TexasCHLforum.com

Yeah. He could have intended to take the residents hostage. It wouldn't be the first time that happened.

Other explanations are that he was deaf, brain-damaged, mentally ill, or intoxicated. Certainly the homeowner didn't have the luxury of waiting to see what might happen.

P.S.: Classify calling criminals youths (or yutes) along with teen and kid. It's a linguistic dodge to avoid assigning blame.

- Jim

karl wrote:18 year olds are also adults. I think Jim is noting the sympathy card being played in the article, trying to make the criminal the victim.

That's what I meant.

Words like teen and adolescent contain a built-in bias that we have become accustomed to. (The same goes for calling college students or military personnel kids when they are up to 30 years old.) I wonder if the people who wrote these articles even are aware of the issue.

There's a world of difference between a 13-year-old 8th grader and an 18 or 19-year-old who may already be a convicted felon, gang member, and physically intimidating.

- Jim

In Corpus Christi early Sunday morning a homeowner was awakened by his dogs and found a man breaking in.

The homeowner called police, who responded quickly. While police were ordering the suspect to stop, he continued to break in. The homeowner fatally shot the suspect.

http://www.kiiitv.com/story/14692835/te ... nto-a-home" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Note that the newspaper calls the 18-year-old suspect a "teen."

Later a different TV station sent a reporter to the neighborhood to try to find outraged neighbors. He couldn't.

"'I probably would have done the same thing,' said [a neighbor].
"Other neighbors we spoke with had similar feelings on the matter,..."

http://www.kztv10.com/news/neighbors-sp ... -shooting/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim