatening you?

shooting at someone who's running away from you?

doesn't seem like something I'd want to try to defend.

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If the perp was running away, why the warning shots? Sounds to me like the guy was pissed and wanted to scare him.

If it's illegal to do that there, then what he did was stoopid.

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I don't think warning shots are legal anywhere, nor shooting at someone who is fleeing. This wasn't quite clear from the original post.

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fishin wrote:

Defending your property is one thing. Firing shots at someone who is running in the other direction is another.

But this is a story from MA where you are expected to run and/or hide before defending yourself so none of it is surprising to me.

He wasn't (assuming the guy isn't lying) shooting a warning shot not shooting at him.

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Mame wrote:

If the perp was running away, why the warning shots? Sounds to me like the guy was pissed and wanted to scare him.

If it's illegal to do that there, then what he did was stoopid.

He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon - he was trying to scare him, not assault him. I can see the other charge discharging a fire arm within a certain distance of a dwelling.

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It was irresponsible of him to shoot in his direction. He could have killed him. The guy's an idiot.

Wasn't it enough that now he knew who was stealing from him and he could charge him?

No, his emotions got the better of him and people who can't control their emotions shouldn't have guns.

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Linkat wrote:

fishin wrote:
Defending your property is one thing. Firing shots at someone who is running in the other direction is another.

But this is a story from MA where you are expected to run and/or hide before defending yourself so none of it is surprising to me.

He wasn't (assuming the guy isn't lying) shooting a warning shot not shooting at him.

Shooting at him... shooting at his car.. Same difference as far as the State of MA is concerned. There is no such thing as a "warning shot" in MA law. You can use a firearm to defend yourself (or someone else) who is in imminent (life-threatening) danger but you can ONLY do so to to meet an equeal danger and to the extent that you extricate yourself from that danger. Under MA law the victim has a duty to flee if confronted. They can only defend themselves if they are unable to flee. We have no "castle doctrine" in this state.

You can't pull out a firearm to stop someone who is unarmed from committing a crime. And it isn't limited to firearms. There was a guy that was arrested about 2 years ago up in Lowell for brandishing a baseball bat at someone that had broken into his home in the middle of the night.

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Boston is soulless.

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