BTW, Robin got me thinking of the proper analogy to this Blackwater Security incident, and here it is – an armed robbery of a Brinks Company armored car, which is operated by two Brinks security guards.
So one of the Brinks guards opens fire on the robbers, and there is a firefight in which all three robbers are killed, along with one of the two Brinks guards (the one who started the shooting) and two wholly innocent bystanders across the street. And forensic evidence shows the two by-standers were killed by bullets from the gun of the surviving Brinks guard, who was not the one who started the shooting.
Would the local district attorney bring involuntary manslaughter charges, with firearms enhancements, against the suriving Brinks guard for killing the bystanders? If he did, would the guard be aquitted given a reasonable defense on self-defense and defense of another (the latter of the now-dead guard)? Again, assume the robbers are dead. Also assume that the surviving guard fired wildly, and contrary to his firearms training from Brinks.
I just don’t see any criminal liability here. Civil liability for wrongful death, payable by damages to the dead bystanders’ families might be proper, but not being found guilty of a crime.
The Blackwater guards here drove straight into a setup by Iranian Revolutionary Guards who had already created an on-going incident for the express purpose of making Blackwater look bad. The Iranians succeeded, but that makes the Blackwater personnel as much victims of enemy action as the people they purportedly shot.
Not to mention that the Revolutionary Guards might alo have shot some of the Iraqi victims themselves, and blamed it on Blackwater complete with planted evidence.
