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A QUESTION OF SELF-DEFENSE 2 shots fired in pursuit of stolen vehicle on Circle
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
A QUESTION OF SELF-DEFENSE2 shots fired in pursuit of stolen vehicle on Circle MORE No one injured in Circle shootingAn Indianapolis man was arrested Tuesday after he fired two shots at his vehicle when someone stole it from Monument Circle.1. Clifford Cox fires twice when he realizes his car is being stolen.2. The driver heads south on Meridian Street and west on Washington Street.3. The car is found near the west side of the Indiana Government Center. Victim of theft jailed after running after and shooting at person who took double-parked car. By Tom SpaldingIndianapolis StarNovember 28, 2001 A shooting at a city landmark Tuesday stunned pedestrians and again raised the question: What is self-defense? Clifford Cox, 24, Indianapolis, was arrested after he fired two rounds from a handgun at a man who stole Cox's car while it was double-parked on Monument Circle. State law allows a person to use deadly force to prevent serious * injury to himself or a third person, or to prevent the commission of a felony. Cox, who has a permit to carry a handgun, told police he fired at the car thief because he had tried to run Cox down. No one was injured.But police questioned whether Cox's life was truly in danger. He'd fired at the car as it was driving away in a busy Downtown area. He was booked into the Marion County Lockup on a preliminary felony charge of criminal recklessness.Cox of the 2800 block of Ruckle Street also was booked on an outstanding warrant for driving with a suspended license. "How can you shoot out a back window and say you are being run over?" asked Lt. Paul Ciesielski, the public affairs officer for the Indianapolis Police Department. "The evidence suggests his safety was not in jeopardy. He should have simply went back inside and called the police."Yet in Marion County, juries don't always see such cases so clearly.For example, a Marion County jury in October acquitted a man who said he acted in self-defense when he shot an unarmed teen-ager who had stolen his sport utility vehicle. The man had chased the teen through a neighborhood and shot him in the abdomen as he abandoned the SUV. And in 1994, a Marion County grand jury declined to indict an Indianapolis man after he shot a teen-ager who had taken his car from a car wash.In both cases, the vehicle owners felt their lives were threatened, and Cox said the same Tuesday on the Circle.But in the latest case, dozens of people were walking in the popular area when Cox fired the handgun, damaging a passenger-side window and the back window.Spent shell casings and some broken glass on the street were strange companions to the festive toy soldiers and candy canes that decorate the Circle for the holidays.The incident began shortly after 11 a.m., when Cox double-parked his Buick with the engine running in front of the Sprint store at 120 Monument Circle. Police say Cox was inside the phone store for 20 minutes to pay a bill before the theft occurred -- long enough that a civilian public safety officer left a traffic ticket on the windshield. When Cox saw his car being driven away, he ran out of the store and began firing as he ran after it.Police Sgt. R.L. Wolfe said Cox -- still carrying his handgun -- ran a third of the way around the Soldiers and Sailors Monument before giving up his weapon to IPD officer Doug Sweeney in front of the Columbia Club.The driver of the stolen tan Buick drove south on Meridian Street and then turned west on Washington Street before abandoning the vehicle on an access road adjacent to the Indiana Government Center. Police were still searching for him late Tuesday. "Usually it's a pretty quiet city. Pretty safe," said Charles Hamblen, a doorman who has worked on the Circle for 20 years. He was on a lunch break when the shooting occurred but returned to witness the aftermath of the mayhem.The shooting was the talk of lunchgoers, who debated whether someone stealing a car is a good enough reason to open fire in the middle of such a busy area. "It is not right to shoot at anybody stealing your car. I mean, it's just crazy," said Jim Truitt, 41, Greenwood, who works in the nearby Federal Courts Building. The Circle has been the site of shootings before. City leaders labeled as senseless the fatal shooting of Ricky A. Scott while he was standing on the Circle with some friends in March 1994. That shooting resulted in extra police patrols.Car thefts have generally been on the rise in the Police Department's three-square-mile Downtown district, with an average of 16 per month from April through September. The previous seven months averaged about eight car thefts a month.
Contact Tom Spalding at (317) 327-7939 or via e-mail at tom.spalding@starnews.com http://www.starnews.com/print/articles/circle28.html
Contact Tom Spalding at (317) 327-7939 or via e-mail at tom.spalding@starnews.com http://www.starnews.com/print/articles/circle28.html
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I can't come to work today. The voices said, STAY HOME AND CLEAN THE GUNS![This message has been edited by mudge (edited 11-29-2001).][This message has been edited by mudge (edited 11-29-2001).][This message has been edited by mudge (edited 11-29-2001).][This message has been edited by mudge (edited 11-29-2001).]
I judge Thee!, Not for what you are , but for what you say !
Have Gun, will travel