Is it just me or can anyone else see the news article if the OP had shot the guy.

Local residents fed up with intoxicated youths trashing their streets as the local dive bars empty, knew it would end in tragedy!

A local man was shot and killed on his front lawn yesterday evening by patrons of a local dive bar. Neighbors say they heard the man ask the youths not to kick the garbage cans in the neighborhood and a verbal altercation started. The man's wife and 2 children, testified that their husband and father went to quickly investigate that his property was not being damaged, fearing that the three youths might be intoxicated, aggressive and as they obviously outnumbered this father of three, Mr X took his son's little league bat. Little did Mr X know that he was about to be the target of premeditated murder as he was ambushed and was shot several times in the back!

Mr. X was a devoted father and husband and had twice received a certificate of good citizenship from the city once for rescuing a trapped elderly neighbor from her burning home. He was also a volunteer firefighter and coached his son's little league team for the past four seasons...
I have to say from your account, you are very lucky that it was not more serious. If some shit head was kicking garbage cans in my neighborhood and then cussed at me when I told him to stop. I definitely would have come down to have a talk and I certainly wouldn't have been armed with just a bat, and if some punk tried to flank me with his hand on a gun we would have found out who puts in more quality time in at the range...

I would strongly suggest that you an your friends really think about the consequences of your actions. Kicking cans late at night is idiotic and immature behavior, then to stand there and cuss out the home owner who calls you out on it and even get ready to shoot the guy is completely stupid and potentially criminal.

You should have told your friend to apologize and quickly left before the homeowner came out. I know half a dozen guys in Denver if you had tried that shit on their front lawn it would have gone down very very differently. Count yourself lucky that you are not in hospital or jail this morning, and really think about what you are doing.

Cameron