Wes Hall was checking on one his rental properties at 2:30 Tuesday morning. As he's moving from room to room he yells "I'm the homeowner. I have a gun. Come out, come out, where ever you are. I'm looking for you."
As he looking around the basement, Hall spots a man. "I walked around and there he was standing behind a door hiding. I said 'Freeze. Don't move. I'm the homeowner. I have a gun. Do not move' and then he lurched in at me."
Hall says that's when his instincts just kicked in.
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Hall says he was just doing what he's been trained to do. He's a taekwando instructor, a former Marine, and a former police officer.
"I thought 'I'll just detain him for the police,'" says Hall. "But in that split second where he decided to lurch forward, he changed all that."
Hall was cited for an unregistered firearm.
http://www.action3news.com/story/14477628/homeowner-catches-copper-thief-in-the-act-and-shoots
Hall, 52, was ticketed on suspicion of having an unregistered handgun and was released from police custody after about three hours of questioning.
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Omaha City Prosecutor Marty Conboy, who had not yet seen the reports relating to the shooting, said typically a homeowner must establish that there is a legitimate fear for a person's safety to justify a shooting.
“There is an old misconception that you can shoot someone once they are in your house,” Conboy said.
“If they've broken in, you have the right to protect your property, but to use deadly force you have to establish you are in fear for your life or the life of others. . . you can't legally shoot a thief just for being a thief.”
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Hall said he was not aware that he had to register his gun in Omaha. He said he registered it in California when he bought it 20 years ago while working security for Hughes Aircraft, and he thought that was sufficient.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20110419/NEWS97/704199885/1013