Police fatally shoot Colorado man in his own home, moments after he killed an intruder

[JonLP24]

A Colorado man — who had just killed a home intruder moments before — was fatally shot by police after he was mistaken for a burglar.

According to police in Aurora, Colo., officers responded to a call on Monday from a woman who said a man was breaking into her house.

Described by police as a "very chaotic and violent scene," officers heard gunshots fired from inside the home before encountering an armed man.

The man was shot and taken to the hospital where he later died of his injuries.
Upon further investigation, Aurora police learned the armed man lived at the house, and had just shot and killed an intruder before encountering officers.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/07/31/police-fatally-shoot-colorado-man-who-killed-home-intruder/870416002/

[Beaverhausen]

1. Ah yes, the good guys with guns to the rescue

This is fucked up.

[NoMoreRepugs]

2. So the really good guys with guns are the only ones

who can protect us from a good guy with a gun protecting us from a bad guy breaking into a private residence.

Makes me dizzy

[Grassy Knoll]

3. Thats Like A Ripley's Believe It Or Not...

...Unreal.

[Kaleva]

4. The guy should have known better then to walk out with a gun in hand

[LisaL]

6. Article doesn't say that victim walked out of the house.

Last edited Tue Jul 31, 2018, 11:32 PM - Edit history (1)

He might have been inside. In fact a lawyer for victim's family says the victim was in his living room when he was shot.

[Kaleva]

11. Regardless, don't have a gun in your hand when police are on the scene

A statement by the family's lawyer:

""Mr. Black goes and gets his sidearm and shoots the intruder and saves his grandson," Rathod said. "Mr. Black walks out of the bathroom to see other individuals who had also come in the home. Black's wife had called the police and ran outside. She specifically told the police what her husband was wearing and there was a naked man attacking her grandson. Mr. Black walks out and is shot by police." "

https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-fatally-shoot-resident-shot-home-intruder/story?id=56945256

I said this in another thread and I'll say it here. If one is going to have a gun, you need to have a plan and practice that plan. I refer to what highly respected gun expert Massad Ayoob says about situations like this. You don't go walking around with a gun in hand after the police have been called about a home invasion. The deceased may not have known his wife called but that goes back to lack of planning and training.

Having a gun is serious business.

[Beaverhausen]

14. so it's OK the cops shot someone who doesn't match the description of the perp?

sorry, but that's murder.

[Kaleva]

16. I have little sympathy for gun owners who don't follow simple, common sense procedures.

Innocents tend to end up dead because of them. In this case, it was the gun owner himself.

[NutmegYankee]

28. He was inside his home. He legally has a right to have a gun in his hand.

And I don’t care what excuses the officer has. He can scream them from his jail cell.

The homeowner was probably traumatized from having to kill his grandson's attacker. Meanwhile you have a trained Police Officer, specifically trained on situations like this who probably panicked and opened fire without adequate verbal warning. I'm tired of Police being held to a lower standard. They should be held to a higher standard! Regular people who accidentally shoot family members end up in jail.

[Kaleva]

33. Those with guns, police or homeowners, should be held to the same standards and level of training

Your comment which I quote below is easily refutable:

" Regular people who accidentally shoot family members end up in jail. "

That rarely happens as the local DA and police very often classify such incidents as a "tragedy" or "accident" and no legal action is taken against the gun owner.

http://www.wbrc.com/story/24741843/man-accidentally-shoots-wife-while-cleaning-gun

http://www.koaa.com/story/38758568/castle-rock-man-mistakenly-shoots-wife-says-he-thought-she-was-an-intruder

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fla-man-shoots-wife-home-thinking-burglar-article-1.3962417

https://allthatsinteresting.com/man-shoots-wife-church

[Ilsa]

37. I think the point was, you can be dead right about your rights in your own home.

Too bad the homeowner is not able to see justice for himself.

[Hoyt]

5. The home owner, shooter had been a federal agent. Apparently, didn't learn much.

[LisaL]

7. What exactly do you think he was supposed to have learned?

[Hoyt]

8. You don't walk toward police with a gun in your hand, even murderer George Zimmerman

knew that. According to articles, it’s questionable whether the unarmed intruder needed to be shot, but that’s another story.

[LisaL]

9. So far it's unclear that he walked towards any police with a gun in his hand.

Unarmed doesn't mean harmless. Intruder reportedly tried to strangle victim's grandson. You don't need a weapon to strangle someone.

[Hoyt]

13. And there were two men on him. But, even a anti-gunner like me knows if you shoot someone --

whether justified or not -- you put the gun on the ground, and await police while concocting a story about how you feared for your (or someone else's) life. This guy learned nothing as a federal agent, or lost it in the excitement.

Definitely a tragedy.

[LisaL]

35. There was recently a case where naked man in TX killed two people and tried to kill a third who came

to their defense. For no apparent reason.
So two people trying to stop naked man and not accomplishing it until one of them gets a gun and shoots the naked man isn't surprising to me at all.

[Hoyt]

40. Well, in this case, it didn't work out well for the gunner. I do admit

that it sounds like the intruder could be on meth or something.

[Beaverhausen]

15. maybe learn some details before spouting off

Rathod told ABC News "a naked man kicked down the door to the house, entered the house, and was found choking Black Jr.'s 11-year-old grandson," strangling the boy in the bathtub. That boy's father, Black's stepson, went in and began wrestling with the naked man. Both he and Black were trying to save the boy.

"Mr. Black goes and gets his sidearm and shoots the intruder and saves his grandson," Rathod said. "Mr. Black walks out of the bathroom to see other individuals who had also come in the home. Black's wife had called the police and ran outside. She specifically told the police what her husband was wearing and there was a naked man attacking her grandson. Mr. Black walks out and is shot by police."

[Kaleva]

18. Don't you wonder why the door was so easy to kick in?

It doesn't cost much, much less then a gun, to reinforce an outside door so that's it's very hard to kick in.

The homeowner didn't have a plan and he paid the price.

[leftynyc]

22. So now homeowners are supposed

to spend money to reinforce their doors or they get to be blamed for being shot by trigger happy cops?

[Kaleva]

34. You can defend a gun humper but I won't

[leftynyc]

43. I don't consider someone who

owns a firearm to protect their home a gun humper. That phrase I reserve for those who think they need an arsenal or machine guns for protection. Without this gun, his grandson would be dead....perhaps you should be thinking about THAT and the fact if cops weren't trigger happy morons, this would have turned out much differently.

[Beaverhausen]

24. what?

what the hell does that have to do with the actions of the cops? Why do you keep making excuses for this? Seriously, why?

[Kaleva]

38. I'm not the one making excuses for a gun owner who didn't take gun ownership seriously

Why are you?

[leftynyc]

44. WTF are you babbling about?

He had just saved his grandson's life with that gun. It's the cops that fucked up here, not the gun owner.

[NutmegYankee]

30. That's the lamest excuse for murder I've seen on DU. nt

[Kaleva]

39. Murder or more like unintentional suicide by cop?

The guy would be alive today had he followed basic and simple to understand training protocols.

Here's what the NRA says:

"You should also understand that, if you are still holding your gun when the police arrive, you stand a very good chance of being shot. Police officers cannot tell the good guys from the bad guys by simply looking at you. If they see a gun in your hand, they must assume that you represent a threat to them."

https://www.nrafamily.org/articles/2017/6/12/after-a-defensive-shooting-what-to-do/

[leftynyc]

45. FUCK the NRA

They have abandoned all pretense of being about gun safety and are all about propping up the manufacturers. The only people at blame here are the cops. THE ONLY PEOPLE.

[Kaleva]

49. I see. You're cool with gun owners not having proper training.

I disagree with that as so many innocent people, especially children, are injured or killed because of gun owners who don't take gun ownership seriously.

[leftynyc]

55. I see. You're cool with

law enforcement killing people in their own homes after being told the perp was naked and even what the good guy was wearing.

[Hoyt]

31. And he is dead. Didn't work out so well for him, did it?

[LisaL]

46. he saved his grandson.

[Hoyt]

48. They both could be fishing today, had he put his gun down after shooting.

[struggle4progress]

10. Final score: men, 0; guns, 2.

[TheFrenchRazor]

12. guaranteed they get away with it. i'm so f-ing sick of cops. nt

[Crunchy Frog]

25. Maybe not. The guy was white.

[oberliner]

17. Was race a factor?

[JonLP24]

19. Maybe not in this case

Cops showing up not knowing all the facts plus the victim appeared to be white.

[oberliner]

20. Where does it say that the victim was white?

That does not appear to be in the article you posted - was that mentioned in another source?

[JonLP24]

23. I saw the story on NBC news TV yesterday

I posted the article as soon as I watched the story. They showed a photo of the veteran.

[oberliner]

29. Got it - thanks for the info

I also just found a story that had a photo of the victim. What an awful story in every way.

[Crunchy Frog]

26. I've seen a picture of him. He absolutely was white.

[LisaL]

36. Victim was a white male in his seventies.

[maxsolomon]

21. Does it still count as a successful DGU?

What a crazy story. RIP, gun owner.

[mercuryblues]

27. Not the first shooting for this officer

Aurora police officer who fatally shot man protecting his home from intruder was involved in June fatal police shooting

The Aurora police officer who fatally shot a man protecting his home from an intruder was also involved in a June police shooting, the Aurora Police Department confirmed.
The officer, who has not been identified, was involved in a June 27 shooting at the Biltmore Motel, said Ken Forrest, Aurora Police spokesman.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/08/01/aurora-police-officer-involved-june-fatal-shooting/

[0rganism]

32. there's an object lesson in this somewhere but i'm not sure what it is

it's like a logic pretzel wrapped around an AR-15

[hunter]

41. Once the guns come out everything is fubar.

sigh...

[sarisataka]

42. It doesn't sound

Like things were peachy before that either

[maxsolomon]

50. but no one was dead yet.

3 adults, 1 child, 1 naked intruder.

1 adult engages the intruder physically, the other 2 left the room to bring help in the form of 911 and a firearm. what if 2 adults had engaged the intruder to pull him off the kid, and only 1 had called 911? or all 3 had engaged?

we'll never know.

BTW, I'm not arguing this was a good guy. https://www.denverpost.com/2018/08/01/naked-aurora-intruder-lengthy-arrest-record/

[MineralMan]

47. I once called 911 when a man was trying to break into my house.

I informed the dispatcher that I had armed myself with a shotgun, just in case the break-in was successful. I stayed on the phone with the 911 dispatcher. When the police cars arrived, I told the dispatcher that I was securing my firearm. After the police took the man, who was drunk and thought he was at a different house, they knocked on my door.

When I went to the door, and before I opened it, I told them that my firearm was secured in another room. They said they had been informed of that by the dispatcher. So, I opened the door, answered their questions, thanked them and everyone left.

Once the police had arrived, there was no more need for me to remain armed. Supplying information to the police is a good idea. I would never continue to be armed when the incident was over and I'd be talking to the police. That would be a stupid move.

[LisaL]

51. This was a different situation. Victim's wife called police, he probably didn't even know that.

Also more than one person/intruder gotten into the house.

[MineralMan]

53. Every situation is different.

I was simply relating my particular experience. I realized that securing my firearm was important, as was communicating that information. Unfortunately, that is not always possible.

[Turbineguy]

52. The fog of a gun fight.

[boston bean]

54. Such an unforeseen occurrence.

[maxsolomon]

56. the tox screen of the naked intruder will be revealing.

he came from a party ACROSS THE STREET, & dragged the kid into the bath to drown him.

those folks are about to be sued, if not charged with drug crimes.