33-Year-Old Man Pleads Guilty To Assault
Demetrius Byrd, 33, admitted in Magistrates Court this morning [Sept 11] that on 13th July, at a Hermitage Road apartment house, he head-butted one of the owners of the house.
Mr Byrd pleaded guilty to the charge of unlawfully assaulting another man but told Senior magistrate Archie Warner that the man and his son were both students of martial arts; that he had felt threatened by their ‘getting in his face’; and that he had struck first as a measure of self-defence. Mr Byrd also said that the whole matter arose out of an ongoing family dispute.
The Magistrate confirmed that Mr Byrd was not a member of the family, but did have a five year old common-law relationship with one of the female members of family and lived, with her, in one of the apartments.
Having heard Mr Byrd’s explanation for his actions, the Magistrate told Mr Byrd that the issue of self-defence does not arise and that it does appear that the family “has a beef against you.” Mr Byrd said that since the incident, he had moved out. The Magistrate said: “My advice is stay away. Marry the girl and buy a house in Somerset.”
The Magistrate fined Mr Byrd $500 and gave him time to pay.
Mr Byrd had pleaded not guilty to two other charges, using threatening words and unlawfully assaulting a second man. In light of the guilty plea to the third charge and subsequent conviction, Deputy DPP Cindy Clarke said that the Crown would offer no evidence on the first and second charges.
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dude… u dont strike first and call that self defense!
So he should wait to be assaulted when he feels threatened?!?!
remove himself from the situation.
“the man and his son were both students of martial arts; that he had felt threatened by their ‘getting in his face’; and that he had struck first as a measure of self-defence.”
So they are both students of martial arts and you decide to attack first???
As a student myself, I know that martial arts are for defending oneself. So they then had every right to use their skills to defend against his initial attack. Not the other way around!
Oss
As a student myself, if I can kick you, you need to step out of my bubble. If this guy was close enough to head butt something tells me he was asking for it. In some instances self-defense is a preemptive strike. If someone gets close to you and manages to catch you off guard with a punch followed by a series of relentless punches what do you think your chances are of coming out on top? Slim to none. The first step to self-defense is not allowing your attacker to get close enough to hit you or to at least have enough distance to see the strike coming. There is no reason for anyone to be getting up in anyones face because that in itself is a threatening gesture and reason enough for self-defense. Why else would he be in his face? I’m sure his breath wasn’t that sweet. Martial arts is also no excuse to try and throw your weight around. If someone pulled a knife on you are you going to wait for them to stab you before you defend yourself? I’m sure as hell not. Can’t say I blame this guy.
I do agree with some of your comments my friend.
If someone is within kicking distance they are too close if they are acting threatening as you said.
However, if he knows they are into martial arts I would think he would remove himself and not encourage an attack that he may not win.
Yea I dont get that either, especially knowing they’re into the arts. Thats why i also agree with the fine because this really sounds like nothing more than a shouting match and not something that really needed violence, but hey none of us were there.
And you are absolutely correct.
Sometimes a proactive strike is necessary and required instead of a reactive one!
What fails to be mentioned is how he ran down to confront the students of martial arts (while they were seemingly minding their own business in their own yard)
None of us really know how it went down, well you might, but he did live there so its not like he went to someone else’s house to assault them. Some martial artists let their training go to their head, some even announce they are practitioners and any decent martial artists knows not to do that for the simple fact if something happens you want the element of surprise. The most important part of the arts is learning to diffuse a situation before it starts not starting or finishing one. Fact is whoever got in whoevers face was is in the wrong, that in itself is threatening, try flailing your arms around the police, you’ll probably wake up in a puddle of your own urine.