Just in case you wondered, SUV squishes robber. I like it when a story has a happy ending. 
Not completely happy. I’m sure the guy will be investigated for chasing them after they left. His claim that they threatened to come back and rape his daughters may have been enough, but I’m sure he’ll be on the hot seat while he explains all of the circumstances. Did he have a cell phone? Could he have called 911? etc. etc.
Nah. Those scumbags made that poor man’s life worse.
Suvs do have upsides, one of them being the ability to crush some asshole into goo.
Well, Carmen, maybe not as bad as the dead guy’s has gotten, eh?
Oddly, I’m reminded of last week’s episode of The West Wing. If only someone nearby has a camera rolling, the car companies would have another reason to justify their gas-guzzling monstrosities!
Nah, you can crush a pedestrian perfectly well with a Toyota Tercel.
The advantage of the SUV in this confrontation is that being up high, behind a big engine hood, gives the shooter a much worse angle at the driver than if he’d been driving the Tercel.
Stop being logical.
That and they can apparently take a few bullets and keep on going too.
An expansion of my preconceived notions of “Utility” indeed.
Don’t forget the ability to pursue off-road assholes. 
I remember reading in a newspaper article a while ago that SUVs and trucks were a lot more dangerous (to those in the other car) in front[of SUV]-to-side[of car] collisions not so much because of their size or “build” as because the SUV/truck is raised to a level where it hits the other car’s driver/passenger higher, in the chest/upper back region I guess, where it’s more likely to cause serious injury. I imagine that the SUV being higher up was beneficial for the murderer.
A death is a happy ending? That’s sick. Yes, the guy who died was a criminal and, from the sound of it, an all-around bad guy. That doesn’t mean we should celebrate his murder. We have police for a reason: so we’re not reduced to this disgusting anarchy, where Jack robs Joe and Joe kills Jack.
I believe the technical term you are searching for, fetus my embryonic friend, is homicide. A determination of murder has not been made in this case.
Almost time to go home, hoist my Hip Hip Hooray For Disgusting Anarchy banner and stuff the turkey, a.k.a. Hapless Poultry Serving The Revolting Appetites Of Mankind.
This wasn’t murder nor was it vigilanteism it was clear self-defense. The dead perp was actively shooting at the dad before he got squished. There was no time to call law enforcement. The dad’s life was in immediate danger and he was completely justified in protecting his own life with deadly force.
If the other guy had not been shooting when he got out of the car, or if he had not posed an immediate threat to the dad’s life I would be on your side.
Whether the dad had a legal right to chase them in the SUV, I don’t know…but even if it was illegal that still didn’t give the shooter a right to try to kill him.
Whether we should take glee in the incident, well, my feeling is that I’m glad the bad guys were caught, I’m glad a man was able to successfully defend his own life, I’m glad he recovered his own property and I’m glad he was able to remove the potential threat to his family. I don’t know that I would go so far as to say I’m glad somebody was killed but I will say that he is responsible for his own death and that I don’t feel sorry for him.
Make no mistake, I’m not defending the robber assholes in the slightest, but it seems to me you’ve got it backwards wrt who was defending themself. First of all, you’re making up facts not in evidence about the father being somehow unable to find time to call the police. He may very well not have had a cell phone on him, and he may not have broken any laws in merely pursuing the perpetrators, but where he crossed the line was in not just following them to, say, try to get their license plate numbers and report them to the police, but in physically running his vehicle into theirs, not once, but twice. And it was apparently (according the article, which could certainly be inaccurate, as well – we don’t know) not until after the father hit their car the first time that the robber began shooting.
The father intentionally pursued the dead guy and apparently intentionally attempted to physically stop them by using his gigantic 3 ton(??) vehicle to do so. Again, I’m not defending those assholes, but their defense attorney could make a case that they were the ones who felt terrorized and threatened and retailliated in the only way they felt they could in an effort to get that angry behemoth off their ass and stop him from bumper-car-ing their asses across the freeway into oncoming traffic.
They may have committed a heinous crime, but their lives most certainly were threatened by the father once he chose to give chase and use his SUV as a weapon.
I usually don’t celebrate death, but in this case where is the bubbly? It is not a matter of Jack robs Joe, but a matter of Jack threatens Joe’s daughters. Fuck Jack, let him burn in Hell. Since I believe the likelyhood of that is slim (as an atheist) being run over is good enough. Let the fucker rot.
I wasn’t talking about what happened be fore the pursuit but what happened immediately before he ran the guy over. He was being shot at while he was giving chase and before he ran them off the road. He was still being shot at after he ran them off the road. I think it was self-defense and I’m one of the most anti-macho, bleeding-heart liberals around here.
The cops apparently agree with me, btw.
…but AFTER he ramrodded them with his gigundo weapon the first time. They were being chased down by a fucking HUGEASS vehicle and PLOWED INTO by it. Their lives were undoubtedly in danger. Period. The asshole should never have stuck a gun out the window and shot at the guy, but if a case can be made that the father was fighting for his life, one can also be made that the robber was also fighting for his.
Yeah, the battle was now on, baby – and guess who started it.
I think it was dangerous and stupid and bloody fucking wrong. The guy was in a vehicle, using it as a WEAPON, attempting to injur, kill and/or disable the guys he was chasing after, and when they fought back by shooting at his stupid ass, he had the option of driving away! But instead, he continued to pursue them and hit them again!
Hey, the cops can say whatever they like. Doesn’t make them any more right than you are, though.
I’m off to the airport to go home for the Thanksgiving, so I won’t be able to reply any further today (and maybe not all weekend). Have a great holiday!!