TEMPE, ARIZONA — Three guys were allegedly asked to leave a party around 4:15 am. It was getting pretty late (or early, depending on how you see it) and all three initially left according to police reports from witness testimony.
Unfortunately, one of them apparently didn’t have the common sense to call well enough alone and allegedly said he’d come back with a gun and open fire on the party’s attendees. This should have ended with the other two apologizing profusely and warning that their friend was an idiot and would never be coming back. Instead, FOX 10 reported that they returned and a fight broke out in the doorway. One of the assailants reportedly had a knife. And, in the midst of the melee, shots rang out and struck one of the guys who just couldn’t leave well enough alone. The shooting is being investigated as an act of self-defense by one of the guests. After all, these guys did just threaten to return with violent force.
The hospitalized assailant was last heard to be in serious but stable condition. The two others are in custody for questioning.
In the State of Arizona, deadly force is authorized when witnessing the commission of a violent felony. Without postulating the legal ramifications of said actions, it does appear that if the guest was where he was supposed to be (i.e. “a guest of the owner”) then he had no obligation to back down from the ongoing commission of aforementioned felony.
This isn’t a terribly sad story but it is a good idea, at least while in Arizona, if asked to leave someone’s home — do so. Don’t return unless invited. Police are still investigating the matter and there’s a chance the prosecutor decides to pursue the case with the zeal that prosecutors tend to. Arizona is the land of pink colored jumpsuits, baloney sandwiches, and perpetual prison working parties. In other words, it’s not the place to go to jail.
It is a fantastic place to be a law-abiding gun carrier, though. And that… That’s good enough for us.