Aid given may not be legal.

In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on February 17, Perry Stephens, despite wearing a neck brace and using a cane, went to the aid of police officer Brian Harrison, who was being pummeled by a man who had been pulled over for a traffic violation. Stephen claims that after he heard the officer yelling for help and gunshots, he told George Temple, the man attacking the officer, to get off the officer. When Temple did not listen to him, he shot Temple four times in the chest. Stephens said that he then again told Temple to get off the officer. Temple did not comply, and Stephens fatally shot Temple in the head, according to an article on 2theadvocate.com.

Now, the District Attorney's Office will have to decide whether to charge Stephens in Temple's death. One would think this would be an open-and-shut case of proper gun use under Louisiana law, which allows deadly use of force in defense of others to "prevent a violent or forcible felony involving danger to life or great bodily harm," but several items are clouding the issue.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is claiming racial bias because Temple was apparently black and the shooter was white. A witness to the entire incident acknowledged that Stephens "probably saved the officer's life," but he also said that he never heard Stephens tell Temple to get off the officer (WAFB Channel 9). Temple was not armed, but he was a large, athletic man who boxed, and he definitely was the aggressor. The officer in the case also shot Temple during the struggle, hitting him in the abdomen, and a decision must be made as to whether a reasonable person would think it was necessary to shoot someone a fifth time for safety's sake after shooting the person four times in the chest.

In this day and age, good intentions are unfortunately no protection against prosecution, knowing which brings up a reminiscence from the old TV show Hill Street Blues--the officers were told just before they went on patrol each day: "Let's be careful out there."