Redondo Beach, CA

1/29/16 Easy Reader:

It was about 2:30 a.m. last Tuesday, Jan. 19, when police responded to a shooting on an otherwise calm street in North Redondo Beach. 
 
The incident, neighbors said, was surprisingly quiet — most residents of Nelson Avenue’s 2000 block had little idea of the circumstances that brought the flashing lights of Redondo Beach Police to their street, while a few were shocked to learn that a shooting had occurred at all.

Despite the confusion, the facts remain: A 33-year-old Redondo Beach resident, later identified by police as Laurencio Gamboa, was arrested and charged with burglary after being shot by the resident of a home on Nelson Avenue.

According to police reports, a resident at the apartment complex was alerted to movement in his garage by a wireless security system. Via their phone, the resident was able to watch the suspected burglar standing near a motorcycle (belonging to a friend of the resident).

The resident and a friend in the residence armed themselves with firearms — one with a handgun, one with a rifle. The two found the suspect pushing the motorcycle down the complex’s driveway and ordered the suspect to drop the bike.

He did, began to run away, then according to reports, turned back toward the pair and confronted them. That’s when the resident shot the suspect in the leg. The suspect then ran down the street before being tackled and subdued by the resident. Police arrived on the scene shortly thereafter....

Under the law, according to California Penal Code section 198.5, a person using deadly force is allowed to do so, if reasonably fearing for their life or the life of someone in their home, against someone who has “unlawfully and forcefully” entered their home.

The state’s criminal jury instructions regarding justifiable homicide go a bit further. Language in CalCrim 505 indicates that a jury may be told by a judge that a defendant “is not required to retreat,” and is entitled to “if reasonably necessary, pursue an assailant until the danger” has passed — even if they may have gotten to safety by retreating.