While we’re definitely not attorneys, we’re pretty sure there isn’t anywhere in the US where you can shoot someone for stealing your car and not facing any criminal charges. A 22-year-old Houston man is learning this lesson the hard way after reportedly shooting two young boys who stole his ride.
Stolen car hunter pleads guilty for shooting.
According to Fox 26 Houston, on October 10 Addrian Nicolas Garcia noticed his car was missing from outside his home and so went looking for it. The report doesn’t say whether the vehicle had a GPS tracker. Either that or this guy has some sort of sixth sense for his beloved ride, because he was able to track it down not too long after.
Some car theft victims look for their vehicle for days before finally finding it, and usually by sheer luck or dogged determination. But Garcia located his quickly and decided to confront the two juvenile males who had taken it.
Things escalated and Garcia shot the 15-year-old boys. Keep in mind these could have been bigger than him or at least equal in size.
Both juveniles were taken to the hospital in critical condition. Now Garcia is facing two counts of aggravated assault – serious bodily injury. We know precious little about exactly what transpired, including if Garcia had reason to fear for his life, but the Harris County District Attorney’s Office concluded he should be charged.
A lot of people are outraged by this situation. Some feel you should be justified in using lethal force to get back your property. Others are pointing out that the juveniles might have attacked Garcia who shot them in self-defense. But many are just done with police and prosecutors allowing crime like car thefts to go relatively unchecked.
This was always going to be the result of soft on crime criminal justice reforms as the populace that’s already pinched by inflation and skyrocketing interest rates, not to mention climbing insurance premiums, feel those who are supposed to be helping them are in fact helping those who steal.
We can’t weigh in on this specific case since few details are available, but we can say people have had it with rampant car theft. That we completely understand.
