12-23-2013, 12:33 PM
Here's a recent bit on the Georgia shooting of the Alzheimer's patient.
![[Image: 9260876.jpg]](http://www.vancouversun.com/business/fp/yourmoney/cms/binary/9260876.jpg)
Ronald Westbrook, 72. RIP.
Snip:
The last walk that Ronald Westbrook took began as early as 1 a.m. when he slipped unnoticed from his North Georgia home with his two dogs.
It ended three hours later when Westbrook, a 72-year-old who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, knocked in the dark on a stranger’s door last month. Police said a man inside that home, 34-year-old Joe Hendrix, got a .40-calibre handgun (while his spouse was on the phone talking to 911), went outside to investigate and shot Westbrook in a horrible mistake.
Under Georgia law, people are not required to try retreating from a potential conflict before opening fire to defend themselves from serious imminent harm, said Russell Gabriel, director of the Criminal Defence Clinic at the University of Georgia. State law allows people to use lethal force to stop someone from forcibly entering a home if those inside reasonably fear they are going to be attacked. Deadly force can even be used to stop someone from trying to forcibly enter a home to commit a felony.
“Different people have a different understanding of what is reasonable,” Gabriel said. “Reasonableness is a classic jury question.”
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/fp/...z2oJg9eCwP
Ronald Westbrook, 72. RIP.
Snip:
The last walk that Ronald Westbrook took began as early as 1 a.m. when he slipped unnoticed from his North Georgia home with his two dogs.
It ended three hours later when Westbrook, a 72-year-old who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, knocked in the dark on a stranger’s door last month. Police said a man inside that home, 34-year-old Joe Hendrix, got a .40-calibre handgun (while his spouse was on the phone talking to 911), went outside to investigate and shot Westbrook in a horrible mistake.
Under Georgia law, people are not required to try retreating from a potential conflict before opening fire to defend themselves from serious imminent harm, said Russell Gabriel, director of the Criminal Defence Clinic at the University of Georgia. State law allows people to use lethal force to stop someone from forcibly entering a home if those inside reasonably fear they are going to be attacked. Deadly force can even be used to stop someone from trying to forcibly enter a home to commit a felony.
“Different people have a different understanding of what is reasonable,” Gabriel said. “Reasonableness is a classic jury question.”
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/fp/...z2oJg9eCwP