Homeowner fatally shoots teen who was part of group shooting paintball guns at home

[TirielWoW]

I feel for the kid and his family. He didn't deserve to be shot, no. No one deserves to die for being stupid.

What's bugging me, though, is that he should have known better. I know, kids are stupid, but even I knew in my safe-as-hell neighborhood that you never throw things at people's house, or trespass, etc, after dark. This kid from Houston frankly should have known better - Texas castle laws are very, VERY slanted towards the homeowner in almost every respect. By the time I was 19, I for damn sure knew that if you threw or shot things at a house - paintballs, firecrackers, whatever - there was a significant chance you'd get shot. Cause everybody's got a gun.

It's much more difficult to sympathize with someone who did something he absolutely should have known better than to do than to sympathize with, say, the person who gets accidentally shot.

[Shadowferal]

11:30pm...dark...group of people targeting home.."initially reported as an attempted car burglary"
Only one dead?

[Carnedge]

11:30pm...dark...group of people targeting home.."initially reported as an attempted car burglary"
Only one dead?

Yup. Lucky day for the bad guys.

[Maquegyver]

You are correct. The first two have a non-zero chance of causing actual harm.


The 'I was scared for my life' thing is nonsense. Why would you run towards the thing you are mortally afraid of?

Yes... He should have been sucking his thumb in the corner... Probably went towards danger because he isn't a massive wimp and believes he would rather die trying than crying. If no one ran towards danger we wouldn't have fire fighters, policy, military, doctors, good Samaritans, etc.

[Ghostpanther]

That terrifying sound of paintballs splatting against your house....He must piss himself during a hailstorm.

Ever been in a home with a metal roof during a hard downpour? The structure of what something is hitting can make a big difference.

If he had a love one outside at the time when he heard the sounds, he will not be charged with anything I do not think.

And they will need to look at his own past records to see if there had been threats and such on his family, etc. Too much at this point we do not know. The police will need to gather up all the facts and look at the laws there.

[Thage]

I doubt he'll be convicted.

The Texas Penal Code seems to support the contention that provided he had a reasonable belief that his life or the life of his family was in danger, he could employ deadly force without any duty to retreat. Given it doesn't exactly sound like he falls into the presumption of reasonableness in subsection b, from what I can see, the attorneys (if it gets to trial) will be arguing over things like the youth's behavior, how similar the paintball gun looked to a real gun, and the nature of the confrontation once the homeowner came outside. I'd like more details, but my wager is that he'll walk.

Reasonable fear for one's life falls to pieces once you actually look at and listen to a CO2-powered paintball gun. The gigantic hopper and bulky CO2 canister, along with the discharge that sounds nothing like a firearm, torpedo that argument. What happened was either he went out knowing it was just a bunch of stupid kids with paintballs and killed someone for minor vandalism/being a stupid-ass teenager (and, hypothetical reader, you show me a stupid teenager doing stupid things and I show you the entirety of human history), or he cannot differentiate a child's toy from a lethal weapon and is mentally incompetent to own a firearm. Either way, a decent lawyer will shred him in court.

Then again, as you say, this is Texas. All he has to do is give some teary-eyed speech about how he fondles his 30.06 late at night and the jury'll give him a pass.

[Carnedge]

Yes... He should have been sucking his thumb in the corner... Probably went towards danger because he isn't a massive wimp and believes he would rather die trying than crying. If no one ran towards danger we wouldn't have fire fighters, policy, military, doctors, good Samaritans, etc.

I must say if I were in his shoes I would not have went outside. I would have been sniping people through my living room window. Higher chance of drawing fire away from the bedrooms and less of a chance of me getting hit.

[Bryntrollian]

Paintball guns sound absolutely nothing like actual guns. If this guy had a gun, he should've known that. There was no reason to shoot them. An argument could be made for firing into the sky as a warning shot to scare them off, but murder? No, the owner is clearly in the wrong. He should've just called the cops to get them arrested for vandalism.

An argument to " shoot into the sky" can never be made as that is a direct way to end up in jail.

[Carnedge]

Reasonable fear for one's life falls to pieces once you actually look at and listen to a CO2-powered paintball gun. The gigantic hopper and bulky CO2 canister, along with the discharge that sounds nothing like a firearm, torpedo that argument. What happened was either he went out knowing it was just a bunch of stupid kids with paintballs and killed someone for minor vandalism/being a stupid-ass teenager (and, hypothetical reader, you show me a stupid teenager doing stupid things and I show you the entirety of human history), or he cannot differentiate a child's toy from a lethal weapon and is mentally incompetent to own a firearm. Either way, a decent lawyer will shred him in court.

Then again, as you say, this is Texas. All he has to do is give some teary-eyed speech about how he fondles his 30.06 late at night and the jury'll give him a pass.

All guns can sound extremely different from one another. Also, as I've pointed out in a past post, I have paintball guns much louder than some of my small caliber weapons. And not all paintball guns use CO2.

[ryan11d7]

Yes during night you could argue that seeing the difference between a real gun and a paintball gun might be hard to determine. But you absolutely will hear the difference between them firing and between them hitting your house. There is no argument you can make that would change that fact.

The real thing I want to know is, was this guy just standing around with a gun on him (It was texas lol)? I assume if he is at home he would have to go get his gun, then go outside and open fire. The time it would take him to go get his gun and then get outside would be enough for any firearm owner to tell the difference between a gun and a paintball gun being fired at their home.

He should be charged more than likely, but will he, maybe not it is Texas. Just because you own a gun and say your life was in danger does not give you the right to use said gun.

Were the kids being dumb? Absolutely, but that does not excuse the right to shoot them. You should not own a gun period if you can not tell the difference between a paint ball gun being fired and a gun fired.

[Carnedge]

Yes during night you could argue that seeing the difference between a real gun and a paintball gun might be hard to determine. But you absolutely will hear the difference between them firing and between them hitting your house. There is no argument you can make that would change that fact.

The real thing I want to know is, was this guy just standing around with a gun on him (It was texas lol)? I assume if he is at home he would have to go get his gun, then go outside and open fire. The time it would take him to go get his gun and then get outside would be enough for any firearm owner to tell the difference between a gun and a paintball gun being fired at their home.

He should be charged more than likely, but will he, maybe not it is Texas. Just because you own a gun and say your life was in danger does not give you the right to use said gun.

Were the kids being dumb? Absolutely, but that does not excuse the right to shoot them. You should not own a gun period if you can not tell the difference between a paint ball gun being fired and a gun fired.

Have you ever been in a house as it's hit with paintballs? I have... it's stupid loud. I've never been in a house that someone has fired real bullets into... neither has the vast majority of the population... so even if you know what one sounds like, how do you know what the other sounds like? How do you distinguish between two sounds you may have never heard? Imagination?

If someone is shooting at my house... I'm going to shoot back. I'll inspect the weaponry after the threat has been dealt with.

[zhero]

Imagine being a kid and being stupid. Dear god, you guys defending the guy are the weirdest.

what they did was beyond stupid.

You are correct. The first two have a non-zero chance of causing actual harm.


The 'I was scared for my life' thing is nonsense. Why would you run towards the thing you are mortally afraid of?

because running away or just trying to hide can still get you killed, especially if they were real guns shooting at them.

[Carnedge]

what they did was beyond stupid.

It was straight up suicidal, as it turns out.

[Samuraijake]

Ah yeah you can’t do any of that. The home owner is an idiot who went way over the line. The kid was an idiot also. But yeah the man should be charged based on the information so far.

There's ppl targeting your son at your own home... im guessing you would of asked them what they were shooting your house with first huh? and then called the police probably.

[Trifle]

I found this in another article... wtf

The father is being questioned, but police say it doesn't appear he'll be charged.

Three of the teens with paintball guns have been detained. They could be charged with anything from assault to criminal mischief.

[kail]

How would he tell the difference if his house had never been shot at before? Some paintball guns can make a loud noise and depending on the siding makeup of the house, may sound loud also.

It's not. I've gone paintballing through all of highschool and an entire arena of simultaneous paintball shots pale in comparison to any firearm shot. If a person can't tell then they have never heard a gun shot, which I question what sort of training a legal gun owner went through.

[vincink]

Hastily generalizing that all gun-owning citizens in the US walk out their doors and shoot whoever they want is wrong.

I think this incident simply demonstrates the dark truth about human beings: we lack emotional stability, so any emotional trigger could have deadly consequences. A person in a car could have easily done this, too, and killed more people. So this incident can't be reduced to gun control.

[Elba]

The father is being questioned, but police say it doesn't appear he'll be charged.

Three of the teens with paintball guns have been detained. They could be charged with anything from assault to criminal mischief.

Jesus. America is a post apocalyptic circus.

[Onikaroshi]

I found this in another article... wtf

It's Texas, if you feel your life could be in danger on your own property you're given the A-Ok to shoot.

[Elba]

Hastily generalizing that all gun-owning citizens in the US walk out their doors and shoot whoever they want is wrong.

I think this incident simply demonstrates the dark truth about human beings: we lack emotional stability, so any emotional trigger could have deadly consequences. A person in a car could have easily done this, too, and killed more people. So this incident can't be reduced to gun control.

No, not all human beings. American citizens. Shit like that does not happen or go unpunished in the rest of the civilized world.