Also known as: Bringing a knife to a gunfight.
This time in Florida, a man seen wearing a tuxedo stabbed a man who was apparently his former employer. The victim of this story, 65 year old Louis Rivera, shot his attacker causing him to run off where he later died of his injuries.
This confrontation took place at a Florida apartment complex on Independence Day at about 12:10 in the morning.
Jupiter police department responded to possible shots fired in the area, which actually took place at the Abacoa Apartment Complex, where Louis Rivera, 65, the man who was stabbed, lived with his fiancee.
Rivera is a maintenance manager for the building where he lives, and the deceased, a 32 year old knife wielding male (who dressed for the occasion) worked for Rivera at some point, clearly knowing where his victim lived.
Rivera reportedly told police that after he was stabbed, he fired his gun in self-defense. His attacker fled on foot, but police found the body still in the apartment complex after searching the area.
Rivera was taken to St. Mary’s hospital and is listed in stable condition. Police say that the investigation is ongoing, and one source said police were investigating this as a homicide.
Rivera’s fiancee, told WPTV-TV that her man pulled out his revolver and shot the alleged assailant in self-defense.
He ran up on us. We were outside checking our car because he was around, and he just came running up on us. He lost it, and it’s just a huge shock to the community. It’s devastated our family. Nobody wants to take someone’s life, but he had to protect our family.
The fiancee told reporters that Rivera was at the local hospital and that his arm would likely need surgery.
Analysis:
This is an interesting story for a couple of reasons. The first one being, that Rivera could potentially have avoided getting stabbed to begin with. If you read her above quote, she says they were outside checking on their car because they knew he was around.
Could this be taken as: They went looking for trouble?
It was clearly not a good idea and if they had stayed put in their home, this would likely not have occurred. Of course, there is the possibility that the attacker was hell-bent on attacking and would have broken into the apartment, anyway. We don’t know.
What we do know, is if the attacker had broken into his victim’s home, they would have a better case presented in court since the way things turned out could be presented in court that they were going out to look for a fight. It probably won’t stick if they do go this route, but it is a headache that is not needed, nonetheless.
This is a good reminder to keep our mouths shut after the use of deadly force. While it was said that he was defending his life, a ballsy prosecutor could counter that with nothing more than the fiancee’s above quote. You can watch the interview, here:
The case could be made that because he went out to the car with his gun, that he was looking for a fight. It’s a stretch but that case could be made if local authorities want to make an example of him.
Always keep your mouth shut after a DGU until you have spoken to your lawyer. The last thing you need is to be jammed up for saving your own life. And, of course, we recommend getting concealed carry insurance of some sort, like USCCA or one of their competitors to make sure you’re covered in such an event.
You can read my USCCA Review, here.
And please let us know your thoughts on this in the comments below.
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