Uproar as French jeweler kills thief, is charged

[Tuesday Afternoon]

By LORI HINNANT
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) -- Outrage is growing in France over the decision to bring voluntary homicide charges against a jeweler who shot and killed an escaping robber, but the country's top security official on Tuesday urged fearful storekeepers to let justice take its course.

The 67-year-old jeweler, Stephan Turk, was confined at home with an electronic bracelet after the shooting last week that left a teenage robber dead in the street outside Turk's jewelry story in the French Riviera city of Nice. An accomplice escaped on a motorbike as the body lay in the street.

In a country where gun violence is rare but armed robbery is increasingly common, the shooting - and the formal charges of voluntary homicide - have placed the government in a difficult position.

"Even when faced with the unbearable, we have to let justice prevail," Interior Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday in Nice, where he was sent by the president a day after a protest by hundreds of Turk's supporters.


more at link:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_FRANCE_JEWELER_SHOOTS_ROBBER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-17-08-42-25

[msongs]

1. for gangs committing armed robbery there are consequences. who could'a guessed? nt

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. for gangs committing armed robbery there are consequences. who could'a guessed --

ya think? brilliant.

[gejohnston]

3. If the article is accurate,

I call it a bad shoot. If he is running off with stuff and not a threat to anyone, bad. If he were running with a hostage, then that changes things. Of course, I don't know the local use of force laws. I do know that most of the US, including Florida, he would be screwed.

[ManiacJoe]

4. Based on the article, agreed.

It will be interesting to see if the prosecutor can find a jury to convict the shop owner.

[Eleanors38]

5. I would lean toward this being an unnecessary shooting...

based on the article. To shoot the robber while being actively threatened, I would see as proper SD. Had the robber actively threatened others on the street during his escape, shooting him is justified as well. We'll have to see what the investigation shows.

[NYC_SKP]

6. There's only a slim chance that something provocative happened.

I can imagine the robber in flight being chased but stopping for a moment to fight back, which would turn the retreat into a threatening advance.

But if the shotgun blast was to the robber's backside, then it's not very likely this can be ruled self defense.

[petronius]

7. It does sound like he re-engaged the thieves after they were leaving:

"After he was threatened, the jeweler grabbed his firearm, moved toward the metal shutters, crouched and fired three times. He said he fired twice to immobilize the scooter and a third time he fired because he said he felt threatened,"

With the benefit of 5000 miles and as much time as I want to consider it, it seems to me that he was not shooting to protect himself or anyone else from injury or death...