Broward Co., FL

4/15/25 CNW Network:

"The Broward State Attorney’s Office has decided to drop all charges against 28-year-old Jaime Taylor, who had been accused of fatally shooting 27-year-old Anthony Souvenir in a Walgreens store in Miramar earlier this year. The ruling follows an investigation that concluded the shooting was a “justifiable homicide,” with Taylor acting in self-defense."

Chicago, IL

12/9/23 CBS News Chicago:

CHICAGO (CBS) – One man is dead following a triple shooting in the Humboldt Park neighborhood early Saturday morning.

Chicago police officers responded to the 1600 block of North Hamlin Avenue around 1:17 a.m. and found three men struck by gunfire.

The victim, a 31-year-old man, was outside when he was approached by two other men in a car who pulled out guns and started shooting. The victim, who is a concealed carry license holder, pulled out his gun and returned fire - striking the two offenders, police said.

The victim was shot in the torso and was taken to Stroger Hospital in fair condition.

The first occupant in the car, a 44-year-old man, was shot in the chest and was pronounced dead on the scene. The second occupant of the vehicle, a 37-year-old man, was shot in the shoulder and was taken to Mt. Sinai Hospital in fair condition.

El Paso, TX

2/17/23 Fox News:

Police in El Paso, Texas say that a "licensed-to-carry" bystander shot the alleged gunman who is accused of killing one person and injuring another three.

The suspect, a 16-year-old Hispanic male, is accused of shooting the individuals after a "confrontation ensued" between two groups at Cielo Vista Mall on Wednesday evening at 5:05 p.m.

The El Paso Police Department said the confrontation eventually escalated into a "physical fight," and the 16-year-old pulled out a handgun, fatally shooting Angeles Zaragoza, 17, and injuring another 17-year-old and 15-year-old.

Police say that Emanuel Duran, 32, who is a licensed-to-carry holder, shot the suspect as he was pointing his gun toward the direction of more bystanders....

Investigators learned there were "at least" two more people who were legally armed, but weren't involved in the shooting. 

Sanford, FL

 1/19/23 Sanford Police Department reports bar employee was headed to her car after work.  Her boyfriend was standing by to make sure she got in safely.  A stranger approached and attacked her. The boyfriend shot the attacker to death.

Atlantic Beach, FL

 12/27/22 channel 4 Jacksonville:

ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. – The shooting death of an 18-year-old man in Atlantic Beach has been ruled a justifiable homicide, according to records on the Jacksonville’s Sheriff’s Office’s Open Data and Transparency site.

Investigators in August determined the teenager was shot and killed during a confrontation in August. Loved ones identified the man as Trevaj Cheek.

Per its agreement with the Atlantic Beach Police Department, JSO worked the case, and its transparency site indicates Cheek’s death was ruled justifiable because he was shot during the commission of an unspecified crime.

Houston, TX

11/1/22 ABC channel 13:

Deputies responded to multiple reports of gunshots at about 6:20 a.m. near 12100 Mountain Daisy. When they arrived at the neighborhood, deputies say the victim, Joseph Wiltz, had suffered a gunshot wound and they provided lifesaving measures.

Wiltz was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead.

After investigating, officials revealed that Wiltz came to his ex-girlfriend's house and began assaulting her, stemming from domestic violence.

Official say that the woman's son, 27-year-old Javon Small, stepped outside of the home and saw Wiltz trying to get his mother out of her car. Small shot the suspect when he fell off the car and began approaching him.

The full case was presented to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, who declined to file any charges in the case. The case will be presented to a grand jury for review.

The case is listed as a justifiable homicide.

Sioux Falls, SD

 10/25/22 Sioux Falls Argus Leader:

A jury has decided, after days of hearing testimony and arguments, that a Sioux falls man was justified in killing of another man two years ago in self-defense.

Marcus Jerell Anderson, 34, was facing two counts of first-degree manslaughter, one count of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

After the jury deliberated late into Monday night, their final verdict found Anderson was only guilty on the possession of a firearm with a prior felony conviction. Anderson was acquitted on his most serious charge, first-degree manslaughter, punishable by up to life in prison.

Shrewsbury Township, PA

 1/14/22 York Daily Record:

A man reported in court documents that he acted in self-defense when he pulled the trigger during an altercation earlier this week near Interstate 83 in Shrewsbury Township.

In a petition for an emergency protection-from-abuse order, the man wrote that James Lynch Sr., 57, of Shrewsbury Township, attacked him at 11:30 a.m. on Monday. He said he was in his vehicle with his son.

Next, the man reported, Lynch “went for a firearm on his person.”

“I defended myself using my firearm killing Jim Lynch,” the man said. “I was held and released by the State Police with no charges.”

Macon County, GA

 12/11/21 WMAZ:

Lastly, investigators say the homicide of Jarvis Ottman in this parking lot in November was self-defense.

"Mr. Ottman had come up and blocked the car in. He was coming to it in a threatening manner. The driver was not sure what was going to happen," Davis said. 

The sheriff says the driver shot to protect himself and passengers in the car, including children.

Macon County, GA

 12/11/21 WMAZ:

The first of six homicides Bibb Investigators ruled as justifiable was the shooting death of Dominique Walker, Jr. in March 2021. Deputies says it all started with a fight. 

"We believe Walker began the shooting, and someone was returning fire," Davis said. 

Ft. Wright, KY

 10/12/20 River City News:

There will be no charges in a deadly shooting that took place Friday on Interstate 75 near Ft. Wright on Friday, Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders said Friday.

A call to Kenton County Emergency Communications Center at 1:22 Friday afternoon from Joshua G. Taylor indicated that Taylor had been involved in a collision with another driver in what he described as a road rage incident. While on the phone with dispatchers, while he was stopped on the side of the highway, Taylor said that he could see the other driver approaching with a rifle.

According to a news release from Sanders's office on Monday, the 911 call recording included a verbal confrontation between Taylor and John Patrick Abell before gunshots were heard.

Taylor told dispatch that he had fired shots from his own gun and struck Abell. The call's recording shows Taylor administering first aid.

Fresno, CA

3/24/20 Fox News 26:

After the crash, the driver hopped out of the car with a pump shotgun.

He then reportedly aimed it at the officers and began firing at them.

After firing a couple of rounds, he then turned around and started to run away from officers.

During this time, a good Samaritan was walking down the street and spotted the guy running toward him with a shotgun.

That good Samaritan turned out to be a CCW holder and pulled out his gun to defend himself.

He fired one time at the suspect, making him fall to the ground.

Tulsa, OK

3/27/20 KTUL:

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — Tulsa police said a woman was found dead near East 54th Street North and North Peoria Avenue from gunshot wounds Friday night.

A man with a concealed carry permit notified officers that he fired at the woman after she fired at customers outside a business, according to police.

Video showed the woman had been involved in an earlier altercation in the parking lot of the business involving parking.

Police said she left and then returned a few minutes later, took out a gun and fired at people standing outside the business.

Coshocton County, OH

9/2/19 Charlotte Observer:

A customer with a gun stopped a man with a knife at an Ohio McDonald’s over the weekend, police say.

A 22-year-old man made threats inside an area McDonald’s on Saturday with a knife in hand, Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a Facebook post.

When a customer eating inside the restaurant noticed the man had a knife, he confronted him, ultimately drawing a gun he had on his person, police say. The customer had a concealed carry permit.

Largo, FL

This is bizarre.  The death was a legitimate act of self-defense, provoked by a friend of the shooter claiming that the guy outside sounded like someone who had raped her.  But she later admitted she made up the rape.  Pinellas County Arrest/Affadavit.  More details at 5/19/19 The Smoking Gun.

Boston, MA

1/27/19 Boston Herald:

A legally licensed gun owner brought to an end a high speed road rage incident that spawned a flurry of calls by terrified motorists who reported an SUV racing down the Mass Pike with a man clinging to the hood of the car, police said.

Mark Fitzgerald, 37, of Ashland and Richard Kamrowski, 65, of Framingham will face each other in Waltham District Court on Monday. The two were released on personal recognizance after their arrests on Friday.

The perilous incident ended with Kamrowski clinging to the hood of Fitzgerald’s 2016 Infiniti QX70 for miles, smashing the windshield with a water bottle, until a third motorist state police said is a licensed gun owner drew his weapon on Fitzgerald and ordered him out of the SUV.

Bonner County, ID

1/14/19 KREM:

BONNER COUNTY, Idaho — The Bonner County Prosecuting Attorney has determined that the shooting death of 39-year-old Joshua Matthew Cole on Oct. 12, 2018, was a “justifiable homicide” carried out in self-defense.

Cole died after being shot by 41-year-old Jimila Hall in the Clagstone area outside of Spirit Lake, according to a letter from Louis E. Marshall, Bonner County Prosecuting Attorney.

Hall shot Cole in her driveway after he approached her and her 70-year-old mother Theresa. Robert Johnson, a man who Cole had allegedly began chasing after as Johnson drove away, said Cole then approached Hall and her mother, according to the letter.

Cole ran shirtless toward the two with his fists clenched and Hall armed herself with a baseball bat and handgun. Marshall said in his letter that the fact Hall grabbed a bat and not only a gun showed that she did not intend to kill Cole.
Despite Hall telling the man to stop, he continuing running at them, at which point Theresa threw rocks at Cole in an effort to stop him. As he got closer, Cole told the pair “I’m going to get you,” according to the letter.

Hall fired a shot at Cole when he got within approximately five feet of her, striking him in the chest and killing him, according to the letter. Hall began life-saving measures but Cole later passed away as a result of the gunshot.

When detectives arrived on-scene, they corroborated Hall’s claims about Cole’s actions before he passed and Cole told officers he had multiple alcoholic beverages that day. An autopsy found his blood-alcohol level to be .233.
Due to Hall’s attempts to get Cole to stop approaching her and her mother, Marshall said “the act of using deadly force by Jimila Hall was, in this circumstance, reasonable.”...

Cole's family claims another factor was at play: race. Hall and her mother were black and Cole's family thinks the women stereotyped him as a racist skinhead.
Detectives said that wasn't the case.  

Detectives discovered various previous charges of violent acts against women by Cole, according to Marshall’s letter. Cole's sister denied that he committed crimes against women and said he had turned his life around. 

Turned his life around?   .233% BAC?   A non-alcoholic would be asleep at that level. 

1/12/18 Bonner County Bee includes a picture of him.  With those tattoos, shirtless, after exposing himself, I would be afraid too.  The comments include several by relatives, including his first ife (who thought the fear completely justified).

Jacksonville, FL

This a weird one.  1/15/19 WOKV:

Jacksonville, FL -  The fatal shooting of 7-year-old Tashawn Gallon last February was at the hands of one of the boy’s family members who was acting in self defense, according to new investigative reports released by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.

WOKV told you Monday that the death had been ruled “excusable”. On Tuesday, police say they had an additional consultation with the State Attorney’s Office, and have instead classified the case as a “justifiable” homicide instead....

Gallon was caught in the crossfire in a Durkeeville shooting last February. Police say an SUV pulled up in front of a Mt. Herman Street home and at least one person inside opened fire. Police have now concluded that three people outside of that home shot back. One of them was a family member of Gallon, and the reports show that it was his gun that fired the fatal shot, while shooting back at the SUV, which is believed to have been done in self defense.

The dozens of pages of investigative reports paint a complex and interconnected web of several persons of interest, shootings, and even murders that may be connected to this case. The motive to the shooting appears to have been either in retaliation, or in relation to a falling out between the family member and a person of interest.

The gunshot that killed the 7 year old was fired in self-defense against a felonious attack, so justifiable, much like when a bank guard shoots at a robber and kills a customer.   Still a tragedy, but without returning fire, someone else might have died.

 

Fort Worth, TX

12/3/18 Dallas Morning News:

A woman shot her adult son Monday afternoon after he pulled out a samurai sword during an argument, Fort Worth police said. 

The mother and her 21-year-old son were fighting shortly before 4 p.m. in the 3000 block of Forest Avenue, near East Lancaster Avenue. 

She shot her son in the leg after he pulled out a samurai sword during the argument, police said. 

Milwaukee, WI

7/6/18 WTMJ Surveillance video of an unprovoked attack on a restaurant worker in the kitchen, ended when another worker drew a handgun.  Worker has since quit.