Phoenix Man Shoots Carjacker, Saves Neighbor

A 29-year-old thug violently ripped a 66-year-old Phoenix, Arizona woman from her car in an attempt to steal it, causing her neighbors to spring forward in her defense. One of the neighbors, a woman, was injured as the car knocked her down. Her husband, who was able to retrieve his handgun from their home and opened fire, struck the suspect in the stolen car:

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Police say the suspect started to drive away, and the vehicle struck the woman and knocked her to the ground, causing her to receive a head injury.

After seeing his wife knocked to the ground, police say her husband fired several shots at the suspect in the vehicle from a handgun he had gotten from inside his house. The suspect fled the area in the vehicle.

The neighbor woman was transported and hospitalized for a head injury she received when she fell after being struck by the vehicle. Her injury is believed to be non life-threatening.

A short time after the suspect stole the vehicle and fled, police received a call of a single vehicle collision in the area of 24th Street and Thomas.  The suspect ran off the roadway in the vehicle and struck a fixed object.

The responding officers discovered it was the stolen vehicle and that the driver was the suspect. Police say he had suffered a gunshot wound.

He was transported to a local hospital, but later died of his injuries.  He has been identified, but the next of kin has not been notified.  It will require an autopsy to determine the actual cause of death.

It is currently unknown if the gunshot was the primary cause of death, or if the collision with the “fixed object” caused blunt force trauma that killed the criminal.

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You’ll note that the authorities seem to have no interest in pursuing charges against the neighbor who shot the carjacker, even though the shots were apparently fired as the suspect was attempting to flee in the vehicle. That would be the reaction in many jurisdictions, but assuredly not all. In many anti-gun states or even in anti-gun jurisdictions in otherwise pro-gun states, prosecutors might attempt to charge the neighbor, asserting that the carjacker no longer posed a threat as he was fleeing.

Be sure to know the laws of your state and the views of your local prosecutors on matters of self-defense. While this seems to be a near open-and-shut case in gun-friendly Arizona, a gun-hating prosecutor in California, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, or downstate New York would almost certainly consider filing charges against the armed neighbor if they thought they could get away with it.

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