“When you put a gun in someone’s face and attempt to rob them, all the rules change,” said JP Morrell to Tommy Tucker in this morning’s radio interview.
Yesterday, a video surfaced of two armed robbers entering Sam’s Meat Market along the I-10 Service Road near Crowder Blvd on Tuesday evening. The robbers are seen pointing handguns with extended clips at two cash register attendants.
The video shows one of the robbers pointing their gun at someone else in the store and saying, “I’ll shoot you, don’t move.”
The video shifts forward, showing two robbers standing near the entrance of the store when one of the clerks pulls out a handgun and begins to fire. The employee strikes both of the armed robbers, one flees, and the other falls to the ground.
The employee fired additional shots after the robber had fallen, resulting in terminal injuries. The other robber survived and has been arrested and taken to Orleans Parish Prison.
The NOPD has since identified the robbers. Cecil Batiz, 16, died during the altercation. The other, Teony Juarez, 18, is in custody.
In Tucker’s interview with Williams, the DA decidedly avoided getting into any specifics of the Sam Meat Market case. However, Williams did comment more generally on justifiable homicide and self-defense gun laws in the state of Louisiana.
For example, the first clause of the Louisiana State Legislature's justifiable homicide statutes states:
A. A homicide is justifiable:
(1) When committed in self-defense by one who reasonably believes that he is in imminent danger of losing his life or receiving great bodily harm and that the killing is necessary to save himself from that danger.
Williams explains that the law doesn’t just simply apply to merchants or business owners, the laws apply to any private citizen with a reasonable belief that they are in mortal danger.
The DA stated, “It's painfully obvious to anyone who saw that video what those two people were doing in that store. And that shop owner did not ask for that exchange. That's very clear...When somebody puts a gun in your face, they mean malice and have avarice in their heart. And all the rules have changed and you have a right to defend yourself.”