Just to clarify my stance. First, I was not suggesting that the victim was in any way doing anything stupid.jayinsat wrote:My take away from this story so far: I am not a LEO. I will not go investigating my neighbors burglar alarm. I will report and observe as a good citizen.
I live in San Antonio in a relatively quiet, northeast side community. We have low-crime and most of the residents are probably low-to middle income with a pretty good racial mix. I know about 1/4th of the residents on my street. Probably 1/3 the houses are rentals now with tenants changing frequently. All that said, If I heard an alarm late at night, I tend to look out the window to see what's going on. Most of the time it is accidental. If I see a ruckus, I will call 911. If I walked outside to investigate and did happen to see an individual walking out of a house, armed or unarmed, chances are I won't be able to differentiate between homeowner/tenant or intruder. God forbid I engage a legal homeowner/tenant who is checking out his own property with a gun in his hand. If a LEO walked up on that situation, which one of us is the aggressor?
If I looked out the window and saw a neighbor I know being assaulted, that is a different story. Yet I would still proceed with caution because I still don't know all the facts.
Just wanted to clarify my thinking. This is a tragedy no matter how you slice it and now one has enough info to start blaming anyone.