I hate to say it but, yes he was in the wrong.
If you shoot a gun at someone, you are using deadly force. These guys were obviously fleeing, they were not posing a threat to this man or his life (as far as I can tell from the reported story), there’s no reason the gun should have been drawn and fired. Truly if he was in fear of his life that’s one thing, but all signs are pointing to him not being in fear of his life — he even admits he just did it in an attempt to detain the robbers for police.
Witter said he advises other people to think twice before they step in to stop a crime.
“I guess the message is don’t do anything and let stuff like this just happen and just let it go, I guess,” Witter said.
Not necessarily. I’ll harken back to the maxim from the Insights Training guys: “do whatever it takes to maximize your beer and TV time.” If your life is in danger, defending it is likely to increase your ability to enjoy beer and TV. If two guys ripped off some iPhones from a store that isn’t your store and are running away, while I commend your desire to not let crap like that happen, getting involved is unlikely to increase your ability to enjoy beer and TV. Yes it sucks that assholes like that exist in this world, but until that asshole is going to directly infringe upon my life I just have to learn to let it go (and ensure my insurance is paid up).
