There are defensive gun uses every day that demonstrate all the ways the Second Amendment protects law-abiding citizens from those who would do them harm.
Then there are the occasional cautionary tales. These involve a well-intentioned civilian overreacting to an alleged criminal act and making the situation much worse.
The following incident definitely falls into the second category.
Leaving car running in middle of night was first mistake
According to investigators, 59-year-old Darryl Avery Fulton of Raleigh left his car running just before 3 a.m. on Sunday as he went into a Sheetz convenience store. That was all the opportunity it apparently took for a female suspect to jump into the vehicle and make a run for it.
The Sheetz customer is believed to have fired several shots wildly into the air and then into his own car as the female suspect attempted to flee, resulting in damage to the very vehicle he was trying to save.
One of those errant shots reportedly struck the Raleigh Police Department’s Northwest District station, located just across the street from the convenience store.
The building was occupied, and no injuries were reported.
Both suspect and target face multiple charges
Police located and arrested the suspect, identified as 29-year-old Essence Larita Abraham, nearby without incident. Officers in the arrest warrant described her as “extremely intoxicated” when she “took the vehicle while it was running at a store.”
Abraham faces multiple felonies, including discharge of a weapon into an occupied vehicle and into occupied property. And while it’s easy to immediately dismiss his reaction to having his car allegedly stolen, there is nothing about the situation that cries out for a potentially lethal reaction.
Instead, a man with no serious criminal history, targeted by an opportunistic suspect, is in a heap of trouble today.
Defensive gun use is to be applauded and studied, but extreme care must be taken to avoid a response that is out of proportion and will get the intended victim into a heap of trouble of their own.
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