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January 18, 2006
Apartment shooting update
A guy named Beau reminds me that I've failed to update Making Ventura County Safer, given what we now know about the fellow who was shot. Beau says:
You are a fucking idiot, get your facts right. Hector was not a felon, he was a good guy. He entered the wrong house by mistake after a night of drinking, celebrating our graduation from UTI (which was the next day).
P.S. I would approve of YOU having a "dirt nap."
First, Beau's right. The local fish wrap has the lowdown on the late Mr. Soto, who apparently did indeed have the misfortune to pick the wrong window after a bout of celebratory drinking on the night before graduation, although it was an apartment and not a house.
Interestingly, Soto's family doesn't appear to blame the shooter. His aunt said, "We don't want to make him a saint." When told that the police were unlikely to file charges, his godfather said, "We're sorry that it happened but we don't want to put the blame on the other person. Accidents happen."
The article says that Soto got into a scuffle with the 65-year-old man who lived in the apartment after he found the stranger in his bedroom, said scuffle ending with the old guy going for his gat.
As for Beau letting me know he'd be glad if I took a dirt nap, I'll just say that if I break into a neighbor's house while in a drunken stupor, I'd be the first one to say a dirt nap was an appropriate end to such a sad tale.
But I do have a question for Beau: do you -- like your late friend's family -- lay the blame for Soto's death on his actions, and not on the man he scared when he broke into the man's apartment? Do you acknowledge that your late friend would still be alive if he had not gotten so drunk; had not climbed through the window; and had not struggled with the retiree?
Posted by Mike Lief at January 18, 2006 06:36 PM
Comments
*Yes, I meant to say apartment...not house. My error.
I do not blame the shooter at all. Had it been me, I would have shot the trespasser too. I doubt that anyone would deny it was Hector's fault, but it was a terrible tragedy...and accidents like this often happen.
However, assigning fault to one side is not the issue here. Perhaps you shouldn't be so hasty to label someone a criminal (and that you are glad that they were killed) when you don't know the full story.
I apologize for sounding like a jerk, but your article really angered me when I first read it. Being in his graduating class, it struck a nerve.
Have a good evening.
Posted by: Beau at January 18, 2006 08:10 PM
Beau:
I don't think it was "hasty" to label Hector Soto a criminal. After all, he did go through the window of someone else's apartment in the middle of the night. That is all we knew when the original article printed, and that is an extremely reasonable view in my opinion. Additionally, if he was a criminal, I would not think it unreasonable for someone to be "glad he was killed." There is nothing more violative than being confronted in the safe haven of your own home while you sleep.
Bottom line: the guy I feel sorry for, and did when I thought Hector might have been a burglar, is the poor man who had a stranger come through his window in the middle of the night and change his life forever.
Posted by: Thin Ice, Sr. at January 19, 2006 10:38 AM