In November of 2016, a short high-speed chase ended on a highway in Lee County, Florida. When the suspect stopped, he and the pursuing Deputy got into a fight. That suspect, Edward Strother, ran from his car and attacked the Deputy; Strother eventually ended up on top of the his pursuer and beat his head into the pavement.
That’s when a lawfully armed citizen drove by and saw what was happening. Unlike the scores of other cars driving by, this citizen stopped and went to the deputy’s aid.
After multiple verbal attempts to get the attacker to stop, the citizen ended up shooting him to save the Deputy’s life. Since then, questions have arisen about whether the shooter, identified as 35-year-old Ashad Russell, would be charged with a crime. That question has now been answered, and the answer has confirmed what I said when it happened, and what many others have been hoping for since.
On February 14, 2017, Chief Assistant State Attorney Amira Fox of the Florida State Attorney’s Office in Lee County announced that her office had concluded their investigation into the shooting. Her decision deemed Russell a “Good Samaritan” and a “hero”. She went on to say that her office would not be pursuing any charges, and that due to the fact that Russell was defending the officer “from possible serious injury or death”, the state determined that the “Stand Your Ground” law applies. Fox added: “You’re actually immune from prosecution under these facts.”
So, what does this mean for the law abiding citizens of Florida who are legally armed? It means that you do not have to fear prosecution by the State if you are following the law and defending others– no matter who they are. Two more instances of civilians defending police officers have occurred since then. The law abiding citizens who are not afraid to stand up for their fellow man have finally gotten a ruling in their favor from the courts.
The use of force in defense of yourself or others is fairly easy to understand and does not differ much from state to state. If you are in fear for your life or of great bodily harm, whether it be for yourself or another person, you are justified in using up to and including deadly force to stop the attack. As I discussed in one of my recent articles here on OpsLens, use of force is something you need to understand if you are going to carry a concealed firearm to defend yourself or your family.
This ruling by the State Attorney in Florida is very positive and reaffirms what many of us who are pro citizen carry, and pro self-defense rights, have been saying all along. Self-defense is a basic human right, even the defense of others from criminal attack is a basic right. If you do the right thing for the right reason, you will come out of it OK – the legal system has now confirmed this.
To those of you who carry a firearm for self-defense and say you would not go to the aid of someone else in need, or that your defensive firearm is just for you or your family, remember that you too may need help some day. You would hope that another armed law abiding citizen would come to your aid like Mr. Russell did for that Deputy. So let’s all try to be our brothers (and sisters!) keeper just a little bit more. If all of us who carry did that, the country would be a much better place.
Chris Wagoner is a Senior OpsLens Contributor and U.S. Army Veteran. He has been in law enforcement the last 35+ years. He specializes in LE Firearms Instruction, and is in charge of a large Police Academy in North Florida. In his spare time Chris is a freelance Military Reporter and owner/founder of the Largest Military Videos Channel on YouTube “3rdID8487”.
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