Court Opinion

ID: 9729343
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:32:35.123398+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:57.107243
License: Public Domain

COAKLEY, J .
I concur, with this additional comment.
Reference is made in the opinion to People v. Sylva, 143 Cal. 62 [74 P. 814]. That case holds that pointing an unloaded gun at another, accompanied by a threat to discharge it, does not constitute an assault with a deadly weapon, or even simple assault, even though the person at whom it was pointed menacingly was thereby placed in great fear. If that is the correct interpretation of Penal Code section 240 (simple assault) and Penal Code section 245 (assault with a deadly weapon), then I respectfully suggest that the Legislature reconsider those statutes.
It is not difficult to conjure situations in which pointing an unloaded gun at another in a threatening manner can have most serious consequences, e.g., (1) induce a heart attack on the part of the person threat*547ened, (2) cause the driver of a car so threatened to speed away, killing or injuring himself and pedestrians, and (3) permit a suspect to hold at bay and then escape from police officers investigating a crime.1 Certainly, one causing such a result should be held criminally responsible for such conduct.

See People v. Vaiza, 244 Cal.App.2d 121 [52 Cal.Rptr. 733], In that case, while police officers were questioning the defendant for suspicious conduct at 2 a.m., he stepped back, pointed what appeared to the officers to be a pistol, said, “All right, stick ’em up,” then turned and ran. One of the officers fired at the fleeing defendant, who escaped unharmed. However, bullets from the officer’s gun struck two automobiles. The defendant testified that he pointed only a toy gun at the officers. The “gun” was never found.