TexasCHLforum.com

On Wednesday a small plane crashed in Friendswood (incidentally, about a mile from the PSC range). Yesterday the NTSB held a news conference near the site to explain that they didn't have a clue why the plane crashed ( ).

The sister of the deceased pilot and her husband reportedly parked their vehicle in the driveway of a house across the street from the site. The property owner approached them and told them to get off the property, then "pulled a gun from his shorts."

Friendswood police arrested him and charged him with aggravated assault.

http://www.galvnews.com/story/155852" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

I wonder if the home owner requested they move out of his driveway and perhaps being distraught, they refused...and the homeowner, not knowing who they were, saw no need for compassion and over reacted?

I dunno. I wasn't there. Here is what the article says:

When the couple returned to their truck about 2:50 p.m., a man who was riding a John Deere lawn mower approached [them} and yelled at them to get their truck off his property.

When [the vehicle owner] explained why they had parked there, the man pulled a gun from his shorts.

[The vehicle owner's wife] was in the truck and began honking the horn.

Her husband moved the truck into the road.

- Jim

Well, despite compassion and such, I have to wonder why they were not charged with trespassing after refusing to leave private property.

The article doesn't say they refused, it just says the husband tried to explain why they had parked in his driveway.

Not all LEO's are friends of "The Armed Citizen" or CH licensees.

Then again, the landowner's demeanor may have had something to do with torqueing the arresting officer. Y'all remember what 'ol Dale Carneghie taught us about 'bees, vinegar and honey'.

Who drives into an unfamiliar neighborhood and parks in someone's driveway? I don't think it would have even occurred to me to do that. If there was room to move it into the street, why didn't they do that the first time?

He may have been a bit quick to pull the gun, but I have to wonder why he pulled it so quick. Did the guy approach him as he was trying to explain? That might be enough for some of us.

Without more information, it is hard to judge or analyze this one.

Through the miracle of Google street views, you can see the "crime scene." It looks like there is plenty of room to park on the shoulders of the road. The weather has been dry around here, so it should not have been muddy.

OTOH, I know from my days as a horseback rider that many people act like they own the unpaved right-of-way in front of their property. They don't.

- Jim

MechAg94 wrote:Who drives into an unfamiliar neighborhood and parks in someone's driveway? I don't think it would have even occurred to me to do that. If there was room to move it into the street, why didn't they do that the first time?

No kidding, that was incredibly arrogant. At the least rude.
What if this guy didn't know what happened, and when it came time to go to work, couldn't pull his car out of the garage and the car owner is no where to be found?
This guy then has to call the police and a tow truck, to have this car removed off HIS property.


I wonder where people get this sense of entitlement, and lack of respect for the property of others...

It NEVER would have occurred to me to do this. The only time I pull into a stranger's driveway, is to make a turn-about.

LarryH wrote:The article doesn't say they refused, it just says the husband tried to explain why they had parked in his driveway.

If you park in my driveway and I tell you to move it, your stopping to make excuses counts as a refusal in my book, the correct response is "Yes, Sir!" and get out of there.

If the wife had to sit in the car and blow the horn to get her husband to leave, it sounds like the husband might just have been a little confrontational, and if he was approaching the homeowner, on that homeowner's land, and maybe raising his voice a little in response to the homeowner's yelling, maybe an escalation in force was justified.

It will be interesting to see what transpires.

Wow,
I wonder what if anything was said between the homeowner and the man who parked in his drive way that could have provoked the H.O to pull his gun? I'm sure we might not be getting the whole story but who knows.
I know recently i have been very annoyed at some construction workers trespassing all over my yard and ruining my grass. I live in a new development and expect there to be a little mess when a house is being built. Well they just finished one in the lot next to me and it was frustrating. Workers just throwing trash in my yard, walking through my yard constantly trampling paths through my grass to get to other job sites, wheeling carts and what not through my grass, and to top it off i get home from work and there is a porta potty in half way in MY LAWN!!!! So, i called the construction manager, my wife called, and we both went to the office to have nothing change. Finally, one day i was home to catch them in action with a wheel barrow on my property. they were digging with a shovel to level some spots in the adjacent site to put sod down. they were throwing dirt all over my lawn. I was so mad. I went outside and tried to stay calm but did not do a good job. I pretty much lost it and it was not my finest moment i am most proud of. After a month of tress passing i was pretty over the situation. In addition, we had another altercation between my wife and the workers. She caught them stealing water out of our facet to help lay a foundation on another new house. . Just walking through our yard like they owned it.

Anyways, i can see how someone could get mad enough to pull a gun on someone for being in there yard or driveway if they could not control their temper. Not to say i would ever do that, and i would never unless i felt my life or families lives were in danger. That is what leaves me to wonder what was said between this particular H.O and the guy with the truck.

The problem with pulling a gun on somebody without cause and then not using it, is they might pull one on you and use it with the cause you provided.

casingpoint wrote:The problem with pulling a gun on somebody without cause and then not using it, is they might pull one on you and use it with the cause you provided.

True enough, but all legal justification for doing so evaporates when party B is trespassing. Trespassing while carrying a firearm is a class A misdemeanor even with a CHL. (I hope everyone has that squared away.)

PC 9.31. SELF-DEFENSE. (a) Except as provided in Subsection (b), a person is justified in using force against another when and to the degree the actor reasonably believes the force is immediately necessary to protect the actor against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful force...
(2) did not provoke the person against whom the force was used; and
(3) was not otherwise engaged in criminal activity, other than a Class C misdemeanor that is a violation of a law or ordinance regulating traffic at the time the force was used.

PC 30.05. (d) An offense under this section is:
(3) a Class A misdemeanor if:
(B) the person carries a deadly weapon during the commission of the offense.

From what I've read, I'm gonna have to agree with the arresting officer. Without question the guy was rude, inconsiderate, uncaring, and probably even stupid for parking in the driveway...The homeowner would have had ever right to call the cops, call a tow truck, probably even physically removed the car from his property if he'd had a bigger truck or tractor...but to threaten deadly force by pulling a weapon from his shorts (that just sounds wrong to begin with). IMHBAO, there are proper civilized ways to deal with things like that...threatening someone's life is NOT one of em, even if he doesn't say, "yes sir".

Let's get some perspective here. The "rude trespassers"? Her brother (his brother-in-law) had just died in an airplane crash. The plane hit so hard there weren't any large pieces left, then it burned. The first responders couldn't find the tail number of the airplane, so there was no means of identification until somewhat later.

The meeting, according to the article, was a news conference. You don't know how many government cars and news vehicles were already there when they arrived.

In case you can't tell, I'm a pilot, too, and just a bit ticked at the apparent lack of compassion here.