A justified defensive shooting in a Texas Pizzeria resulted in the death of one of the armed robbers. The response by the restaurant owner shows the acceptance of defense of self and others is gaining legitimacy in the United States. Here’s the relevant part of the official statement released by La Bella Pizza owners via myhighplains.com:
We at La Bella Pizza on Olsen are deeply saddened by the incident that occurred last Tuesday, January 9th. Our hearts go out to All the families that are involved during this trying time. Our policy always has and always will be that our employees are welcome to legally and responsibly possess the means to defend themselves and others around them.
The robber, 36-year-old Clayton Jerrell Morgan, was armed with an air pistol altered to look like a real gun. Morgan was killed when he pointed the air pistol at an armed employee. Morgan’s accomplice will be charged with murder under the felony murder rule. From amarillo.com:
Amarillo Police Department has identified the man shot at La Bella Pizza on Olsen Boulevard as Clayton Jerrell Morgan, according to a news release. Officers arrested his alleged accomplice, 29-year-old Ruben Ryel Rios, who police said was charged under the state’s felony murder rule that allows a person to be charged with murder if they are involved in a felony crime that causes a death.
The shooting illustrates one of the reasons why only 20 percent of justified homicides are recorded in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. Morgan’s death will be listed as a murder because of the felony murder rule. It will increase the official count of murders in the United States, and reduce the official count of justified homicides.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included. Gun Watch
God Bless Texas
Clay, “was very compassionate and caring towards others and it showed in his love to volunteer and help others. He was a member of First Baptist Church.”
https://goo.gl/HWm1hx
Clay was also a wanted man
http://m.kcbd.com/kcbd/pm_/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=od:xmGdM6Pb
Strange life
So if I call the Amarillo PD and tell them where he is, I get 300 simoleons? That sounds like a win.
People are complicated. Even among those who commit acts of evil, there are very few who don’t have at least some positive qualities. And among those who commit acts of good, very few don’t have at least some negative qualities.
(that’s not to say I’m sad the idiot is dead. As they say, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. You take your life into your hands when you threaten someone else’s)
I agree with your statement wholeheartedly.
They are and they aren’t. Psychology even has a term for the commonalities among supposedly unique people. It’s called “Nondifferent Individual.” There’s controversy around that theory, as you’d expect of just about any social science idea. Still, a key take away is that regardless of personality, much of people’s responses and decisions are situational, as in driven by the situation they’re in.
Personality’s role would seem to be in influencing what situations find themselves in, in the first place. If your personality reflects a lack of conscientiousness, and the dead robber’s most certainly did, odds are you’re going to have a more difficult life ahead of you than otherwise. Oh, and a shorter life, too.
“Evil” or not, this dude’s fate was sealed no later than by about age three. The rest since then has been just a matter of waiting for the clock to run out.
” ‘Evil’ or not, this dude’s fate was sealed no later than by about age three. The rest since then has been just a matter of waiting for the clock to run out.”
That is laughable at best. People’s lives evolve substantially throughout their lives. A person otherwise destined to live a relatively normal life can be seriously messed up mentally/emotionally by any number of events. For example, I highly doubt the person who pulled the trigger will ever be the same. Someone who early in life had a shining future can lose it all when a parent dies suddenly and leaves them without a father or mother.
This list of examples could essentially go on forever.
Point being, parts of who you are are shaped early in your life. That is clear. Some of who you are is shaped by your genes before you’re ever born. But your upbringing, education, life experiences, etc. also significantly shape who you are.
We aren’t mere products of our environment but rather how we react to our environment. Does conditioned response play a part? Yes but we can overcome it.
Thank you for this.
I would disagree. I think it demonstrates that there are people who welcome criminal scumbags into their lives. “Very compassionate and caring” don’t threaten people with death for the money in the cash register. I don’t know who I have more contempt for, the dead scumbag or his enablers.
Well, even Hitler was kind to his dog.
Doesn’t mitigate crimes though.
An airsoft gun…
I don’t see a solution to this. While I may hate having to clean up that aisle on my store and they are one of the most frequently shoplifted items we carry, I can’t see any benefit to making any changes to the legal availability of them or mandates regarding their manufactured appearance.
Maybe keeping them readily available will mean more idiots getting shot by armed civilians and police. It’s cynical but that’s the best philosophy I can come up with here.
🤠
Call them enablers of Darwinism?
Pretty much. Idiots do stupid things with every item that has even a theoretical capacity for misuse
The loss of a life is always sad. But the death of a violent criminal should in no way affect the liberty of the rest of us. two idiots decided to threaten to kill someone, they got what they deserved.
There’s no downside to easily available airsofts being used in crime.
It’s still armed robbery if you use a toy.
Toy-using crim can still be legally ventilated in self-defense.
Toy-using crim at the worst could maybe put an eye out if someone gets very unlucky.
This is a happy ending story. (Smile)
I’m an avid supporter of 2A rights and carry close to 99.9% of the time. The employee was well within his rights to defend his life and those of his colleagues. With that said, I think that we should not be so callous when a life is lost (even a bad guy) – life is precious after all. Should we lose sleep over it? Definitely not as this was a “good shoot” as the defender obviously felt he was under threat of grave bodily harm or death.
I think that a defensive gun use is a matter of both of reality and perception; we all should operate under a degree of professionalism to further the cause of all of our rights for self defense. It’s just disappointing to me when we devolve into a mindset of jeering at the perp and patting ourselves on the back – it seems very juvenile and unenlightened. Don’t get me wrong as I’m appreciative of the outcome but I think we need to be seen as those that are standing on the higher ground…
“Life is precious” is a trite phrase whose time has passed. With over 7 billion on a planet where half that would be comfortable, and with war and pestilence no longer able to wipe out huge hunks of the population, it is up to each of us to *make* our particular lives precious, This guy was a waste of 30 years worth of food and water. The world will not miss him.
I guess all I was trying say was let’s keep it classy. As for the life is precious comment, I was thinking in grander scale (along the lines of our known universe – there is A LOT of empty space out there). I forgot this was the internet so I guess I’ll join in:
I’m glad the BG is pushing daisies and he was a jerk face. 😉
“with over 7 billion on a planet”
“Do I hear 8? Do I hear 8 billion? With the new Trumph tax bill I suspect we will be hearing……”Honey, now that the Donald has given us several thousand extra dollars for the 8, or is it 9 kids we have, do you suppose we could pump out a couple more, I mean, we could just add on another layer or two, to the bunk beds, and it would’t cost us hardly anything. and we could always use the few extra bucks those nice tax payers are giving us.
The one thing I will agree on in your post is the expression “bad guy”. That’s all he is, he is not worth mourning over. He took it upon himself to rob the pizza shop, no one forced him. The best thing we can do now is to inform the general public, concerning the needs to “arm one’s self.
The only one who would have a reason to shed a tear over this incident would be his parents and personal family, if he had one.
The world is a better place now that we have one less person to worry about.
Agreed, he is not worth mourning over. Just saying we should be professional in our response; that is all.
Fix the gun related crime categories to include the more accurate “self defense”.
Poor Clayton Jerrell Morgan. He wanted extra pepperoni and instead got extra lead.
Sniff.
“He wanted extra pepperoni and instead got extra lead. ”
The ‘Master of Wisecracks’ strikes yet again.
Well, he got it hot and fresh, in under 30 seconds, and it was *free*…
*snicker*
At least Ralph and Geoff PR gave me a good laugh today. Nice play on the old Dominoes delivery motto of 30 minutes or less. I was a Dominoes delivery driver many moons ago and I was jealous of the Pizza Hut drivers with no time limit and better tips because their pizza was more popular. Also, the cops never gave you a break if you were speeding for a good reason (trying to make a living).
You broke traffic laws to beat the deadline?
I got my best tips when I’d tell them it was free before they had a chance to tell me I was late.
Then there was the rule that said it was late if it was 25 minutes old when it left the store, even if it was only going across the street. Had a few customers who were confused at how their 28 minute delivery could be late.
Well, almost free, he still paid for it with his life. So sad, too bad.
Maybe next time it will go better for, Oops, I guess there wont be any next time for him.
But but, he was just turning his life around.
Yeah … Seems he was bad at math and didn’t know to stop at 180.
I blame the teachers.
“The shooting illustrates one of the reasons why only 20 percent of justified homicides are recorded in the FBI Uniform Crime Reports. Morgan’s death will be listed as a murder because of the felony murder rule. It will increase the official count of murders in the United States, and reduce the official count of justified homicides.”
I’ve heard of the felony murder rule but I didn’t know the FBI would then count it as a murder as opposed to a justified homicide. Now I wonder how often that has happened…
Your post has the details to figure that out. Look up how many justified homicides there are and then quintuple the number.
VERY often, 4 out of every 5 times according to these statistics. So, we have to wonder what the national murder rate REALLY is.
Always nice to hear a story with a good ending. Hope the self defender is doing well and won’t have any psychological problems in the future. Great guy, i want all of my waiters/waitresses like him.
If you want a more accurate account of the justified killings then when they charge the other person with murder it should be dual listed
Then you’re double counting ‘gun deaths’ and inflating the ‘people killed by guns’ statistic.
Everybody gets one death.
If it’s a homicide, the FBI can categorize it as murder or needed to be dead. Felony murder charges don’t change the fact that the perp needed to be dead.
Off the subject a bit, but I couldn’t help noticing the “DINE-IN” sign. Reminds me of the small pizza place in my small town. It also has a DINE-IN sign.
I always thought the phrase to “DINE” in, or out was reserved for a “Classier” place, such as a “Dinner house”, at least something other than a pizza place, or hamburger joint.
The robber missed the “N” – thought the sign said “DIE IN.”
Dirtbag enters pizzeria with toy gun and robbery in mind.
Pizzeria employee opens up with own firearm, kills idiot dirtbag.
Evidently state and federal firearm laws are working, or this dirtbag may of had a real gun and real bullets.
These facts alone are calling for a celebration. State laws were in play, and the criminal lost everything, and no innocent persons were hurt.
One less criminal in Texas, and a local business that has the capability to provide protection for you when you visit them.
Gotta love it…
Listed as a murder rather than a justifiable incident of self defense, Is there any doubt that the Liberals rule the roost when it comes to gun use statistics?
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