TexasCHLforum.com

I've attended two of John Farnam's defensive shooting classes ( http://www.defense-training.com/ ); as well as being an instructor, he is an LEO also. He spends quite a bit of class time talking about how one should act before and after shooting in self-defense, and for the "after" part his advice basically tracks with what many posted above: "That man tried to murder me. I'll be happy to explain everything as soon as I talk with my lawyer." Then call a lawyer -- any lawyer ("you can fire him tomorrow and probably should") but get ahold of one-- and keep your mouth shut, other than to repeat the above phrase as necessary. Your lawyer can talk to the police and the DA about the situation, and nothing he says can be held against you ("Look, my client is a father, CHL holder, no criminal record, his opponent has a long history with the law, clearly self-defense", yada yada. Anything you say can be used. E.g. You happen to say "Darn, I really didn't want to shoot that guy" meaning it's a shame you had to take a life to defend yourself. However, you find the prosecutor has determined that means it was an accidental shooting, charges you with manslaughter, and the court rules you cannot claim self-defense as a defense to prosecution. Whoops.

I researched this issue myself, and those sources that I found credible pretty much all agree on this -- no matter how righteous the shooting, keep your mouth shut, wait until you can have a calm talk with your lawyer. What really clinched it for me was when I was surfing the web, searching on terms related to this subject, and I ran across a couple police union websites that had exactly the same advice for their officers who are involved in LEO shootings.

I think having a lawyer's name and number handy is an excellent idea - and he will most likely know a bondsman if you need one.

elb