self defense on the road


K

kycanon

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Just this morning I heard a story about a road rage incident in which a driver was video taping a reckless driver on the road and pulled up beside him. The video shows the ********* driver roll his window down to reveal him pointing his pistol at the guy doing the videoing, and fired at him. This happened in my state of KY where we have stand your ground laws. Now normally I would understand 'stand your ground' laws, but am confused as to how this would, or any other self defense law, apply to while driving down the road.
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What would ones rights be in this situation???
 

It didn't sound like he was shooting at anyone but the guy that pulled up beside him. Why would you do that and be shocked that someone shoots at you? Maybe the good DR. thought he was being followed. If he was making his way through traffic (maybe in a hurry) and noticed the guy behind him was following him he may have felt threatened. The DR. may have seen him pointing something at him not knowing it was a camera. How reckless was he driving to catch up. He should have just got the plate number and left it alone.
 
Agreed. Get plate and get out of Dodge. Slam on brakes to create separation (after quick check of your 6, no need to get someone else hurt). As far as fighting back - absolutely not. Get away from that nutcase. Don't try to follow him for the police. Pull over, call 911 to report incident, plate number and description then go on your merry way.
 
He would have been wise to just get his plate and call it in. But in no way should anyone expect to be shot at for pulling up next to a car! Idiots like that guy who would shoot at a car next to him going down the road feeds the gun grabbers idea that we are all crazy or dangerous. I will fight for my right to defend myself and family but as a responsible gun owner I would not fire out of a moving car, that is inexcusable and anyone could have been shot. If I'm going to have to live with having killed someone my life had better be in danger not my pride.
 
It is still all about "the presumption of a reasonable person to imminent danger". The only time this is not in play is in Castle Doctrine situations where the presumption, by law, has already determined that the forcible entry constitutes imminent danger in and of itself. Any kind of road rage just seems made to order for evasion and escaping and avoidance and just being that perfect driver like the "little old lady in pasadena". I would think the odds of actually being on the other side of a firearm pointed at you during a fluid road rage incident is small and you being in a car would allow you to avoid such a situation. If it should happen and the "perfect storm" is upon you and imminent danger cannot be avoided you go back to my original statement and you have every right to defend yourself including, if you are good enough at this stuff while in your car, to use your firrearm--key words in this last statement are "if" and "imminent danger"--trouble with road rage, IMO, is the fluid nature of it---good chance you can get away and drive to police station; good chance you were a real party to this road rage, whether you meant to be or not--list goes on and on with cars and traffic and lane changes etal.
 
If you can leave the situation, then leave a.s.a.p.
If you cannot escape from the situation & someone is threatening/assaulting you -w- a deadly weapon, then do what you must do to survive.
 
As far as the OP's question "what are your rights?"... My question, rights to do what? The guy just shot at you (your car). You haven't been injured, the other guy isn't chasing you to keep trying to shoot, you have a means to avoid anymore direct contact with him, what more do you want to know? You have the right to live... so keep doing so.

What you do not have the right to do is hunt him down and then shoot him. If your self-defense includes chasing them, then obviously your life was no longer in danger and therefore, you've lost your "self-defense" claim.

As far as some of the responses I've seen, we do not know how the person filming was acting.

Did he have a chip on his shoulder about the doctor's driving? Did he somehow make the doctor feel like his life was threatened by the way he was driving? We have no idea what happened moments before the video clip that we saw. It's quite possible the doctor felt threatened... now if that is the case, the doctor should have pulled over and called 911 instead of pulling his firearm. But, we really have no idea if the guy filming was acting like a total nutcase either.

My other question is why are the police only charging the doctor with wanton endangerment? If the doctor was not in the right to fire his weapon, then why isn't he charged for attempted murder?

*shrugs*

As usual with these cases, I come up with more unanswered questions than I do with facts of the case.
 
The Dr. did work in a prison. Could he have been threatened at one time? This guy with the camera did follow him and did pull up next to him and got shot at. Some people don't like being passed or get offended at some peoples driving. I think there is more to the story.
 
An update to the story is that the driver who pulled his gun is a prison employee, A prison doctor. While I don't support what that driver did, it will be interesting to see if he claims that he pulled his gun because he thought he was being followed by an associate or relative of a prisoner and felt that his life was in danger.

On a side note, if texting while driving is considered reckless, then what is use of a cell phone video camera? The driver who used his cell phone video camera could just as easily have noted the reckless driver's license number and called the police. His own actions were intimidating and reckless IMHO.
 
Rockmc64 said:
He would have been wise to just get his plate and call it in. But in no way should anyone expect to be shot at for pulling up next to a car! Idiots like that guy who would shoot at a car next to him going down the road feeds the gun grabbers idea that we are all crazy or dangerous. I will fight for my right to defend myself and family but as a responsible gun owner I would not fire out of a moving car, that is inexcusable and anyone could have been shot. If I'm going to have to live with having killed someone my life had better be in danger not my pride.
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He wasn't shot at for simply pulling up next to the other vehicle, he was shot at because he was FILMING the other vehicle. The driver who did the filming, IMHO, is just as guilty of reckless driving. If he is so gung ho to document dangerous driving by other drivers, maybe he should install a vehicle mounted camera with a remote control similar to those used by hard core storm chasers or law enforcement.
 
oh, so now it's OKAY to shoot at people, just because they videotape you committing outrageous acts, eh? If you try that on me, you'd better make very certain that I am dead, because I will devote the rest of my life to finding you, and you won't like it even a little bit.
 
thru said:
oh, so now it's OKAY to shoot at people, just because they videotape you committing outrageous acts, eh? If you try that on me, you'd better make very certain that I am dead, because I will devote the rest of my life to finding you, and you won't like it even a little bit.
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Another strange post from you. Weird.

Sent from my hand-held mind distractor
 
thru said:
oh, so now it's OKAY to shoot at people, just because they videotape you committing outrageous acts, eh? If you try that on me, you'd better make very certain that I am dead, because I will devote the rest of my life to finding you, and you won't like it even a little bit.
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And so now it's OK to devote your life to tracking down somebody to find them and doing something heinous to them?

I wouldn't publicly post stuff like that since any District Attorney could easily find your post and use it against you if you do what you state above.
 
you bet your butt it is, if they shoot at you. Outrageous behavior like that needs to be stopped. I"m not as stupid as most people. I understand that once such things are done, you have to be "in the wind" forever. Actually, that's not all that big a deal, if you know what to do about it and can scare up about 20k, over the period of a year.
 
thru said:
you bet your butt it is, if they shoot at you. Outrageous behavior like that needs to be stopped. I"m not as stupid as most people. I understand that once such things are done, you have to be "in the wind" forever. Actually, that's not all that big a deal, if you know what to do about it and can scare up about 20k, over the period of a year.
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Eric? Eric Rudolph? Is that you?
pajenry_by_laoperz.gif
 
Can't help but wonder if the doc is mental... Can understand his paranoia up to pointing the pistol....pulling the trigger seems over the top - particularly on a crowded highway where the down range is constantly changing. My money's on mental.
 
thru said:
oh, so now it's OKAY to shoot at people, just because they videotape you committing outrageous acts, eh? If you try that on me, you'd better make very certain that I am dead, because I will devote the rest of my life to finding you, and you won't like it even a little bit.
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That's just stupid to say something like that.
 
thru said:
I"m not AS stupid as most people.
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You should have stopped there...


thru said:
I understand that once such things are done, you have to be "in the wind" forever. Actually, that's not all that big a deal, if you know what to do about it and can scare up about 20k, over the period of a year.
Click to expand...
 
ezkl2230 said:
An update to the story is that the driver who pulled his gun is a prison employee, A prison doctor. While I don't support what that driver did, it will be interesting to see if he claims that he pulled his gun because he thought he was being followed by an associate or relative of a prisoner and felt that his life was in danger.

On a side note, if texting while driving is considered reckless, then what is use of a cell phone video camera? The driver who used his cell phone video camera could just as easily have noted the reckless driver's license number and called the police. His own actions were intimidating and reckless IMHO.
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It's not considered reckless. If it was, they would have needed ANOTHER law for it...
 
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