Self Defense

Investigators say an off-duty Costa Mesa police officer acted in self-defense when he shot and killed one man and wounded another after he was attacked last month outside a restaurant in Old Town Temecula. Riverside County sheriff's detectives interviewed more than 20 people in the area where the incident took place, including eyewitnesses, before concluding that Officer Scott Dibble, 31, a nine-year veteran, was the victim in the assault. Shaun Vilan, 30, of Temecula was killed in the shooting.

Two La Habra police officers who shot a man 11 times acted legally when they killed him on New Year's Eve because the victim threatened one of them with a tire iron, Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said Thursday. "This appears to be a justifiable homicide," Rackauckas said at a meeting with leaders of Southern California's Korean American community.

A grand jury here Monday cleared a Pasadena, Texas, man in the shooting deaths of two suspected burglars as they left his neighbor's house -- a case that stirred a national debate over whether he was a vigilante or a hero. Joe Horn, 62, shot the men on Nov. 14 after he called authorities and declared his intention to open fire on the suspects with his 12-gauge shotgun.

A few days after a bullet from a gang shooting tore into an Angelino Heights home last month, killing a 9-year-old girl, police announced with much fanfare that they had arrested the two gunmen. But the suspects -- Cesar Zamora, 23, and Steven Castanon, 20 -- are now out of jail and back in their old neighborhood, to the dismay of residents who held candlelight vigils to memorialize Charupha Wongwisetsiri.

In a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach to personal safety, state lawmakers are weighing a bill that would give Texans the right to use deadly force as a first resort when they feel their safety is threatened. The measure, which is in committee, is an early hit at the statehouse: Twenty-seven of 31 state senators have signed on as co-sponsors. In the House, 100 of 150 members support the bill.

A tour group of U.S. senior citizens killed a Costa Rican mugger by breaking his neck after he pulled a gun, a local police official said Thursday. The cruise ship passengers told police they jumped on Wagner Segura, 20, to defend themselves when he pointed a .38-caliber revolver at them Wednesday near the Caribbean port of Limon, regional police director Luis Hernandez said. One of the dozen tourists, a retired Marine about 70 years old, reportedly put Segura in a headlock.

Prosecutors Tuesday declined to file murder charges against punk rocker Anthony Lovato, who said he was defending himself when he stabbed a romantic rival to death. Lovato, former frontman of the band Mest, was arrested Sunday after reporting the stabbing, which occurred earlier the same day in the parking lot of an apartment complex.

Miss America 1944 has a talent that probably has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle's tires and stop an intruder. Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment. Ramey said the man told her he would leave. "I said, 'Oh, no you won't,' and I shot their tires so they couldn't leave," Ramey said.

Italy's Parliament approved a law that allows citizens to shoot robbers in self-defense, a measure critics said would encourage people to take the law into their own hands. The measure authorizes the use of guns and knives as legitimate defenses against robberies and break-ins at houses, workplaces or shops, whether to protect life or belongings. The measure applies only if there is a "risk of aggression" to the victim of the break-in and no sign the intruder will back down.

A man robbing a check cashing business was killed by his own gun during a struggle with the store's clerk Tuesday, police said. Two men entered Checks Cashed Money Orders in the 100 block of West Baseline Street shortly before 6 p.m. and demanded money, said San Bernardino Police Lt. Brian Boom. Fonta Tenarrow Stowers, 33, of Colton, struggled with the clerk when his handgun fired, striking and killing him.