The quartet of hoodlums who targeted a woman in Nashville correctly pegged their quarry—a woman returning to her apartment Wednesday evening—as an unarmed victim. What they didn’t count on was the alert neighbor who witnessed the robbery, pulled out his gun, and started busting caps in her defense.

The robbery occurred at the Lexington Apartments on Old Hickory Boulevard around 10:30 p.m.

Metro police told News 2 the victim was robbed as she was returning to her apartment. An alert citizen witnessed the robbery and fired warning shots, which scared the suspects away.

Officers were able to track the suspect’s vehicle to Glenrose Avenue in south Nashville, where they reportedly jumped out of the vehicle and took off running.

Two of the suspects were quickly taken into custody, while K-9 officer Rio caught a third female suspect a short time later.

While police were investigating, the fourth suspect arrived to the scene to ask police about his girlfriend’s car, which was allegedly the car involved in the robbery. He was taken into custody for questioning.

The article says that the armed neighbor fired “warning shots” at the robbers, which we all know by now  (i hope) are technically illegal.   You are justified in using deadly force (shooting at the criminals to defend a life), or you aren’t. Period.

Fortunately, officers, investigators, and prosecutors have a certain amount of discretion involved when it comes to filing charges, and it appears that they’ve used that discretion to avoid charging the good samaritan neighbor in this instance.

This decision is likely in many parts of of the south, midwest, and west, but I’d strongly suggest that you don’t fire warning shots in the neo-slave states in the Northeast (Connecticut,  Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Northern Virginia), Illinois in the midwest, or on the left coast.

sdf