At common law and in most states, people, generally, have no duty to help or rescue another person. You would only have a duty to help if you created the peril, you started trying to rescue or help, or you have a special relationship, such as parent-child, with the person in need.
It doesn’t say “you did something illegal”, just “you created the peril”. Getting back to the op, if you shoot someone in self defense, you have created the peril to their life. I’m sure many states have statutes that override common law, but it looks like common law says you do have a duty to attempt to render aid to the intruder. (Which can be fulfilled by, for example, calling 911.)
The administration of first aid is an important legal question when alleged criminals get injured during a crime.
I’ve watched trials where attorneys have hammered home the point that Officer X waited several minutes for an ambulance and didn’t personally administrator first aid.
The legal burden would be similar on a homeowner that injured someone that was trespassing and perhaps attempting burglary or robbery. Immediately calling 911 would be the first step and then the 911 operator would instruct on providing aid to the injured party.
That may be the case for a trained police officer, but I doubt it would apply to a scared homeowner who’s just gone through a traumatic event. Saying « I was afraid if I got close he could still attack me » would likely be a defence to that.
Keeping away from the downed intruder and calling 911 doesn’t raise that issue.
Yes. The other thing that every first aid course drives home is that your first obligation, before attempting to render aid, is to ensure the scene is safe.
This. When a police officer shoots someone, they generally don’t attempt to administer first aid until after the subject has been handcuffed. A homeowner doesn’t typically have handcuffs at the ready, and even if they do happen to have zip ties handy, they don’t have the training to maintain control over a struggling subject while zip-tying their hands. It’s not reasonable to require a homeowner to approach, for any reason, an intruder whom they have just shot because they believed that intruder to be a threat. I am also doubtful that any well-trained 911 operator would ever advise a homeowner to approach an injured intruder for any reason, including administration of first aid.