This one just trips my trigger!!!

[Purplehood]

I don't know if it has any bearing from a legal standpoint, but as I understand it the shooters had been involved in prior altercations regarding what they "perceived" as trespassing, but was not.

But did anything actually happen to them? If the charges just got dropped, the Muhs could have convinced themselves that they were justified.

That is entirely possible.

[CompVest]

We are letting the thread continue. Good discussion. The first thread got hung up on the what the media implied about the shooters. It is good to see them being given the benefit of the doubt. They may be justified - they may not be justified. As for kids being involved that is unfortunate but BGs have involved kids before... Also if it was dark the shooter might not have seen the kids. The family admitted to having stopped maybe it wasn't for their stated reason.

[stevie_d_64]

The first thread got hung up on the what the media implied about the shooters.

Well, since I have not bothered to see what the other thread was all about, I believe this thread is a good example of what "we" can do, when we all realize what the media does to turn any discussion about an issue into the lowest common denominator...

The more we catch what they do to a story, the better for us and our discussion...

We need to rise above the fracus created by the media and nit pick the facts if they are ever reported...Which is rare considering what some folks expect from news sources...

For me it is easy...I do not believe a thing I see, hear or read anymore...

[boomerang]

For me it is easy...I do not believe a thing I see, hear or read anymore...

"Anyone who does not read the newspaper is uninformed. Anyone who does read the newspaper is misinformed." - Mark Twain

[frazzled]

Newer article with some detail, with pics of sign and couple. Woo....

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7557222&page=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Details show there is no defense here. These people need to the needle. Still can't find whether they were charged with murder or not.

[03Lightningrocks]

Liberty hit on a point that I was trying to make. Maybe there is some chance that people in general are beginning to misunderstand the Castle Doctrine. Those two probably believed they had a right to shoot at those folks. Not to scratch an old festering sore, but cases like Horn get a whole lot of publicity. Joe Dirt on the street may very well have a misunderstanding of shooting to protect property. The Joe Dirts are not really going to spend much time researching why Horn and others in his position did not go to jail. They are possibly just hearing the part about it being legal to shoot in order to protect property.

Situations like this just prove that not everybody utilizes common sense. Sometimes the gubbamint does have to say "bad boy" to them. I'm not for gun control in any sense. I am not for the idea that it is OK to just hap hazardly blast away at people over property. In a perfect world folks would only do it in the most extreme cases, but unfortunately, there are people who seem to look for the excuse to shoot at someone.

[Keith B]

Liberty hit on a point that I was trying to make. Maybe there is some chance that people in general are beginning to misunderstand the Castle Doctrine. Those two probably believed they had a right to shoot at those folks. Not to scratch an old festering sore, but cases like Horn get a whole lot of publicity. Joe Dirt on the street may very well have a misunderstanding of shooting to protect property. The Joe Dirts are not really going to spend much time researching why Horn and others in his position did not go to jail. They are possibly just hearing the part about it being legal to shoot in order to protect property.

Situations like this just prove that not everybody utilizes common sense. Sometimes the gubbamint does have to say "bad boy" to them. I'm not for gun control in any sense. I am not for the idea that it is OK to just hap hazardly blast away at people over property. In a perfect world folks would only do it in the most extreme cases, but unfortunately, there are people who seem to look for the excuse to shoot at someone.

I don't think they cared. According to the article they chased the vehicles down on 4-wheelers, then shot the back glass out. The description of the amount of pellets says they were using either 0 or #1 buckshot. They were not in fear for their lives if they had to chase down the cars. If the story is accurate, then these two need to have the book thrown at them.

[G.C.Montgomery]

Wow! Apparently these families knew each other!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6424953.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Amid tragic loss come acts of love
Liberty County shooting victim’s organs save 3 children
By CINDY HORSWELL HOUSTON CHRONICLE
May 14, 2009, 9:36PM

Even during the maddening grief he felt after the fatal shooting a week ago of his 7-year-old son, his own namesake whom he affectionately called “Junior,” he would not compromise his principle.

His thoughts turned to the two young sons of the couple charged with shooting his boy, and he decided to make sure they were being cared for. He thought, too, of other families going through the same pain as he and his wife, and they decided to donate their son’s organs.

Gale and Sheila Muhs are in the Liberty County Jail, charged in the shooting that killed Donald Coffey Jr. and wounded his father, his 5-year-old sister, Destiny, and family friend Patrick Cammack, 30.

The Muhses have two boys, ages 8 and 16, attending the same Dayton school district as Coffey’s two surviving children.

While eager for justice for his son, Coffey went to the school district offices to check on the welfare of the Muhses’ boys and learned they were safely at a grandmother’s home outside the district.

“I didn’t want anybody to bother them or pick on them. They’re not at all responsible for this,” Coffey said in his first interview since the shooting.

Dayton Superintendent Greg Hayman was surprised to learn of Coffey’s concern for the Muhses’ boys.

“I think it was an amazing expression of love in the face of insurmountable loss,” Hayman said. “It gives people hope.”

Family knew the Muhses
The group was returning from joy riding near a levee and swimming in the Trinity River when the shooting happened. They had pulled over in their vehicles on a publicly accessible road near the Muhses’ home, where a sign posted in front of their tiny house said trespassers would be shot and survivors would be shot again.

The Muhses, both 45, are charged with aggravated assault. The Liberty County Sheriff’s Office said Sheila Muhs called 911 after the shooting and reported, “They’re running over our levee in big-wheel vehicles, and I shot them.”

Despite that matter-of-fact explanation, Coffey doesn’t understand why the tragedy had to happen.

In the past, he said, he has given four-wheeler rides to the Muhses’ 8-year-old boy. He also recalls friendly visits with the Muhs family, including a jovial conversation with Sheila Muhs and her eldest son two hours before the shooting.

In those awful moments after the shooting, Coffey faced many decisions, but he said probably the most difficult was donating his son’s organs so other children might live.

He remembers “feeling weird” and unsure how his wife, Becky, would react. Their son’s organs were kept oxygenated after doctors declared him brain-dead Saturday at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.

Coffey knew his wife was struggling as much as he was to accept that their blond, bespectacled boy would never again run through the mud or ride through the Liberty County countryside he loved.

While most of the events at the hospital are a blur, Coffey remembers eventually telling hospital staff that he supported donating his son’s organs. But he ached at the thought of asking his wife’s permission, saying he just couldn’t do it.

That’s when he learned that his wife had given her permission minutes earlier.

“Neither of us could imagine having another family go through this, if we could help it,” he said. “There’s no words that exist in the dictionary that can describe what we’ve been through. It’s indescribable.”

Helping three children
When the Coffeys left the hospital without their son, they were told his organs had been used to save the lives of three children.

“I don’t know if there were any others later. It’s irrelevant to me,” Coffey said. “I won’t ask.”

But one day, the Coffeys would like to meet those who received the organs.

“We hope to know their names and talk to them,” he said. “We can’t force it, but we would like it.”

Catherine Burch Graham, spokeswoman for LifeGift, the organ and tissue recovery agency that handled the Coffey case, said she will help the couple compose a letter to the recipients about meeting.

“We usually wait at least six months because not only the families of the donors, but sometimes recipients, have emotional challenges,” she said, such as feeling guilty for being alive when another died.

Usually, only children have the organs small enough for other children, she said, and many die before one becomes available. Nearly 10,000 children and adults are waiting on transplant lists in Texas, and one in three will die before they have a donor, records show.

Graham said Donald Jr.’s legacy will be his gift to other children with life-threatening health issues.

cindy.horswell@chron.com

[03Lightningrocks]

Wow!!! This just keeps on getting stranger. Not sure I could be so forgiving of someone who killed my child but donating the child's organs so another child can live is something I would like to think I could do in this situation.

[Liberty]

Wow!!! This just keeps on getting stranger. Not sure I could be so forgiving of someone who killed my child but donating the child's organs so another child can live is something I would like to think I could do in this situation.

He was forgiving of the Muh's chlidren. Such grace as far as I've ever been able to figure comes to folks from up above. I believe the Coffey's must be getting guidance and support from a Heavanly source. Hard to imagine that grace like this coming from within.

Just my thoughts.