Another Home Invasion Question

[DLaw]

So I would have been legally ok to shoot him even if after the fact they found out that he was mentally ill and incompetent?

Yes, and who cares? Someone of limited mental capacity can kill you just as easy as a normal person..If he'd have gotten in you'd be within your rights to defend yourself/kids/home...

[soldier07110]

Seems like everyone's handled it well. Do what you have to do to keep your family safe. The law will work in your favor if you do what's right to defend yourself and loved ones. No one should have the conscience to put a good person away for keeping their children safe.

[Rob454]

I thought you can only shoot if he showed imminent threat. What if he was just standing in your hallway staring at you and unarmed?

Who gives a beep. If he/she is in my house uninvited and that alone would put me in fear for my life and my family that person would be dead. he had a bat in his hand or a knife and was swinging it at me.

[The Greek Myth]

I just discovered this thread and I am curious if any of you folks, LEO or otherwise, could help me out or at least evaluate my situation in order to help me better handle a similar situation in the future.

I have been a firearms owner for two years, I am not LEO.

On Tuesday night this week, I was out playing a show with my jazz ensemble in Riverside. I arrived home in San Diego at the same time as my girlfriend, around 2:30am Wednesday morning. She had been at the movies with her two female friends. I relax for a moment and head off to bed with my girlfriend, and I am so worn out that I just know I'll be unconscious the second I hit the pillow.

She receives a phonecall as we're pulling back the blankets, it's a male friend of hers she has known since high school. I tell her not to answer it because Christ Hell it's 3 in the morning. Her phone beeps indicated he left a voicemail. Curious, we listen to the message. The message is obscene, vulgar, yet nearly unintelligible. The guy said at one point, "I love you so much, I just want to take you away, you've had such a hard life. I love you and I want to be with you and I'll do whatever it takes to be with you." and then goes into a sexually-charged diatribe against my girlfriend, almost in the same breath. The best way I could describe it is like hearing someone talking in their sleep, making little sense.

So now she's completely freaked out, literally traumatized from the voicemail. I'm confused, thinking there is something going on I don't know about. I inquire as to this possibility and she explains that her friend has been in and out of mental institutions most of his teenage and adult life. He's been to my house and we've hung out before in a group setting and he didn't display schizophrenic personality traits. He had just been released from an institution last week, as it turns out, and there had been revelations of him calling the other girls in their circle of friends and leaving similar 'love' messages. He had apparently shown up at a male friend's house, let himself in, and waited next to his friend who was taking a nap.

Anyhow, I tell my girlfriend to relax and we'll take care of it in the morning by going to the courthouse and seeing about a restraining order. I'm about a half-second away from being asleep, and she starts shaking me telling to wakeup because someone just rang our doorbell.

I get up, clothe myself and grab my 1911 and head to the door. The caller, her schizo friend, is standing in front of the door, moving around, breathing hard, pounding on the door, demanding to be let in to see my girlfriend. I don't say anything to him through the door, I just watch. My girlfriend is behind me in the hallway, throwing up into a bowl because she's so frightened by this guy. At this point, I tell her to dial 911 and get them over here as soon as possible. She's throwing up all over the hallway now.

I yell through the door, "Tell me your name!" and he says "My name is classy. I am classy. I WANT.... TO COME IN.... LET ME IN.... NOW." then he pounds on the door. He turns around and bends over and grabs his head and looks like he's in pain. He's mumbling and talking to himself. Then he grabs the handle to the gate on the outside of the door. I tell him, "BACK THE **** UP AND TAKE TEN STEPS AWAY FROM MY DOOR." He doesn't move. I yell for him again to do what I say. He moves away from the door and on to the walkway where I can see him. I open my door, lock the front gate, and point my 1911 at his head and turn the laser on. He doesn't move. He stares at me and says in a calm voice, "You don't like this?" and he repeats that over and over again. I tell him to get in his car and drive home before something irreversible happens. He says, "Okay." and turns around and walks away.

I slam the door shut, and tend to my girlfriend, who is shaking and sobbing on the kitchen floor surrounded by vomit. She can't even talk she's so upset. I call the police, give them his name and description. The police show up and call me to come outside. He's not there anymore, he went home. They explain to me a little more about the restraining order process and that all of our friends who he has contacted should get a restraining order against him.

My girl's parents rush over and help her calm down and I call the guy's mom. The guy's mom called someone and they came and readmitted the guy back into the psychiatric hospital. Hopefully he'll be in there for awhile. THe mother explained to us that he was absolutely hallucinating that he was my girlfriend's 'spirit protector' and I was a demon he had to defeat and conquer in order to save her.


My question: Obviously opening the wooden front door and talking to the guy was a misstep on my behalf, but I had the metal security door locked in front of me, so I felt as long as he was a distance away and I was armed we would be okay... but can I get in trouble for pointing my weapon at him, him standing outside and acting in a hostile manner, and me standing inside with a gate locked in front of me? I have NEVER had anything similar to this happen to me in my whole life, nor my girlfriend's. She wants to move out of our house now and is afraid to go to work because of this mentally defective cretin. I refuse to allow this ******* to run our lives.

Any input and corrections will be appreciated and understood.

[Fire in the Hole]

Issuing the order to leave is good. Also to inform him that you are armed with a gun, and he his making you fear for your life. Then stop, don't threaten to shoot him. Let him connect the dots.

I would not have come out. He is now able to spray OC through the screen at you, or start swinging at the screen with a 12 lbs. sledge hammer. Furthermore, he might have an accomplice standing adjacent to the door with an ax handle.

I guess what I'm getting at is that you left a place of relative safety, and entered the food chain of a crazy person. You did right by calling 911. The police are on their way, keep him under surveilance, but let the police deal with him. Wait for them to give you the all clear.

I wouldn't worry about pointing the gun at him this time. Was he retreating, and following your commands to depart at this point? Were you still in real bare fear of your life at that point in time? Those are the questions you need to ask yourself before you draw a bead on his nose.

I'd follow up with the restraining order for your girlfriend and since you are is enemy, one for yourself as well. If he called from a phone number that goes back to his home or apt, have this number blocked. Apply for CCW's, get professional training for you and your girlfriend. Sounds like she might not be up to it. If she vomits under the stress of fight or flight, at least have her take a self defense (non-gun) class for women.