In the US, are people allowed to shoot and kill someone who is in any way attacking them?

And what are the circumstances?

Then you have a great many other factors. Including he did not report this to the police, and simply went home. He only turned himself in after he learned a friend had tipped off police that he was the shooter.

What he "claims" does not matter, was it self defense? Nothing points to his life being at risk, and his actions afterward shows he was trying to actively avoid any involvement even after he killed somebody.

Oh, his girlfriend also made a statement to the police that she heard no racial slurs. And the object thrown at the car has been identified as a beer can.

 

I would agree with that, except unfortunately the "average person" is not always reasonable these days.

How about if we substitute "reasonable person" with "the average conservative Christian person in Arkansas or Montana"?

 

Yeah, but now you are interjecting your opinion and even bias .

 

My point was the concept of "reasonable person" can be somewhat subjective in certain types of situations.

The average "reasonable person" in NYC is going to see things differently than the average rural person in Oklahoma.

 

I think he is saying juries do that

 

This is where the jurisdiction comes into play. Take two crimes that are almost the same, and a jury in California will often come out with a very different result than a jury in Wyoming. The rest does not matter, a jury is selected from people of that community, and will know what is expected in their own community.

 

That's why juries are from the local citizenry in general. Oklahoma is not going to jury pool from NYC.

 

But we do all realize that will make the law depend on informal public opinion, a law that is not even written-down.

Guess this would be an example of the concept of "common law".

 

If you think that, you really are John Snow.

 

With no questions asked?

The 'court of public opinion' could certainly have influenced the Rittenhouse jury, that's for sure. Thankfully they came to the right decision.

 

Of course there is an investigation and inquest into the situation. You can not just make a claim and that be everything.