Florida Man Shoots, Kills Suspected Carjacker

Carjacking is one of those crimes that makes no sense to me. I mean, I get stealing a car. I don’t condone it, mind you, but I understand why someone would think they should steal a car.

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But carjacking is stealing a car as violently as possible. It’s not just a property crime, but also a violent crime that could easily end up in a shootout with an armed citizen or an off-duty police officer.

Kind of like this one in Florida.

A man in his 20s is dead after a carjacking attempt at a New Texas Fried Chicken east of the Mall at Millenia in Orlando turned fatal early Sunday, an Orange County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman said.

Leon Anthony Ducally, 49, told deputies he shot Jan Demetri Goodman, 26, who was assaulting and carjacking him as he walked into the business at 2200 Americana Boulevard, spokeswoman Jane Watrel said.

Watrel said Ducally has a valid concealed-carry permit.

Now, I’m going to be honest. I kind of wish a story like this wasn’t news.

You see, it’s news because it’s semi-rare. It happens, but not all that much, so the local papers and TV stations are going to carry the story.

However, if this happened every time there was a carjacking, it would stop being rare. It wouldn’t be news anymore…at least until carjackings themselves became rare, which would happen. Make no mistake about that.

Mr. Ducally did what he had to do to end a violent assault and theft. While law enforcement says the case remains open, it looks like Ducally has a clear case of self-defense. People get murdered by carjackers far too often to not be in fear of your life. I’m sure the local police know that.

For what it’s worth, I’m not saying I’m a fan of people being shot, as a general rule. What I am saying is that if people committing violent crimes were in more danger of getting shot, we’d see a lot fewer violent crimes. And honestly, if someone is going to get shot, I’d much rather it be the bad people of this world rather than the innocent, law-abiding citizens.

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Is that too much to ask for?

Probably. There are people out there right now lamenting the poor Jan Demetri Goodman, acting like he’s some kind of a victim. They’ll argue that somehow, Ducally shouldn’t have had the right to defend himself from aggression, that he would be morally superior to have been dead rather than standing over his would-be attacker.

Well, they’re wrong.

Every human being has a right to live, but you forfeit that right the moment you try to infringe on someone else’s right to live, even if only by a threat. Goodman reportedly did that, and now he won’t be able to do that to anyone else. I can’t feel bad about that in the least.

Every incident like this makes countless people safer. Who would have been next on Goodman’s resume? Would he have ended up killing someone? No one knows.

What we do know is that the good guy prevailed–as they should.

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