Local news
Two men were shot over the weekend in Wayne County, IL and the sheriff's office says it appears to be a case of self-defense.
The
sheriff says two men, who are white, made racial remarks to an
African-American man, 26-year-old Erick Paula, at a party Saturday
night.
The
sheriff says when Paula was driving home around 3:30 Sunday morning,
Greenwood and Barrowman came up behind him and flashed their lights.
Paula pulled over because he thought the car was trying to pass.
The sheriff says Greenwood and Barrowman then confronted Paula and said they were "looking for a fight."
Paula warned them he had a gun permit and didn't want to fight.
The
sheriff says the men continued to try to fight him, so Paula pulled out
his gun and fired ten shots. Barrowman was shot once, and Greenwood was
hit several times.
The sheriff says Paula immediately reported what happened to the sheriff's office.
We're told it will likely be up to a grand jury if charges will be filed on anyone.
"Paula, who is black, said he encountered the two men — who are white — at a party earlier in the evening, according to Wayne County Sheriff's report. He said the two had made racial remarks, and he had asked them to stop. The men later confronted Paula on Mount Vernon Road near the Fairfield airport."
ReplyDelete"When the two men demanded Paula give up his weapon and engage in a fist fight, he pulled his .22 caliber gun and fired 10 rounds at the two, emptying the gun's clip, according to the report. Paula told police the two men were about a foot from him when he opened fire."
"Barrowman told police in a written statement that he and Greenwood "went looking for Paula for a fist fight."
Barrowman added that when Paula pointed the gun at his face, he grabbed for it as the shooting started. Both men drove themselves to Fairfield Memorial Hospital for treatment."
Sounds quite justified to me. They followed him, made him stop and then told him they planned on beating him two on one even after being warned that he was armed.
The only fault I can find with Mr. Paula is that he needs to look at buying a gun in a serious caliber. And he shouldn't have allowed them to get so close before defending himself.
Lets not forget that if this had occurred but a couple of years ago, Mr. Paula would not have been legally able to defend himself the way he was able to here. Thankfully Moore vs. Madigan was able to force a change and Illinois went from a no-issue to a shall-issue state.
There are some gray areas in this story. Why did he come to a stop just to let a car pass? Was he out of his car? Did he shoot from inside it? Anytime a DGU stops an attack before the violence happens (on the threat) its legitimacy can draw more question. The difference between you and me, Mike, is that if we can't be sure, I say let them go, and you say lock them up.
ReplyDeleteUh-oh. TS and ss have switched roles. Now TS is the reasonable one.
ReplyDelete"TS and ss have switched roles. Now TS is the reasonable one."
DeleteLikely not so much Mike. TS raised some interesting questions, though whether we'll ever see them answered is likely not. When you posted this story, I looked at other sources and pretty much all of them seemed to be running off the same press release.
However, the questions TS brought up were likely looked at during the police investigation of the shooting. And, considering that you frequently suggest that there is a racial component in whether a person is arrested for a gun crime, the fact that Mr. Paula wasn't arrested suggests that it was a justifiable use of force.
Of course, it likely helped that the two men who attempted to assault Paula admitted to their actions.