Texas-Book-Gun Law Armed And Educated - Flipbook - Page 195
III. DO I HAVE A LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY TO DEFEND ANOTHER
PERSON?
Under Texas law, the average person has no duty to come to the
defense of another, so long as that actor was not the cause of the
situation or occurrence. This is true even if a crime is in progress.
Note: this lack of a legal duty does not include police officers and
other professionals that may have affirmative legal duties to assist.
If you see a third person that is the victim of what you believe to be
the unlawful use of force or deadly force, you have no legal duty to
aid that person—it is your decision. This is equally true if you are
legally carrying a gun pursuant to an LTC or Texas Constitutional
Carry. But what if you decide to help the third person?
A. When does Texas law allow for the justifiable use of force or
deadly force to protect someone else?
In the last sections, we addressed the law of legal justification for
the use of force or deadly force for self-defense. We now turn to
when the law allows the justified use of force or deadly force to
protect another person or persons.
DEFENSE OF THIRD PERSON
TEX. PENAL CODE § 9.33
A person is justified in using force or deadly force against
another to protect a third person if: (1) under the circumstances
as the actor reasonably believes them to be, the actor would
be justified under Section 9.31 or 9.32 in using force or deadly
force to protect himself against the unlawful force or unlawful
deadly force he reasonably believes to be threatening the
third person he seeks to protect; and (2) the actor reasonably
believes that the intervention is immediately necessary to
protect the third person.
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