I saw this and thought of all of you. I feel pretty confident I can guess where the majority will fall on this issue, but I'm curious to see the comments.
This guy was shot and killed while burgling a car dealership. Because the dealership had experienced earlier burglaries, they'd set up a watch and 3 men were keeping an armed vigil. When they saw 2 guys (who were high on meth at the time), scale the fence, they fired. The burglars ran, but one was killed. It was later discovered he had several knives on him.
The jury awarded the dead man's daughter just shy of $300k, a decision that seemed ot be motivated by the fact that he was not threatening anyone at the time and thus posed no threat, so shooting him was not "reasonable force", which is what CO's self-defense statute states is acceptable when defending one's self.
The criminal case against the shooters was sent to the gran jury, which failed to indict to no criminal charges were filed.
Article here.
Fox, 20, was shot after he and a friend scaled a fence to get inside Southwest Auto Sales at 2444 Platte Place in the city’s Knob Hill neighborhood. According to the accomplice, Brian Corbin, they had smoked methamphetamine and were looking to steal anything to buy more drugs.
Corbin testified he saw two armed men charge out of a building and run in their direction, one of them shouting “we’re gonna get you” in an obscenity-laced threat. Corbin, who escaped by climbing over a car and jumping a fence, said he felt a bullet pass by him as someone fired four gunshots.
Fox was standing inside a small shed when a .45-caliber rifle bullet passed through the shed’s door and pierced his heart.