WDTN is reporting that on Tuesday night, a woman died as she was running away from a man who was carrying a "rifle type weapon" in a Beavercreek, Ohio Walmart store. WDTN is also reporting that Police were called to the Walmart when they got "reports" (pluaral) that a man was waving a "rifle type weapon" at customers.
The second victim in this event apparently died from some sort of medical collapse. She is identified as Angela Williams, 37, of Fairborn. The coroner’s office says she was running away from the incident when she collapsed. She died at Soin Medical Center. An autopsy will be completed today, but results are not expected for several weeks. Williams was expected to be married this Saturday.
The man, 22 year old John Crawford, was shot and killed by police after Crawford did not obey their commends after they arrived at the store.
Police issued a statement, “Responding officers confronted the suspect inside the store area and the subject was shot after failing to comply with officers verbal commands.”
This is a tragedy
... and ... if the NRA-ILA get their way in Ohio, this would, then, also be an example of Stand Your Ground at work.
Currently, Ohio has not enacted the NRA's Stand Your Ground into law but, in November 2011 the NRA-ILA passed along information that their Stand Your Ground law passed the Ohio House and moved to the Senate.
Stand Your Ground Angle for this individual case:
Factor One:
If Ohio Senate passes SYG laws and the Ohio Governor signs SYG into law, this woman would have had no legal duty to retreat her, reportedly, perceived threat. But she did retreat so now a woman died retreating from what she, reportedly, thought was a situation where her life was in danger in a store where she was lawfully allowed to be.
Factor Two:
At the same time, the man, who customers thought was a perceived threat, as they thought he was threatening their lives or the lives of others was shot and killed.
Those two factors together are exactly the combination that the NRA uses to convince lawmakers to enact Stand Your Ground laws:
No duty to retreat, simply, shoot and kill any and all perceived threats then go about your shopping needs.
To my knowledge, the NRA has not issued a statement on this situation and I don't know why they would since the perceived threat was shot and killed, which, is exactly what the NRA wants to happen to people who are perceived threats.
As an aside, studies show that Stand Your Ground laws increase homicide rates and does not reduce crime.
Results indicate that the prospect of facing additional self-defense does not deter crime. Specifically, we find no evidence of deterrence effects on burglary, robbery, or aggravated assault. Moreover, our estimates are sufficiently precise as to rule out meaningful deterrence effects.
[W]e find significant evidence that the [Stand Your Ground] laws increase homicides ... More significantly, we find the laws increase murder and manslaughter by a statistically significant 7 to 9 percent, which translates into an additional 500 to 700 homicides per year nationally across the states that adopted castle doctrine.
Thus, by lowering the expected costs associated with using lethal force, castle doctrine laws induce more of it. This increase in homicides could be due either to the increased use of lethal force in self-defense situations, or to the escalation of violence in otherwise non-lethal conflicts. We suspect that self-defense situations are unlikely to explain all of the increase, as we also find that murder alone is increased by a statistically significant 6 to 11 percent.
~ Texas A&M Study on Stand Your Ground Laws Affect on Homicide
A Georgia State study also showed Stand Your Ground laws
increase homicides and does
not make the public safer.
Our results indicate that Stand Your Ground laws are associated with a significant increase in the number of homicides among whites, especially white males. According to our estimates, between 28 and 33 additional white males are killed each month as a result of these laws. We find no consistent evidence to suggest that these laws increase homicides among blacks. Auxiliary analysis using data from the Supplemental Homicide Reports indicates that our results are not driven by the killings of assailants. We also find that the stand your ground laws are not related to non-homicide deaths, which should not respond to gun laws. Finally, we analyze data from the Health Care Utilization Project to show that these laws are also associated with a significant increase in emergency room visits and hospital discharges related to firearm inflicted injuries. Taken together, these findings raise serious doubts against the argument that Stand Your Ground laws make public safer.
~2012 Georgia State study on Stand Your Ground Laws
Sorry, I digressed ...
Although Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said Thursday that Crawford was shot while carrying MK-177 (.177 caliber) BB/Pellet Rifle in the store, but reports on this incident vary as to whether or not the man walked into the store with the weapon or whether the man picked the weapon up off the Walmart shelf and started walking around with it.
However, remember, if Ohio enacts the NRA's SYG laws, it would not really matter where Crawford picked up the weapon because Stand Your Ground laws would have enabled anyone to shoot and kill Crawford so long as customers feared for their lives in the store where they are lawfully allowed to be.
One customer, Ronald Ritchie was one of the people who called in "reports" to 911
Ronald Ritchie said Crawford "was just waving [the gun] at children and people...I couldn't hear anything that he was saying. I'm thinking that he is either going to rob the place or he's there to shoot somebody.
That's nice that Ritchie called the police and I would have done the same damn thing if I thought what Ritchie thought. But the NRA might blast Ritchie's call and tell him that he should demand Ohio enact SYG laws so that he, Ritchie, could have just shot and killed Crawford the very moment he, Ritchie, thought his life, or the life of others was in danger ... you know, so as not to bother the police with such a minor thing as fearing for one's life ... or disarming a person who is a perceived threat.
One thing is clear, Crawford's actions frightened some people in the store and made some customers 'fear for their life' so they called police, as they should do when they fear for their lives or the lives of others.
Therefore, I suppose one moral to this story is:
IF: you're going to carry a "rifle type weapon" in a store,
THEN: you better be prepared to have the cops called on you and also be prepared to take the risk of being shot and killed by the police
... or ... if you live in a SYG state, take the risk of being shot and killed by someone who perceives you as a threat.
(hat tip to Dkos diarist Jen Hayden)