Yep. It ceases being self defense when the attacker is no longer able to attack.
Texas has had several cases of homeowners shooting burglars who were carrying stuff at the time and that was deemed legal.
Yes, but those individuals were technically still able to harm the homeowner if they desired. Someone collapsed on the ground is no longer considered a threat unless they’re still holding a weapon.
Some of the cases I remember involved burglarizing a car outside the home. The homeowner would have to leave the house to confront the robber(s). Or this involving the house next door.
We’ve had a related discussion here before on when is a person shot is actually not a threat. People do not die like on TV or the movies*. It takes a number of minutes. People also don’t go flying through the air from a bullet impact. A head shot is perfectly reasonable while the threat still exists. If I were pumped with adrenaline from a deadly encounter, I would finish if at all possible. I don’t want the attacker recovering from shock, even if dying, and drilling me with a recovered weapon or second carried one.
*John Wick actually gets this right; you’ll note most times he adds a head shot to each downed bad guy.
Mozambique Drill.
Meanwhile, shooting you 38 times until you drop the wallet is the “NYPD drill”.
But seriously, in a potential deadly force incident a 2-and-1 is likely to be considered reasonable to “stip the threat”; or “shoot ‘til he drops even if he’s running away” if it’s Texas; but I think even Texas would frown on dropping him with 8 shots then delivering a coup de grace.
You do know that’s all made-up shit just for the movies, right?
That part happens to be real. We called it “kill confirmation”, but I’m sure other militaries had their own names for it.
Of course, it’s supposed to be used in battle conditions, not for law enforcement or self defense.
Thanks for the confirmation Alessan. One thing about the Wick series, Kineau takes the action portions, particularly guns/movement/reloading/etc… seriously. The blood splatter may be a bit much but his actions are based on training. You can find videos of him doing range work with live weapons.
I hope to never be in a situation where my life is in danger, but if given the chance, I will end it. And call a lawyer before posting in the Dope.
My cursory understanding of Texas self-defense law is that you are required to make a good faith effort to ascertain whether anybody else at or near the scene has additional ammunition that you can deploy into the suspect before your obligation is met.
IOW, emptying your magazine, or running out of ammunition yourself, isn’t sufficient.
/s
This is generally good advice. Whether we’re likely to be sympathetic or not, best not to post a “Ask The Guy Who Just Shot Someone” thread before your self-defense plea is fully settled.
Tell that to Daniel Shaver. Oh you can’t. the cops killed him while he was lying face down on the floor, unarmed. Officer acquitted.
I believe everything in this sentence.
Well, more movies should do it (head kill shots).
How many times does the seemingly-dead bad guy come back for one more attack on the hero, be it horror movies, James Bond, any actioner? Hollywood has their weird relationship with death. They don’t mind gunning down hundreds of nameless mooks, but then they get squeamish one-on-one.
In a lot of movie situations, it is the correct decision to spend an extra bullet into a baddie.
Prefaced with “NEED ANSWER FAST”.
And it’s not just an unwillingness to kill the antagonist. There are countless movie plots where a quick rewrite could have resolved matters in just a few minutes, but instead they insist on dragging it out for a couple of hours. They are just wasting our time.
Just look at all the crimes Marshall Matt Dillon resolved simply by wasting the bad guys. And he never killed a decent law-abiding citizen, either. We need more cops like him.
Interestingly, I just saw the like-third from last episode, where Matt shot some fugitive in some hick town, and the judge tried and convicted him for murder, and sentenced him to work in the judge’s silver mine. It wasn’t clear how long Mattw as there, but it was a while, before he escaped.
So this one time, not shooting would have been the right answer. 
