Arizona Senate bill allows deadly force for property damage

By BOB CHRISTIE
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona Senate bill would allow business owners or their employees to use deadly force to defend their property against smash-and-grab robbers if the robber possessed a dangerous weapon. But critics of the proposal from Scottsdale Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita say it is so broadly written that it would allow someone to be killed just for scrawling graffiti while having something that might be deemed a weapon. Ugenti-Rita acknowledged during a committee hearing that that was possible. But she pointed to limits in her proposal that said the person had to possess a “deadly instrument” at the time they were “knowingly” defacing or damaging someone’s property. A scheduled Monday vote was delayed.