Would someone be justified in shooting a carjacker?
Each case is different. I wouldn’t say that there’s any blanket justification, but the case you linked to was a potential self-defense to threat of deadly force. And it’s by no means a slam dunk. That is, a case could be made (but not in Houston, I think), that the victim could have just handed over his keys and avoided any violence at all. That is certainly a presumption that some prosecutors in some parts of the country would make — and in some cases they might be right. For example, what if in the heat of the moment the victim had missed shooting the attacker and instead shot wildly and killed a neighbor. Completely accidental, of course, but is it “justified”? What if the knife had not been at his throat, but just “shown” from a foot or two away? I think a case can certainly be made for the defense that with a gun in the car, the victim couldn’t take a chance that the attacker wouldn’t take the car, check out the registration papers inside and drive to the victim’s home (if he was
Today’s laws have stated that if your life is in danger in any situation…you must make a decision based on the believe that your life or someones life is in danger to take another persons life. If there was no knife involved and they stole the car…and you killed them…you would go to prison for manslaughter…but being that the life was in danger it was justified.
