You were the one who based the comment on a photo and not the gun. Apparently, he needed more than a silly face and a wad of paper to "take care of himself". He felt he needed some protection and from his DOCUMENTED history, he may very well have. Just WHOM he needed protection from would be an interesting thing to know. IMO, he may very well have needed it from the M's based on the testimony given about them chasing the car he was in - as per BM. I do not think that anything about motivation has been established beyond a reasonable doubt yet and I am not prone to easy or shallow acceptance of "fault" or conclusions because I've seen too many cases where that route turns out to be the wrong one - especially when the stakes are so high. I prefer the biggest picture possible before I decide I am sure about something like this.
For the record, I am a fan of NO ONE in this entire case (IMO, NONE of the parties here are the kind of people I would be "fanatic" about and I take umbrage at the idea.) so you can cool it with the "Fan Club" junk, please. This isn't a football game with bleacher sides.
I am here to see where this goes because it is a fascinating and unique case. I have no skin in this game other than simple curiosity. If you will take note of my phrasing ("could", "possible", "might have", "if", etc.) you should be able to discern that I am merely attempting to cover bases of thought and not choosing sides; and that I am not attempting to claim a concrete outcome without provable facts. Nor am I incapable of changing my opinion and theories as more information comes to light. I was originally shocked and horrified at the initial news reports (I've followed this case since day one.) and was sucked in and have had my opinions change several times as more data has been made available and I have had civil and meaningful discussions with others. I wish other people were able to do the same.
We certainly see he can take care of himself. I can see why he would have 'little man' syndrome due to his size. Napoleon, Manson, and other small built men seem to suffer from this as well.
He probably thought owning a .45 made him intimidating to others.. which I am sure it did. There have been articles in the media about neighbors reporting seeing him firing a gun in the open park even after he murdered Tammy Myers. There were also reports that he had held a knife to the throats of two girls in the same park, iirc. I believe a photo of the very large knife he carried was put up on his social media page. So he did tend to substitute a deadly weapon since he was too small to be a threat to anyone without him having a deadly weapon with him which he felt gave him the advantage and in the end it did.
In the GJ testimony the detective did say he could never find any evidence of anyone trying to harm EN or his family. I believe it was drug induced paranoia on his part due to his lifestyle at the time around the arrest. Surely if he really had threats he would have them on his cell phone or if they did it face to face then he would know who they are yet he didn't tell the detective any names. So there had to be communication in some manner so there should be verification of the so called threats. There doesn't seem to be any as of the GJ testimony. May have been just away to explain why the little man always carried his gun.
Of course there has been no establishing beyond a reasonable doubt at this time concerning this case. The trial has not even been held. All we have now is partial evidence which has been presented is small snippets in the GJ and other than that we have assumptions including those against the murdered victim, attempted murder victim, and the defendant. We do know he meant to kill them though by his own admission. He said he couldn't let those m.....f....get away, and he tried his best to shoot them both by his own statement.
Imo, he is guilty of M1 based on what I know now. My opinion can change... should more real evidence, and not assumptions be revealed.
There is no evidence as of now that the Myers set out to harm anyone. People are allowed to carry a legally obtained weapon with them. In fact millions have CWPs and shoot no one. Gun owners rarely have to fire their weapon even though they may have had handguns with them on their person for many decades.
Tammy did not tell Brandon to bring his weapon but I can understand why he did. I don't think he ever intended on using his firearm. He didn't even ready it for firing until the first shooting occurred. I really think what Tammy wanted to do is see if she could follow the road rager to their home. If she did that then she could call 911 to report the address or like she did early about another bully she may have gone to his home to talk with him about the threats he made. A decision I don't agree with, but I have read many articles where parents did confront a bully. But there is absolutely no evidence that the Myers were the aggressors. The one with the most to gain by lying is always the defendant who is looking at long prison sentence. That is why EN lied to begin with which shows he will lie in a heartbeat if he thinks its to his advantage. I am sure LE chuckles when suspects tell them 'now I am going to tell you what really happened' because a lot of times it just doesn't jive with the evidence.
I don't think Brandon ever brandished his gun. EN did say he brandished his though. It wouldn't surprise me if LE already has camera footage from homes in the chase areas and shows no brandishing of the gun done from the green car. It makes no sense that BM would brandish the weapon and then not shoot. His gun was operable since he shot when he was being fired upon at his home. So imo as of this time there is more weight showing he did not brandish a weapon. We know which one was trigger happy that night and it wasn't Brandon. EN thought he was a badass when he had his gun with him like it made him a big man. Proud of it too and showing it off. As he told his friend what happened he almost seem giddy with what he had done. Really creepy, imo. Maybe he thought now his gang buddies would look up to him more.
Imo, the minute that the Myers were fired upon when they backed up away from the lunatic firing from the car two blocks ahead of them is when everything changed. By the evidence we know now it shows concretely that the Myers did not want a confrontation with the Audi and its passenger.
There is also no evidence that Tammy was armed. I don't even know how that assumption got started but if Tammy had been standing in her own yard with an Uzi in her hand when EN&DA came to their home, and property hemming them in......... she had every legal right to defend herself after already being shot at several times at another location. So did Brandon Myers. The Myers retreated back to the safety of their home. The Myers weren't the ones to confront. Going to the safety of their own home is not an aggressive act and they were never the ones that shot at anyone until the bullets came flying toward them at their home. EN&DA continued to aggressively pursue the green car even though EN admits the green car backed up instead and returned no fire at the first location. And during that pursuit they found them... then intended to kill both Tammy and Brandon even though EN did not succeed in killing BM the intent was still there by his own admission, hence the attempted murder charge.
Even if one wants to stretch it and say the Myers were the aggressors by merely following the silver car once the persons in the green car backed up and went home ENs claim of self defense goes out the window. Example: One cant have a heated physical altercation with someone at one location and one or both of the parties walk away from the confrontation, and then one of the parties goes over to the home afterwards and shoots and kills the other person. That is premeditated murder and that is what happened in this case.
From the first shooting scene on there was no evidence that either Meyers wanted a confrontation. The evidence shows otherwise. When they fled it was over and their actions showed neither one wanted to confront or harm those in the silver car. They never even tried to stop the Audi to even have a verbal conversation with those in the vehicle much less try to aggressively harm the occupants in any way.
JMO
