to ask your thoughts on this? Fatal shooting during burglary

[itsjustataste]

Happened near me very recently and our community seems very torn with lots of people slinging insults at both sides. Lots of people shouting about playing stupid games, win stupid prizes etc... whilst others calling the shooter a murderer.

I find it very sad that someone so young has ultimately lost their life and has got mixed up in this sort of thing.

BUT that being said, I don't have any ill feeling toward the farmer either and cannot say that I wouldn't do the same if faced with 3 people breaking into my home, especially if I had my children in the house.

The other 2 suspects arrested for aggravated burglary meaning a weapon was involved and there had been a break in at the same home the night previously too.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-68942085.amp

I said what I would do in the post you’re quoting.

Also, one burglar was in the property, but which part of the property? The farm house? An outbuilding?

Isn't the he in the 2nd para referring to the dead burglar?

It does. I misread it. Sorry for confusion!

Totally agree. The poor farmer was on his own - in a remote rural area with 3 armed intruders. I imagine the police will throw the book at the poor man and woke elements of the media will try to drum up sympathy for the deceased.

I’m with the farmer.

as a child, we experienced a horrendous break in where I as a 6 year old child sat on the stairs watching my parents go through a horrendous armed burglary. The impacts still affect me 30 years later, the trauma of what I witnessed took a good chunk of my childhood where I was petrified to the point where I stopped talking, completely for months. Years of therapy, and I’m still having therapy and numerous mental health issues which I’m sure my childhood trauma are the root of.

I would do the same to protect my family. Break ins isnt just about the theft of actual items, it ruins life’s.

I back the farmer - if you break into someone's house, then the consequence is that you might not leave alive.

The force you use is supposed to be proportional to the threat you face. So if it’s reasonable to think they are going to incapacitate you with a baseball bat it’s okay to incapacitate them, even if you use a gun.

No doubt the "victim" (I use the word loosely) will be described in Facebook tributes as "Loveable rogue" and "Life and soul of the party" who "lit up the room when he walked in". And I bet him Mum says he had a heart of gold and just "got in with a bad crowd". All code for an annoying waster who was the scrounge of society and the world will likely be better off without him. No doubt his scrotey little mates will miss him but the rest of the town will likely be breathing a sigh of relief.

I would assume, based on the reporting that one man was found inside the property and another outside, that it was the farm house. As I said previously, we don’t know the facts yet and that is the assumption I’m making.

If he was in the farmhouse, then I would have done exactly the same as the farmer. If for arguments sake he was in the outhouses then that changes things, but what would be of value to steal from those? Farm machinery would need vehicles to move it, unless they were planning on driving a stolen tractor down the road. Hay, animal food, occasionally animal medication would usually be kept in outhouses, it just doesn’t make much sense to me.

I don't feel sorry for a burglar. They ruin people's peace of mind. One less is a good thing.

Well yes, but families and approaches vary, and I'd be very surprised if this one turn out to be squeaky clean themselves

Of course I know nothing about them and could easily be wrong, but time will tell

The farmer is unlikely to be charged if it looks at all like self-defence. His arrest was required only to facilitate investigation.

'Weapon of offence' is understood very widely. Somebody can be charged with aggravated burglary for carrying a jemmy, rope, or pepper spray. I agree it helps a self-defence argument if they were carrying obviously deadly weapons.

I love that the getaway driver got away without his wounded colleague, the coward!

One fewer burglar in the world is no bad thing. Poor farmer though. We lived rurally when I was a child, and knew it would be 40 minutes minimum for police to arrive. It was over a mile to the nearest house. You're on your own in places like that.

The level of deaths from stabbings here where I live is unreal, it's now reached record numbers. I fully support having licenced guns to defend from home invaders. We shouldn't have to allow ourselves to be raped/robbed/attacked. It doesn't make me feel better that they may be arrested at a later date. I'd want to stop them in their tracks.

There is barely a police force in the UK now, especially in rural areas. People however feel the full force of the law for self-defence. What a miserable situation for law-abiding people.
No sympathy for the dead guy I'm afraid, he had no business there.

This.

I'm so sorry this happened to you.

And I totally agree that burglary can ruin lives.

So maybe explain and try and educate them about what there is to steal rather than being unhelpful and rude?

The farmer will do time for manslaughter unfortunately. Do I expect he won’t have to worry too much about being around that man’s family - in the short term anyway.

I agree. I've been the victim of an armed robbery and have PTSD now as a result.

People who do this are scum. Pure and utter scum. It's not just the incident, you carry the fear with you forever and to never be able to feel fully safe in your home is a horrific feeling. I have no sympathy at all.

Breaking into a farm seems like a really stupid idea. Everyone knows farmers have guns. It’s never going to end well.

Currently on SM as being an aggravated burglary, one person died, another injured.

It’s all incredibly sad and the person I feel most for is the farmer and his family, who he was defending.

Lots of info on Twitter but of course nothing verified.

With no opportunity for honest citizens to make their views known, the landscape has continually moved in favour of the criminal.
Sentences should be consecutive so that habitual criminals (two men vandalised 30+ cars in my neighbourhood in one night) and those who cannot safely live among decent people should be off the streets.
Too many people feel entitled to live entirely lawless lives - three strikes and out works for me.
Happy to lend my vote to any politician who guarantees to make crime illegal - and impose that view on the police.

My only sympathy lies with the poor farmer and his family.

It’s a shame the 3 of them weren’t all shot.

God bless the farmer. I hope that he and his family can move past this.

I hope that the other two burglars get life in prison.