Can an Injured Intruder Sue a Homeowner?
A warning shot fired by a 79 year old former Army sharpshooter ricocheted off the ceiling and lodged into the skull of an intruder in Hickory, NC this week.
From Warning shot wounds intruder in The News & Observer,
Cook used his .22-caliber gun to fire a warning shot into the ceiling, but the bullet ricocheted and part of it hit the intruder in the forehead, said Lt. Hank Guess with the Hickory Police Department. "I wasn't aiming for him. If I wanted to hit him, I would have," Cook said.
The intruder ... had a bullet fragment in his skull and a fractured hand he suffered while breaking in. He was arrested.
Let's hope the intruder doesn't decide to sue the homeowner for injuries suffered while "visiting" his home. Stranger lawsuits have occurred in this country. In that case, Cook may have wished he had aimed a bit lower. To paraphrase a popular expression, Dead Men Do Not Hire Lawyers.
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posted by The Sarcasticynic @ 7/06/2007 06:53:00 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Sorry, for commenting on an older post. But I've got a lot of reading to catch up on. Anyway, my folks had a lot of cop friends when I was a kid. And my folks owned legal weapons. Their cop friends used to constantly remind them that if our house was ever broken into and they happened to shoot the intruder as he was crossing the threshhold, to pull him all the way inside the house before police arrived. They said when everything was investigated and adjudicated later, it would make it 100X more difficult for the intruder to sue.
James, I welcome comments on any post - no matter how old.
And remind me to give you ample notice before I show up on your doorstep for Thanksgiving Dinner.
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