Assault and battery with a deadly weapon for shooting a thief's tire?

**Delerius** · January 11th, 2011, 09:18 AM

I was interested in seeing what bullets (particularly 22's) could penetrate a tire and on the Yahoo answers http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...5204338AA1vvlB , I came cross this reply,

Listen to the voice of experience here Mikey. This is a fact. A 22 long rifle Browning target pistol with a 6 inch barrel will in fact penetrate a car tire from 4 feet away. It can also get charges brought up against you for assault and battery with a deadly weapon. It will be a count against you for each occupant that was in the car. In my case 5 counts. I caught them stealing my bows and hunting gear and stood in front of the car trying to stop them. They gunned the car and tried to run over me. I stepped to the side and decided to shoot the tire to stop them. They made it far enough down the road and ditched my stuff and called the sheriff's department and said I had tried to kill them. I had already called about the robbery taking place before I tried to stop them. But guess who got arrested? I found out that thieves have more rights then law abiding citizens. It cost me $2,500 in lawyers fees to get the charges against me dismissed. It would have been far cheaper to just help them load up my stuff and give them gas money. What is wrong with this world?

Just curious if this is something someone could be charged with here in Pa. based on the above circumstances. Any thoughts?

**CHEMICAL** · January 11th, 2011, 09:24 AM

Being that you could easily just let them go and not stand in front of the car, but rather get a license plate number I would assume that it would in fact be illegal to open fire at the car. By standing in front of the car he escalated the situation, irregardless of whether or not they shouldn't have been stealing his stuff. Those items are not worth my life, that's for sure.

Hell I would have let the mirror clip me and had the driver charged with attempted vehicular manslaughter during the commission of a crime. (or whatever it would be called)

**LittleRedToyota** · January 11th, 2011, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by Delerius

Just curious if this is something someone could be charged with here in Pa. based on the above circumstances. Any thoughts?

yes, absolutely.

depending on who the police/DA are, you might get lucky and not be charged. but, you will have used up about 30 years worth of good luck on that one...

**TaePo** · January 11th, 2011, 06:33 PM

Originally Posted by CHEMICAL

Being that you could easily just let them go and not stand in front of the car, but rather get a license plate number I would assume that it would in fact be illegal to open fire at the car. By standing in front of the car he escalated the situation, irregardless of whether or not they shouldn't have been stealing his stuff. Those items are not worth my life, that's for sure.

Hell I would have let the mirror clip me and had the driver charged with attempted vehicular manslaughter during the commission of a crime. (or whatever it would be called)

IANAL but he would probably have been ok if he fired from in front of the car. Once he stepped aside, he was out of danger. I will assume that he was making an arrest at the time by standing in front of the car.

I was involved in a similar incident when people were robbing our gas tank behind our home during the fuel crisis in the 70's. I saw headlights go back the lane while watching TV with my dad. I told him. He was getting ready when the tripwire sounded the buzzer in our house. He confronted them with a shotgun as I was on the phone. He was out of my sight, however (this is before wireless phones and cell phones). Bang! Shots fired, shots fired I told 911 or whoever was dispatch back then.

It took police 45 minutes for a car to get there. They claimed they were on the other side of the county or twp. Both the county and twp aren't that big and not much happened in those days as it was mostly open country (Cranberry Twp, Butler). I think they waited until things 'settled down' before showing up. Even as a youngster I could be cynical of government. The officer responding told my father that there could be problems in firing after jumping out of the way of the vehicle. But we expect the pros to advise to let them handle it anyway, don't we? It was not official legal advice but it makes sense. I think if my father had fired into the windshield proving he was still in front when they gunned the car forward, he would be better off. Of course, nothing is guaranteed in these situations. Get the wrong judge, jury or attorney and you're sunk. Innocent, justified or not.

**nailer** · January 11th, 2011, 06:37 PM

I was wondering. Would the Castle Doctrine have protected you from those charges?

**knight0334** · January 11th, 2011, 06:41 PM

Originally Posted by nailer

I was wondering. Would the Castle Doctrine have protected you from those charges?

Not really. In this situation the force was used in an attempt to effect an arrest. The "Castle Doctrine" bill is aimed more at self defense rather than effecting an arrest. Once the guy step out of the way of the car and it was then fleeing, self defense standing take a hard approach to prove.

**knight0334** · January 11th, 2011, 06:44 PM

Originally Posted by Delerius

I was interested in seeing what bullets (particularly 22's) could penetrate a tire and on the Yahoo answers http://answers.yahoo.com/question/in...5204338AA1vvlB , I came cross this reply,

Just curious if this is something someone could be charged with here in Pa. based on the above circumstances. Any thoughts?

Just about any bullet will penetrate a tire's sidewall. Sidewalls are rather thin and easily punctured. I do believe a sharpened pencil could be pushed through if a person was careful enough to support the whole length of the pencil while trying.