Courts

Trying To Carjack The US Marshals Guarding Sonia Sotomayor Was A Bad Choice

If you're going to get into carjacking, maybe don't start with US Marshal vehicles.

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US-SUPREME-COURT

(Photo by ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

In the Grand Theft Auto video game series, you can usually carjack a fighter jet just as easily as a Tercel by walking up to it and pushing a button. In reality, carjacking is a violent crime made more dangerous than most muggings by the additional uncertainty posed by a victim potentially capable of driving off, raising the tensions and the risk of deadly miscalculation on all sides. To the extent there’s a “degree of difficulty” component to carjacking, rolling up on a US Marshal’s vehicle expecting to drive away with it falls at the heavy end of that spectrum.

From the Daily Mail:

A teenage suspect was shot by US Marshals on Friday after allegedly attempting to carjack Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s federal bodyguards outside her home, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal.

The Deputy Marshal was apparently sitting outside the justice’s condo at 1:15 in the morning when approached by the attempted carjacker. Anyone sitting in a stationary vehicle in the middle of the night is presumptively not to be messed with. I mean… they’ve clearly got something heavy going on. But here we are:

‘The suspect exited a vehicle, approached one of the Marshals, and pointed a handgun at him in an apparent attempt to carjack him,’ a DC Metropolitan Police Department press release said.

‘The Marshal drew his service weapon and fired several shots at the suspect. A second Marshal from another vehicle also responded and fired his service weapon.

Thankfully no one was killed, though the attempted carjacker was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The suspect was charged with “armed carjacking, carrying a pistol without a license, and possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device.”

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Or per Clarence Thomas’s jurisprudence, “a bunch of fake crimes.”

Sonia Sotomayor saved from danger: Supreme Court Justice’s bodyguard shoots gun-wielding suspect who tried to steal his car outside her DC home [Daily Mail]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.

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