Car Theif Killed

Schmidt, Michael and Schweber, Nate. "Queens Man Strangled Car Theif, Police Say." New York Times 01 March 2010: A22. Print.

This event took place last Saturday night in Queens, New York. The altercation between Daillard Paris and Yaosse Agbokou began when Paris caught Agbokou trying to steal his 2005 Nissan Altima. Paris pulled the theif from his vehicle, out him in a head lock and then began to hit Mr. Agbokou repeatedly. While Yaosse Agbokou was being arrested he became uncoscious. Police took Agbokou to the hospital and he was pronounced dead due to compression of the neck. Mr. Paris had recently sold the Nissan and the new owners were planning to pick up the car on Sunday. Paris is a former Marine whise parents are from Haiti. Mr. Paris was not arrested the night of the altercation, and authorities stated that there has not been any crimal charges filed at this point. However, authorities did say that the attorney's general office can still decide to file criminal charges in the future.

This article was interesting to me because I was suprised to read that Mr. Paris did not get in trouble for killing Mr. Agbokou. Although Agbokou was trying to steal Pari's car it doesn't mean that he should have to die. Since when has a car been more valuable than a human's life? Mr. Paris should face criminal charges for aggrevated assault, he should't get away with what he did just because Agbokou was trying to steal his car. Last time I checked commiting murder is worse than stealing. I believe that Mr. Paris could have stopped Agbokou from stealing his car without killing him. I don't think that Paris should face severe criminal charges because it is not his fault that someone decided to steal his vehicle; however, I don't think that his behaviors should be completely excused. I also think that authorities didn't question the case as much because Mr. Paris was an ex-marine. I think that things would have played out a lot differently if Mr. Paris was a regular citizen. Although Mr. Agbokou was commiting a crime by trying to steal a car, he shouldn't have to die for his mistake. This is why car insurance was invented! People make mistakes everyday, what gives other people the right to take justice into their own hands? A person should only commit murder as an act of self-defense. I believe that it is alright to kill a person if that person tries to kill you first. I never killed anyone that stole from me, what gives Mr. Paris the right to take another human beings life?