Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
On 06-26-2012, approximately 1:30 a.m. the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office received a call of a possible intruder in a residence in the 4000 block of Fickle Hill Road, Arcata. While the deputies were enroute the Sheriffs Office dispatch received a call that the intruder had been shot.
Deputies increased their response to Code Three and medical was notified to respond. When deputies arrived they spoke with the homeowners, a twenty four year old male and an 18 year old female. The homeowners told the deputies they were awakened by their dogs barking. When the male homeowner yelled at his dogs to be quiet, an unknown male voice answered from inside their home. The male homeowner saw an unknown male and an unfamiliar dog in his living room. The homeowners told the unknown male to leave their residence. The unknown male told the couple to leave his residence. The homeowners saw there was a vehicle parked outside their residence that had crashed into their gate post. The homeowners went to a nearby neighbor and asked for help. The neighbor, a 42 year old male, and the male homeowner returned to the residence. The neighbor brought a shotgun with him for defense. When they entered the residence they again asked the subject on the couch to leave. The subject on the couch was very intoxicated and appeared to believe he was in his own home. He jumped up from the couch and came at the neighbor who was holding the shotgun. The neighbor fired the shotgun one time. The male subject was struck in the abdominal area causing a significant injury.
The injured male was transported to a local hospital and is in critical condition. Sheriff’s Detectives were called to the scene to investigate. No arrests were made and the case is being referred to the Humboldt County District Attorneys Office for review.
This article appears in What’s Organic?.
Somebody put bath salt in the guy’s drink at the Alabi.
What is the man’s name that got shot?
[Comment removed for being racist, ignorant and not particularly funny. –NCJ]
Please remember this man has a family and friends who love him. The trash talking is unnecessary and disrespectful. He is fighting for his life in the ICU right now. If it was your father/brother/son, you wouldn’t appreciate the b.s. comments. Have some respect.
Harry Pickle is just a sprout and wishes he was a pickle.
So somebody that is not even the homeowner shoots a drunk, defenseless guy with a shotgun and isn’t arrested? How does that happen? Why did they go and confront the guy with a gun after they called police? What were they hiding?
Doesnt sound like self defense to me. Sounds like attempted murder.
I would hate to be the shooter, he’ll go down like the rest of the scumwad money hungary growers who will protect their crops and will use the attempted killing of an innocent person.
Called castle law,look it up people
Yes, by all means, if it’s legal, shoot someone.
Regarding castle law:
1- California’s law provides that deadly force may be justified in cases “when the actor reasonably fears imminent peril of death or serious bodily harm to himself or another.” Also, People v.s. Ceballos found burglaries which don’t “reasonably create a fear of great bodily harm” are not sufficient cause for use of deadly force.
A drunk, UNARMED guy on your couch does not pose imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm. He was drunk, he made a mistake. Let the cops deal with it.
2: The NEIGHBOR who shot the drunk guy doesn’t even live there. How can you invoke castle law if it isn’t even your castle?!
That law does not provide a blanket defense that you can use to justify attempted murder. The circumstances of the incident must meet certain conditions for castle law to be used as an adequate defense, and it looks to me like none of those conditions apply here.
It doesn’t matter that he was drunk. It doesn’t matter that he mistakenly walked into the wrong house. He posed no real threat, and did NOT deserve to be shot.
I only hope that the District Attorney takes a serious look at this case and calls for the arrest of the shooter and charges him with attempted murder. If you feel the same, you should start calling Gallegos’ office and ask why no one has been charged yet.
Rachel, I’m curious how you know that the drunk “posed no real threat,” since you weren’t there.
Ceballos case has no relevance rachel….. California Penal Code § 198.5 sets forth that unlawful, forcible entry into one’s residence by someone not a member of the household creates the presumption that the resident held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily injury should he or she use deadly force against the intruder. This would make the homicide justifiable under CPC §
discretion. [
Once the homeowners left the house and no one else was left inside except the intruder, the threat is now gone!! The sheriffs were in route. For the neighbor to come back with a shotgun is irresponsible. The neighbor escalated the issue. The district attorney better be pressing charges against the neighbor! I am not saying the intruder is innocent in all of this. Sure, he was trespassing and will/should be held accountable. But it was clear from his statement he thought he was in his own home. So for the neighbor to then go into the house with a loaded shotgun was negligent and should be arrested.
Castle doctrine does not apply here. There was no threat to the homeowners after they called the police and left the house. The neighbor had no interest in the affair at all.
there was no “forcible entry” if the trespasser walked thru an unlocked door. there was no credible threat of “great bodily harm” if the trespasser was asleep on the couch. there was no indication intent to commit burglary. i speculate that the trigger happy neighbor was amped up and had his blood pumping from hurrying up the steep hill to respond to the fears of his young neighbors.
Stand Down, what part of “[h]e jumped up from the couch and came at the neighbor who was holding the shotgun” makes you think the intruder was asleep on the couch?
You guys defending a drunk breaking into a house are freaking clueless.Dont get drunk and break into someones house.Do it at my house and i will blow you away to.Then you say drug dealers.How do you know that.Something you come up with while you wait for your government check to come in.Self defence.I wish the drunk woulda run your kid over while driving drunk enough to break into the wrong house.Then we could tell you to shut up deal with it he was just drunk not his fault.
Don’t drink and post. You might end up typing a rambling comment with no spaces between sentences.
Obviously he made a mistake. How many of you haven’t had too much to drink and ended up doing something stupid? He shouldn’t have been shot for what he did.
And returning to what you perceive to be a dangerous situation and then shooting the person does not constitute self defense. If you were really in danger, you wouldn’t have returned, would you?
The guy who shot him wasn’t even on his own property, so defense of property doesn’t apply.
good article in the TS:
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_20979290/question-self-defense-fickle-hill-shooting-highlights-complexity?source=rss
If you lived all the way up fickle hill, and it takes police about 10 minutes to get to your residence, would you want an intruder to have free range in your home while you wait? That gives someone plenty of time to do whatever they want, steal your possessions, hurt your animals, or, lord forbid, set your house on fire. They returned to the house just to ask the man to leave, yes with a gun, but hell I would bring a gun too, you don’t know what that man is going to do. Plus, it turned out they needed it. Maybe they shouldn’t have shot him, could have knocked him out. But we all know split-second decisions are difficult. Who knows what any of us would have done in that moment.
Besides, this intruder was not in his right state of mind and aggressive. He should not have been in the house and should have left when asked.
They did the best they could with the circumstances given to them.
He is a good man, father & hard worker. Unfortunately he had a bad night due to a bad choice. Hope you heal quickly, all of us are sending you love & goodness.
This is very very serious. The shooter is an amateur gun happy nut case. He thought he would be a big-shot if he scared the drunken fellow half to death, well instead he took it to far and shot him. The angle he shot him shows that he was no threat to the shooter, nor the people who lived there. By the way, the people who lived there took off.
I agree with Steve’s post above….the shooter was gun happy..of course the drunk, was in the wrong place…he obviously felt he really was in his house…..not in a house to rob, or kill….common sense, could have figured that out, upon initial confrontation…..those three, should have waited out the police…the man’s car was crashed.his dog was in the house…he was stupid ass drunk…not a man on a mission…
John I’m praying for you and your family, hang in there.
I am disturbed that many of you seem to assign no blame to the drunk that entered the house.
Understand this:
If the homeowner had shot him when he first entered the house, it would have been justifiable.If the homeowner had initially found the man on the couch and the homeowner had shot the man when he got up and was confrontational, it would have been justified. Now, the fact that they went back to the house after being safe, is STUPID, but not illegal. You have a right to go and remove a trespasser from your house. You are not required to wait for the cops to do it. Again, I think this was the WRONG decision, but not an illegal one.
So, what it boils down to is did the neighbor have a reasonable fear that the drunk was going to inflict great bodily harm on him or someone else when he shot him. Well, I am not sure, but if you are holding a gun and some drunk trespasser is coming at you, it seems reasonable that if you don’t shoot him, he may be able to get your gun and indeed inflict great bodily harm on you.
Again, what the homeowner and the neighbor did was STUPID, but if I am on the jury, with what we currently know, I am not going to convict the neighbor of anything. The vast majority of the blame lies with the guy who drove his car, so wasted, to the wrong house, crashed into a fence and entered someone else’s dwelling. Did he DESERVE to get shot? Of course not, but sometimes you receive harsh consequences from your really stupid actions.
If you carry/hold a gun you take on the responsibility of knowing when you should use it and should be held responsible if you use it out of line. If you think you’re going to panic and blast someone, then let the trained officers handle it.
From the stories I have read the intruder was highly intoxicated and under the influence of drugs. He is lucky he didn’t kill a family while driving like that first of all. It sounded like the neighbor asked the intruder to leave and then was attacked by this guy, who wouldn’t have shot him? The neighbor did not just shoot him while he was sleeping on the couch. This guy came after and tried to attack the neighbor with the gun, who wouldn’t have shot him? I hope the intruder lives but after all he is the one to blame. He was the one that chose to get that drunk and try to drive home, he was the one who chose to intrude into someone else’s home at 2am, he was the one that chose to attack a man with a gun.
I can’t believe all the comments on here that are saying negative things about the neighbor who came to aide of his young neighbor. I know if I was alone and an intruder was in my home I would gladly run to a neighbor who I know would protect me. The law says that you have every right to protect yourself AND/OR come to the aid of others. This man did just that, then the intruder rushed him. I know I’m calling the DA and I’m asking that they not bring ANY charges against this man for helping his neighbor.I invite all of you do the same!! At the same time I pray that the drunk intruder lives.
WOW. Sounds like a lot of stupidity on every ones parts. Someone driving intoxicated and intruding on someone elses home is NOT smart! Home owners going back into the home after police were already called, NOT smart! Neighbor that tries to be a hero by going onto someone elses property w/ a gun to take on a drunk, NOT smart! It also sounds like the lot of you should not own guns. By the way, there is NO law that says you have the right to defend someone elses property people! This whole situation was preventable. Dont drink and drive and dont own a gun if you are that paranoid and scared of a drunk dude. If you are going to wish charges against anyone maybe wish them on everyone involved. No one acted intelligently in this case! “If you come in my door uninvited I’ll blow you away…” Gimme a break dude!!!! Go live in Texas w/ that attitude and see what happens. Yeah, a gun really helped this situation! I know the intruder and am not stupid enough to use his name like someone above did. He made VERY poor choices, but did not need to be shot! He is a father, and a son. He is NOT a bad person! People at the bars around here REALLY need to learn to not over serve people. It is because of this that I have lost more than one person close to me.
Wow is right….did the bartenders hold a gun to his head and force the drinks down his throat too? The whole thing is an unfortunate event hopefully everyone will learn from this. I am sure both sides are going through some traumatic experiences. None of us were there in that position and situation so we cannot say what should have or could have been done without being in it or knowing the entire story.
Sounds like both sides were not bad people, I know the neighbor and he is also a loving husband, son and father of two. This is an unfortunate event and I pray for everyone involved.
This is such an unfortunate event! I know the neighbor and he was my sons little league coach. I know that recently him and his wife took in another little boy that had nowhere to live. He has two sons and they r such a sweet family. I would hate to see something happen to break up this family just because of some drunks actions. I talked to somebody that knows the intruder and they said he does bath salts a lot. I know the neighbor and his family have been praying for the intruder and his family. I know I sound bitter but I wouldn’t be praying for him since his poor choices could be ripping apart this family.
ultram buy generic for ultram 50mg – ultram withdrawal day 4