Military Vet Faces Charges For Firing Warning Shot At Suspect Trying To Break Into Home KDRV-TV reports that 36-year-old Corey Thompson fired a warning shot from his AR-15 rifle at 40-year-old Jonathon Kinsella after he tried to break into Thompson’s house through the back door. “When I’m dealt with a stressful situation, being a veteran from Iraq and the Afghanistan war, it’s natural. I just jump into combat mode. I told him I’m going to give you a warning shot,” Thompson told KDRV. Medford authorities, who were already on the scene after receiving a disturbance call, arrested Kinsella after seeing him running out into the parking lot following the gunshot. Police, though, say Thompson was in the wrong for firing his weapon. “There was nothing that the suspect was doing that was aggressive enough to justify the shooting,” Lt. Mike Budreau told KDRV. “In fact, the suspect was walking away.” Thompson explains he was not shooting directly at the suspect, just at the ground. “I can see where they’re coming from, with those kinds of ordinances and stuff. I understand, yes, I did discharge my weapon, but I was careful not to fire it at anybody’s residence,” Thompson said. “It was at the ground specifically.” Thompson has been charged with unlawful use of a weapon and menacing and reckless endangering and had his rifle confiscated. He will get his rife back if a judge finds him not guilty of the charges.
never fire a warning shot. If the situation is dire enough to need to fire the gun, put the bullet in center mass.
If the guy was not actively trying to get into the house, there was no reasonable fear of death or serious injury that would have justified firing a weapon within the city..and Jackson County is not as gun friendly as their neighbors... Besides, ammo is too expensive to justify warning shots these days.
Depending on where he fired the warning shot, I kind of have to agree with the po-po. If he fired a warning shot into the air or horizontally past the criminal, then he was endangering anyone within range of that round. ONLY if he fired it into a parked vehicle or into the ground was he not wrong for doing so. Although I agree with the above comment...if you need to fire the weapon, go for center mass.
Your warning shot is when I shoot the punk in front/beside you. Like Pax said: ammo is too expensive.
Notice how they failed to mention that the guy trying to break in has a record of bad behavior. Make a big deal and punish the good guy and quietly ignore the criminal.