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txinvestigator wrote:

Paladin wrote:

txinvestigator wrote:Had he decided to engage, the safety of every single person in there was on his shoulders.

Actually it tends to be on the shoulders of the BGs that decided to rob the place and open fire. In places like Florida, if anyone dies during the robbery (like say one robber gets killed by a CHL), then the surviving BGs get charged with murder.

No actually Paladin, it would have rested squarely on HIS shoulders.

As a CHL instructor and a former LEO I would expect you to know that if the BG's intentionaly kill someone during an aggravated robbery, that is capital murder on them. It the BG's accidentally kill someone during an aggravated robbery, that is muder on them. If a CHL or LEO kills a BG during the commission of an aggravated robbery, that is self defense for the CHL or LEO.

That doesn't leave much liability left for your buddy if he can shoot properly.

Although like I said, I wouldn't want to get into a firefight with only a KelTec .380.

Every case is different, but it could be argued that stopping the threat is looking after the safety of the people in there and the community at large.

txinvestigator wrote:Had he decided to engage, the safety of every single person in there was on his shoulders.

Actually it tends to be on the shoulders of the BGs that decided to rob the place and open fire. In places like Florida, if anyone dies during the robbery (like say one robber gets killed by a CHL), then the surviving BGs get charged with murder.

The walls in the Waffle House tend to be pretty thin, and I certainly wouldn't want to be in a gunfight with only a Kel-tec .380...

So I can see why he did what he did.

But I will say that he had plenty of legal justification to act, and I'm not sure I'd wait till they started shooting people or pointing a gun at me or my family to act.

Of course every situation is different, but everybody should be aware that there is a point where it becomes too late to act.

Suarez's experience with force-on-force suggests that sometime during the initial takeover is the best time to act. Before the BG's have control over the situation/people. If you're tied up on the floor in the back room, it's too late.