Question about home intruders..

[KD0124]

If someone was to break into my home. What CAN or CANNOT be done when dealing with firearms? Can I hold him in gunpoint till LEO's arrive? Can I shoot in self defense if he was to charge at me with or without a weapon? What if there is an escape route as in my backyard and he was in the front door? Are criminals really more protected than law abiding citizen?I just moved to Stockton and heard ALOT about home invasions, car thefts.. I just want to know? Thanks

[Samuelx]

From CA penal code

195. Homicide is excusable in the following cases:
1. When committed by accident and misfortune, or in doing any
other lawful act by lawful means, with usual and ordinary caution,
and without any unlawful intent.
2. When committed by accident and misfortune, in the heat of
passion, upon any sudden and sufficient provocation, or upon a sudden
combat, when no undue advantage is taken, nor any dangerous weapon
used, and when the killing is not done in a cruel or unusual manner.


196. Homicide is justifiable when committed by public officers and
those acting by their command in their aid and assistance, either--
1. In obedience to any judgment of a competent Court; or,
2. When necessarily committed in overcoming actual resistance to
the execution of some legal process, or in the discharge of any other
legal duty; or,
3. When necessarily committed in retaking felons who have been
rescued or have escaped, or when necessarily committed in arresting
persons charged with felony, and who are fleeing from justice or
resisting such arrest.


197. Homicide is also justifiable when committed by any person in
any of the following cases:
1. When resisting any attempt to murder any person, or to commit a
felony, or to do some great bodily injury upon any person; or,
2. When committed in defense of habitation, property, or person,
against one who manifestly intends or endeavors, by violence or
surprise, to commit a felony, or against one who manifestly intends
and endeavors, in a violent, riotous or tumultuous manner, to enter
the habitation of another for the purpose of offering violence to any
person therein; or,
3. When committed in the lawful defense of such person, or of a
wife or husband, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant of such
person, when there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to
commit a felony or to do some great bodily injury, and imminent
danger of such design being accomplished; but such person, or the
person in whose behalf the defense was made, if he was the assailant
or engaged in mutual combat, must really and in good faith have
endeavored to decline any further struggle before the homicide was
committed; or,
4. When necessarily committed in attempting, by lawful ways and
means, to apprehend any person for any felony committed, or in
lawfully suppressing any riot, or in lawfully keeping and preserving
the peace.


198. A bare fear of the commission of any of the offenses mentioned
in subdivisions 2 and 3 of Section 197, to prevent which homicide
may be lawfully committed, is not sufficient to justify it. But the
circumstances must be sufficient to excite the fears of a reasonable
person, and the party killing must have acted under the influence of
such fears alone.


198.5. Any person using force intended or likely to cause death or
great bodily injury within his or her residence shall be presumed to
have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great
bodily injury to self, family, or a member of the household when that
force is used against another person, not a member of the family or
household, who unlawfully and forcibly enters or has unlawfully and
forcibly entered the residence and the person using the force knew or
had reason to believe that an unlawful and forcible entry occurred.
As used in this section, great bodily injury means a significant
or substantial physical injury.


199. The homicide appearing to be justifiable or excusable, the
person indicted must, upon his trial, be fully acquitted and
discharged.

[thevic]

those are some confusing penal codes there

[KD0124]

[Jwood562]

while in your home and you feel threatened by all means defend your self by what ever means. it is a very touchy situation especially when people like your self fear what will happen after the fact while you are defending your self.

I go by these rules (I am a LEO, but not a lawyer). If they are in your home, charge you or make any threats to you, deal with the threat accordingly. if you have made contact and they attempt to flee do not pursue (I think this is where many people get in trouble because to the moment the intruder is trying to flee he/she is no longer a threat to you).

If someone were in my house, they are always a threat, always armed, and I am in fear for my life

[norcal01]

There really aren't any hard and fast rules in this state, at least not as good as in some others. The end result will depend largely on what the local District Attorney decides to do. The presumption is that if someone has forcefully entered your home you don't need much more to justify using deadly force, but like Jwood said, if they aren't coming toward you, probably better to let them run away.
Be careful interpreting the penal codes too literally, there's quite a bit of case law that has redefined the meanings of things. For example the penal code provides for the shooting of fleeing felons and says you can use deadly force to stop someone from committing a felony. My basic advice to anyone is to not worry so much about specific scenarios, since real life is unlikely to go the way you think it will. Worry instead about just being generally prepared and on basic things like making sure your wife knows that if someone kicks the door in your gun is gonna be pointing toward it so she doesn't try to hold it shut. (Saw a VERY close call once where a guy shot into his living room right as his wife ran by to go grab the phone.) Maybe look around and see if you can find a class of some sort, or take a CCW class even if it's a no-issue county.

[ap3572001]

If someone was to break into my home. What CAN or CANNOT be done when dealing with firearms? Can I hold him in gunpoint till LEO's arrive? Can I shoot in self defense if he was to charge at me with or without a weapon? What if there is an escape route as in my backyard and he was in the front door? Are criminals really more protected than law abiding citizen?I just moved to Stockton and heard ALOT about home invasions, car thefts.. I just want to know? Thanks

If someone breaks in into my house and displays ANY threat to me or my sons. They will have a very big problem.... To say the least.

I will only follow one rule. To survive. After the fact I will deal with everything else.

Just like when going to work everyday, I will make sure that I will return home with the same amount of holes that I left with....

Everything else is secondary.

[Average Joe American]

while in your home and you feel threatened by all means defend your self by what ever means. it is a very touchy situation especially when people like your self fear what will happen after the fact while you are defending your self.

I go by these rules (I am a LEO, but not a lawyer). If they are in your home, charge you or make any threats to you, deal with the threat accordingly. if you have made contact and they attempt to flee do not pursue (I think this is where many people get in trouble because to the moment the intruder is trying to flee he/she is no longer a threat to you).

If someone were in my house, they are always a threat, always armed, and I am in fear for my life

This is just about all that really needs to be said ^. Jurys have a hard time siding with folks who shoot when not in danger i.e. the bad guy has bullet holes in the back or has bullet holes in his under arms or in the bottom of his feet. You can go from victim to reckless and incompetent to vigilante with the quick lash of a savvy lawyers tongue.

Also, ALWAYS be the 1st to call 911. If you shoot a bad guy, he runs down the street, falls down dying and calls 911, doesnt say anything, then dies... he just stacked the entire legal system against you.

It sucks but its the world we live in.

[Samuelx]

Penal codes may not be written very plainly (fwiw, there are much worse) but it's a good starting point (i.e. wrto things to know) when you're talking about possibly using deadly force against someone... You may want to place a call into your local district attorney's office (they will be the ones deciding if a case will be filed)...

[SJgunguy24]

Not a LEO but this was a situation I was in. I lived in Hayward in an area not known for church families and freindly neighbors. We had 2+ acres that was a long narrow lot and we had the house in front. These gangbangers kept walking through instead of walking 3 blocks around to get to an apartment complex behind the place.

I confronted them and asked them to walk around, they would break bottles and generally disrespect the property. I was threatend and I armed myself everytime after that moment.

I contacted a freind with the ACSO, I went up to his office and we went through the laws and he told me that a fence was one of the first things I could do to protect myself if something was to happen. Not some cheapo deal that doesn't work but a real fence that has a gate that gets closed and locked everytime someone enters and exits. They hop that fence, that shows a willful disregard for your private property and they are now tresspassing. If they charge you inside of your fenced off private property......basiclly the same as your house.

Public accessability can play a critical if something were to happen. Like I said I'm not a LEO but I trust this man and his judgment. He has never led me down the wrong path (quite the opposite). His time is very valuable and we spent a couple of hours going through the P.C. and case law, looking for info and talking about this situation.

Also if something were to happen and you had to defend yourself, call 911 and offer aid, while you might be 100% clear in the legal sense, you will have to pay in civil court. If you did everything you can to save that dirtbags life the jury or judge may find in your favor.

In my training I was told every squeeze of the trigger is 50K.

[GunGreg2107]

Ever heard the saying its better to be judged by 12 of your peers than carried by 6 ?

[Mikeb]

In my training I was told every squeeze of the trigger is 50K.

This

[Jwood562]

Ever heard the saying its better to be judged by 12 of your peers than carried by 6 ?

I tell myself this all the time

[XYZ]

There's also the saying - you're not being judged by a jury of your 12 peers, rather a group of 12 people that couldn't get off of jury duty. But I understand the quote. Any civil case would have me more worried than the criminal case.

[Ken Hardesty]

The Rose Byrd days are gone. If you are in your home, and can reasonably articulate a threat to your safety or the safety of your family, you are well within your rights to defend yourself. Realize when police arrive you may be placed in handcuffs and your weapon seized until its determined what exactly occurred.

The key is the reasonableness of your actions. Would a person placed in a situation similar to yours have taken the same course of action? This is how the courts instruct juries to determine the reasonablness of your actions.