Your first call should be to your lawyer. Reading over this post over at Tam’s, one thing strike me: if there’s one lesson to learn from the Zimmerman case, your next call should probably be to a PR firm. We’ve seen two cases recently, Gerald Ung and now George Zimmerman, where the parents of the shootee have hired PR firms and made life a living hell for the the shooter.
They used to say the first person to call 911 is generally the victim. Now it’s probably accurate to say the first person to hire a PR firm to start setting the narrative in the media is probably the victim.
Wow, a commentator pointed out this link to an article titled “Zimmerman’s Twin Lakes Community Was on Edge Before Trayvon Shooting” (amazing, the media actually doing real reporting (well, new media, that is)). Besides the usual burglaries of unoccupied homes what sticks out is an attempted robbery foiled by a locked bedroom door and the police arriving plus an serious act of sheer vandalism (“In December someone broke into a foreclosed townhome, stopped up a toilet and started the water running. According to a police report, the water flooded the bedroom and caused drywall in the garage to collapse.”; there was also vandalism of unspecified severity to a unit under construction).
If that wasn’t an act by the foreclosed upon former homeowner, in some ways it’s perhaps the most scary if viewed as a statement towards the community. And it’s no wounder Zimmerman started up an official watch program with the approval of the community (see the sign at the gate in the linked article).
“In a Defensive Shooting Your first call should be to your lawyer”
No, your first call should be 911. The old adage of “the victim is the first to call 911” is still often true, and if there are injuries, you will want to make sure medical services are on the way.
However, your very NEXT call should be to your lawyer, and make no specific statements until speaking with him or her. Acknowledge that you fired the shot; state that you feared for your life or the life or another, as the case may be. But make no further statements.
Now we know why the Brady Campaign hired a director with a strong association to PR.