Woman who shot at fleeing shoplifters gets probation
Tatiana Duva-Rodriguez, described as a “sharpshooter,” was sentenced to 18 months of probation today for firing a gun at the getaway car as suspected shoplifters fled a Home Depot in suburban Detroit. (AP Photo/Auburn Hills Police Department)
ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. » A woman described as a “sharpshooter” was sentenced to 18 months of probation today for firing a gun at the getaway car as suspected shoplifters fled a Home Depot in suburban Detroit.
Tatiana Duva-Rodriguez, who was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, said she heard a scream and feared the incident was worse than a theft. She acknowledged the shooting in the parking lot was a mistake.
“I made a decision in a split second,” the 46-year-old Clarkston woman told a judge. “Maybe it was not the right one, but I was trying to help.”
Her gunfire flattened a tire on the thieves’ SUV on Oct. 6 at a Home Depot in Auburn Hills. No one was hurt.
Duva-Rodriguez pleaded no-contest to reckless discharge of a firearm. The suspects were captured a few days later and charged.
“I don’t believe any malice was involved in what you were doing, but I believe you have to think about what could have happened,” Judge Julie Nicholson said.
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Duva-Rodriguez’ permit to carry a concealed weapon is revoked until at least 2023. Defense attorney Steven Lyle Schwartz said she’s a “sharpshooter.”
“We need more people like Tatiana Duva-Rodriguez in our society,” he said.
23 responses to “Woman who shot at fleeing shoplifters gets probation”
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Moral: Never rob any thing if you see her around? She looks a tougghie!
the federal government prefers you call 911 and wait – this was the action preferred in France and California. The good samaritan clause should have been invoked in this case…
No wonder why I cut my cable TV and Netflix and just read the news with the Star Advertiser.
“The good samaritan clause should have been invoked in this case…”
Looks like we got another e-lawyer here, lads.
I can see how fighting with armed terrorists is so equatable with pulling a weapon and popping off several rounds at fleeing shoplifters in a suburban parking lot.
Moral? Don’t tell her that you are wearing your undies. She might steal it.
If she was in Utah she would get a medal.
You tall, too.
She’s lucky some other “good guy with a gun” didn’t see her firing shots wildly in a parking lot and cap her himself.
Gonna happen one of these days, believe me, peeps.
HanabataDays, The important concern was whether she exercised good judgment in firing on suspects fleeing the scene when her life and limb were not in apparent jeopardy. The court has spoken, so the conclusion is obvious. However, no accounts of the incident published by the SA have suggested that she was “firing shots wildly.” Indeed, if she managed to hit the tire of a presumably moving vehicle, she arguably could be a better shot than most sworn police officers. Embellishing your take on the incident only highlights personal biases and reveals a possible projection of your own limitations.
She pulled a firearm and discharged it in the parking lot of a Home Depot at a couple of guys driving AWAY in a 3000 lb. motor vehicle. You don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of ways she put others in danger with that stunt.
Want to talk about bias? You, by not acknowledging her total lack of responsibility and judgement are showing quite a bit of it. You wouldn’t have done what she did — I know what kind of gun owner you are from reading your posts — but you’re apparently not going to disavow your solidarity with a legal firearm owner in the face of people you perceive to be evil gun grabbers.
TigerEye, HanabataDays embellished what was really a sketchy series of reports at best. Published accounts were mute about important details. For example, what was behind the fleeing SUV when she fired? Just how far away was she? Did any stray shots hit anything besides the SUV she was aiming at? I suspect that if an innocent family or an occupied baby carriage had been in the line of fire we’d have been instantly told. The same if any stray shots had holed any other vehicles in the parking lot. What we were told is that her shots flattened one of the fleeing SUV’s tires and that no one was hurt – and that’s all. Did she exhibit bad judgment in firing on a fleeing vehicle when not in physical danger herself? Yes. (You somehow missed that point the first time around.) What isn’t clear is if she exhibited terrible judgment. If she had fired wildly as HanabataDays wrote, or with blatant disregard for what was in the line of fire or beyond her ability to accurately hit what she aimed at, then yes, she’d deserve to be demonized. But had it happened that way even you have to admit we’d all know about it. There’s bad and then there’s terrible. Got that? You might call it an indication of bias as you will. I consider it a recognition of what actually is as opposed to what we’d like it to be.
I’m going to begin carrying my umbrella when I walk through the parking lot, open and over my head.
She did not fire wildly. The story says she is described as a “sharpshooter” and she proved that by firing at the fleeing vehicle and flattening one of its tires. Not many people can do that. She deserves a medal and not probation.
Even one round, in public, at a moving vehicle in a parking lot full of people at someone who was posing no threat to anyone (until some knucklehead started shooting at him) IS firing wildly.
TigerEye, in the interest of accuracy, was it actually ever established that the parking lot was “full of people” at the time of the shooting? Is this a pure assumption on your part or was this asserted in the media? Remember that SA newsfeeds never mentioned any bystanders who claimed to be in or near the line of fire. Nor was there mention of any missed shots hitting or damaging parked cars or other property. If there were indeed wild shots in the sane and accepted sense of the term, then wherever can they have gone? I’m just trying to sift out what actually happened as opposed to what you’d like to have happened.
that’s what she get for missing. a medal if her shooting hit one of them.
Gold metal or Meadow Gold?
This happens in the movies all of the time. Whats the problem?
Is America really returning back to the cowboys days of carrying a weapon?
It’s something to be considered…As long as we have Syrian refugees coming in, we need to protect ourselves and our families!!
Dsl, the issue is not Syrian refugees coming in; it is MUSLIM refugees coming in. Many Syrians who have fled the country are Christians or are of other non-Muslim religions who have been discriminated against, persecuted, and targeted for extermination by Muslims. I say let them in but keep out the Muslims who are trying to kill them and who want to kill us. Yes, I know, not all Muslims want to kill us, but there are enough of them that do to justify keeping all of them out of the US.
Hey Mike, the Dodge City mystique dies hard, but the chances of a lawman being killed in the line of duty was as bad if not worse in the settled eastern cities during the period 1849 to 1900. The Wild West was truly wild in many ways but not THAT wild.