In February, we reported on a man in Las Vegas who shot and killed someone stealing his car that had firearms in it. Carlos Viana was walking out of a warehouse and shot a person as he was attempting to flee with Viana’s Mercedes. It ends up that Viana is a firearms instructor, and he is now being charged with murder.
Viana told detectives the man drove the car at him, prompting him to think, “I needed to do something to stop this guy from proceeding, driving off into the street. And then I will try and stop him.”
He should have known better, and he didn’t follow the instructions he should have been giving every student. The time to talk to the police or anyone except your attorney is not by yourself at the scene.
According to the follow-up investigation, “When Viana discharged his handgun, he was standing on the driver’s side of the vehicle, not in front of the vehicle,” police said. “Viana fired his handgun twice towards the vehicle, hitting the driver’s door window.”
That massive adrenaline dump caused by your body’s reaction to the life-threatening event you just went through has side effects. Those side effects are not limited to physical symptoms like tunnel vision and lack of fine motor skills. Emotionally, you are going to be a wreck!
In high-stress situations, people will say things they didn’t mean, leading to nothing but trouble. For example, the words “I can’t believe I had to shoot him. It’s not something I wanted to do.”
You intended it to mean you had no other choice except to defend yourself, but someone else might hear you saying you had doubt about how you handled it. The detective may respond, “What do you mean you can’t believe you had to shoot him?” To him, you may have sounded like you wondered if you just did the right thing.
If you start talking, you may say something stupid that gets interpreted as entirely different from what you meant. These statements can sometimes be considered “excited utterances” and used against you. We have all watched a court case on TV, and a lawyer has said, “objection, your honor. That’s hearsay.” Under normal circumstances, what a 3rd party heard you say can not be used in court, but if your statement was made when you were still under stress, it might be admissible under the “excited utterance” exception.
“excited utterance”: a statement that concerns a startling event (such as a physical assault) and that is made by a person while under stress caused by the event
You can say things like what the attacker looked like, what they were driving, or what kind of weapon they had, but you should not try to explain why you did what you did. You will want to talk to someone, but there will be plenty of time for that after you have composed yourself and got your head screwed back on straight. Cooperate with the police and be respectful, but do not discuss what just happened. This includes saying anything to friends, family, or bystanders. This will be one of those cases to continue following and watch how it plays out with the attorneys and in court.
This sad story starts with the idea that you are not allowed to defend your property in some states. Nevada must be one of them. If the thief would have got away, how many people might have died because he stole firearms that were in the car? So, heed the author’s warning, be nice but never tell the police anything without a lawyer. “I shot the thief because he was trying to run me over!”
You can provide yourself a free mini-education on the importance of not talking to the police: When you can quietly sit and study things for awhile, go to YouTube dot com and enter “Don’t talk to the police” into the Search box near the top of the page. You will see many videos come up, including some very well done documentaries complete with law professors and retired detectives and other such folks from all throughout law enforcement and the legal system, both current and retired, and ALL of them saying the same damn thing: Don’t talk to the police – be polite, be cooperative, but say the absolute minimum (you have to give your name and etc.) until your lawyer arrives, or until you can GET a lawyer to talk to. The more you try to explain and go into needless detail, the more certain you are to incriminate yourself, no matter how legal and proper and you may be in reality.
It is very tempting to elaborate but there is no need. I will simply point out that one video I found helpful long ago, was from Regent University school of Law, dated some 10 years back, which is 46 minutes long. But there are countless others and many of them not nearly so long. Watch a bunch over time whenever you can, and learn.
While I am on the subject – also do a YouTube search for “Active Self Protection” or “A.S.P.” for short, and look over a few hundred of their videos going back years. These are all real world shootings, as recorded on security cameras, dash cameras, police body cameras, witness smartphone videos and so forth, and from all over the world. Lots of good narration and advice, and you can actually STUDY how human beings react in the real world when they get shot, especially by handguns. As briefly as possible: If you ever find yourself forced to fire your weapon in self-defense, DO NOT EXPECT the attacker to just instantly fall down and become motionless like they do in the movies. 🙂 As you can easily see with your own two eyes, it is not at all uncommon for someone who gets shot to just initially appear to get even angrier than they already were and continue to fight like hell. This comment is already getting too long, so I will just leave it at this: You can watch hundreds of actual self-defense and police shootings as captured on video from all over the world, and you can learn quite a bit. FOR FREE. Whether or not you simply take the time to do so is up to you.