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Hypothetical:
You're a customer in a store when two armed robbers walk in and announce a robbery. One has an AK-47 type gun, and the other has a semi-auto pistol.
They head to the cash register and say to the clerk: "We'll kill you all, everybody in this store, if you don't empty all the cash into a bag and give it to us right now!"
The clerk grabs a white shopping bag and pops the cash register open and starts scooping all the bills into the bag.
YOU, at this point, decide that you can shoot the robbers. The distance is only 30 feet to one and 40 feet to the other. You practice shooting those distances often at the range, and you can keep a good group. The robbers aren't paying attention to you. One of them has his back to you, and is aiming his AK-47 at a group of other patrons. He's yelling commands at them, and they're standing near him with their hands up. Then they start getting to their knees, and even the tallest one's head is only waist-level to the gunman with the AK.
The other bad guy is looking only at the clerk, not in your direction at all. There are other people near you, fellow customers, but nobody on your side of the store is moving, or talking. You're not on the radar, so to speak.
SO YOU DRAW YOUR GUN, take aim at the upper spine of the AK-47 robber, and shoot.
Your bullet his him a few inches left of his spine, at the 4th rib, and punctures the lower chamber of his heart. He grimaces and pulls the trigger on his AK.
You shoot him again, this time in the left shoulder, crippling that arm. He fires three more times in rapid succession as he spins around to face you, holding the AK with his right hand, as his left hand loses its grip.
The other robber, the one with the pistol, has already turned to face you. You see this, but you can't respond just yet. You're still busy with the AK guy. You don't see the clerk anymore. Unnoticed by you, this robber shot the clerk in the face at the sound of your first shot at his buddy, and the clerk is dead on the floor behind the counter.
Now, you know you need to drop that guy with the AK. You know you hit him twice, but he's shooting people and swinging that gun your way. You hold your gun extra tight and get the sights on his heart and do your best Mozambique drill. It works. Two in the heart and one in the forehead, and he's down for the count.
The pistol-wielding bad guy is shooting at you. You finally have a chance to bring your weapon to bear on him. Pew Pew Pew. He goes down.
No more shooting. It's over.
You expect to be treated like a hero, at first.
Then you notice 4 bodies on the floor. Two shot by the AK 47 guy, and two near you shot by the pistol guy. Later cops tell you about the 5th body--the clerk, dead below the counter by the cash register.
4 innocent people are wounded, one more is dead, along with the 2 dead armed robbers.
The families of the 5 innocent people sue you for negligence.
They say you had a duty of care, owed to them (people like them), NOT to provoke a gunfight with well-armed robbers in a crowded public place. They say your negligence in choosing to interrupt the robbery with your pistol was the direct and proximate legal cause of their injuries / death. It was foreseeable, they say, that things would turn out this way when you chose to start a gunfight against those odds
-- 2 against 1;
-- a pistol vs. both another pistol and a battle rifle;
-- bad guys guns already covering innocent people;
-- clerk and other patrons complying with their demands;
-- innocent people behind you and next to you before you made yourself a target.
So, do these plaintiffs have a case?
You're a customer in a store when two armed robbers walk in and announce a robbery. One has an AK-47 type gun, and the other has a semi-auto pistol.
They head to the cash register and say to the clerk: "We'll kill you all, everybody in this store, if you don't empty all the cash into a bag and give it to us right now!"
The clerk grabs a white shopping bag and pops the cash register open and starts scooping all the bills into the bag.
YOU, at this point, decide that you can shoot the robbers. The distance is only 30 feet to one and 40 feet to the other. You practice shooting those distances often at the range, and you can keep a good group. The robbers aren't paying attention to you. One of them has his back to you, and is aiming his AK-47 at a group of other patrons. He's yelling commands at them, and they're standing near him with their hands up. Then they start getting to their knees, and even the tallest one's head is only waist-level to the gunman with the AK.
The other bad guy is looking only at the clerk, not in your direction at all. There are other people near you, fellow customers, but nobody on your side of the store is moving, or talking. You're not on the radar, so to speak.
SO YOU DRAW YOUR GUN, take aim at the upper spine of the AK-47 robber, and shoot.
Your bullet his him a few inches left of his spine, at the 4th rib, and punctures the lower chamber of his heart. He grimaces and pulls the trigger on his AK.
You shoot him again, this time in the left shoulder, crippling that arm. He fires three more times in rapid succession as he spins around to face you, holding the AK with his right hand, as his left hand loses its grip.
The other robber, the one with the pistol, has already turned to face you. You see this, but you can't respond just yet. You're still busy with the AK guy. You don't see the clerk anymore. Unnoticed by you, this robber shot the clerk in the face at the sound of your first shot at his buddy, and the clerk is dead on the floor behind the counter.
Now, you know you need to drop that guy with the AK. You know you hit him twice, but he's shooting people and swinging that gun your way. You hold your gun extra tight and get the sights on his heart and do your best Mozambique drill. It works. Two in the heart and one in the forehead, and he's down for the count.
The pistol-wielding bad guy is shooting at you. You finally have a chance to bring your weapon to bear on him. Pew Pew Pew. He goes down.
No more shooting. It's over.
You expect to be treated like a hero, at first.
Then you notice 4 bodies on the floor. Two shot by the AK 47 guy, and two near you shot by the pistol guy. Later cops tell you about the 5th body--the clerk, dead below the counter by the cash register.
4 innocent people are wounded, one more is dead, along with the 2 dead armed robbers.
The families of the 5 innocent people sue you for negligence.
They say you had a duty of care, owed to them (people like them), NOT to provoke a gunfight with well-armed robbers in a crowded public place. They say your negligence in choosing to interrupt the robbery with your pistol was the direct and proximate legal cause of their injuries / death. It was foreseeable, they say, that things would turn out this way when you chose to start a gunfight against those odds
-- 2 against 1;
-- a pistol vs. both another pistol and a battle rifle;
-- bad guys guns already covering innocent people;
-- clerk and other patrons complying with their demands;
-- innocent people behind you and next to you before you made yourself a target.
So, do these plaintiffs have a case?
