Hold onto your butt, because this story is sure to stir up some controversy. It all started with a pair of 15-year-old boys. Earlier this week in Covington, Georgia, the teens thought it would be a good idea to ride their four-wheelers on somebody else’s property without getting permission.
Damus Oscar Mullicax, 77, wasn’t too fond of the pair trespassing on his property, so he grabbed rifle and held the kids at gunpoint. Whoa there, Mullinax. Drawing your gun on masked robbers is one thing, but aiming a rifle at teenagers who are just being dumb might be overkill, so to speak.
Meanwhile, the kids did pretty much exactly what you would expect them to do: they phoned for mommy. The mother called dispatch, grabbed her own gun, and then went to Mullinax’s property. She picked up a male friend on the way. When she arrived the mother pointed her handgun at Mullinax and ordered him to drop his weapon, which he refused to do. There was then a physical altercation wherein the mother fired two rounds into the air. It ended when one of the men knocked her to the ground and took the gun. It is unclear from reports whether the man who took the gun was her male friend or Mullinax.
The mother and the male friend then retreated into the woods to join up with the teenagers. They all waited for the police to arrive.
So, what did the cops do? They arrested Mullinax, of all people. They charged him with pointing a gun at another and simple battery. Now, don’t get us wrong – we’re not saying that Mullinax shouldn’t have been arrested, necessarily. It’s just that if they’re going to arrest Mullinax, it seems logical that they would arrest the mother, too. Yep, Mullinax definitely pointed his gun at another, but didn’t the mother do the exact same thing? Of course, one of her kids was in danger so you can’t really blame her.
Or can you? Should you excuse her behavior just because she felt that her child was threatened?
This case is a tough one. It’s bizarre to think that a couple of average Georgia citizens entered into a Mexican standoff over something as minor as trespassing, but sometimes guns can escalate simple disagreements into life-or-death scenarios.
What do our readers think? Who was right and who was wrong here? Did everybody do the wrong thing? Did everybody do the right thing? Was it reasonable for police to only arrest Mullinax under the logic that he was the “primary aggressor,” or did the mother deserve a pair of handcuffs, too?
