I'm sorry you lost your friend, but he was "up to no good".
Perhaps you should find another hobby.
Point of fact: sometimes popular and well-liked people do stupid, thoughtless things.
He was acting like a dumb punk, no matter how much y'all liked him.
Did he deserve to get shot? I suppose not. But sometimes when you invite trouble, you get it.
for you[r] information the game they were playing is called ding-dong-ditch. Its a popular game among teens where someone goes up to the door and knocks or rings the doorbell and when the door is opening runs away.
Where do you stand, generally, after the doorbell is rung and you're waiting for the resident to 'come to the door'?
Do you stand in the shadows off to the side?
Are you in a crowched or semi-crowched posture?
Do you carry flashlights of other objectrs in your hands?
"If the kid was ringing and running, and the homeowner with the gun saw him face to face that would mean he was waiting for him to show up. It is possible that as soon as the bell was rung the homeowner threw open the door and shot the kid as he was turning to run away."
Many on here are taking the homeowner's word that he was asleep when he heard a knock, got out of bed, got his gun and then went to the door, and the kid was still there during all that time. I don't believe it. Why would they all of a sudden decide to not run at that house? They weren't wearing masks (or it would have been mentioned/found out) so what's the point of staying there to be witnessed? Ask the survivor: How many seconds after the knock was the door opened?
I do believe the homeowner was just inside the door with his gun ready when your friend got there. The homeowner could be plain mean and/or in a bad mood, so that when he noticed kids going around the neighborhood he could have decided to put an end to their fun. Drugs or alcohol could have played a part and impaired his judgement, made him paranoid, angry, etc. Notice how it mentions his eyes being red:
A shirtless and red-eyed Levin answered the door to his neatly landscaped home Saturday morning, but said only, "I can't talk to you," in response to a reporter's questions.
By being a giant pain?
By annoying, bothering and yes, frightening people who he didn't know?
Your idea of "innocent fun" is quite warped.
What were you going to do for an encore? Hide in the bushes and jump out at people?
You and your friends are fools. And stupid in the bargain. People who are fools and stupid often come to an untimely end.
Allow me to explain a fact of life that you will find quite useful should you survive to grow up.
If you try to annoy, provoke, anger and frighten people... THEY WILL GET ANNOYED, PROVOKED, ANGRY AND FRIGHTENED!!!
When people are annoyed, provoked, angry and/or frightened sooner or later they will lash out. And someone is going to get hurt. That someone will likely be YOU.
When that happens expect me to shed no sad tears for you. You went looking for trouble. You found it.
Why you thought that this was a good idea I have no idea but I will venture to guess that you have been protected from any consequences of your actions for far to long.
Welcome to adulthood child. You are late arriving.
There was a Beavis and Butthead episode along those lines.
But even they weren't dumb enough to try it at night.
He was up to no good. It's called "malicious mischief".
Mark never intended to harm or damage the man who shot him in any way.
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what Mark intended. What matters is whether or not the homeowner reasonably perceived him as a threat.
...Also, for you information the game they were playing is called ding-dong-ditch. Its a popular game among teens where someone goes up to the door and knocks or rings the doorbell and when the door is opening runs away.
Yes, we're all familiar with the game, although in my day it was popular only among pre-teens and only during daylight hours. Strangely, I only remember it being fun when someone got really upset and started screaming and yelling like a lunatic. Is that what Mark was after?
The man who shot Mark was completely in the wrong and should be prosecuted to the fullest.
If the man is telling the truth then he's done nothing wrong and will probably not be prosecuted at all. People are supporting him here because they believe his story, not because the kid deserved to die.
I just want everyone out there to know that at Pope everyone who knew Mark liked and loved him and will miss him dearly, and if you really believe he did something wrong and it was his fault he's dead I hope you see some of the footage of our homecoming dance where kids were hysterical to the brink of nearly passing out. I was Mark's friend and I hope that for his sake, his poor mother and father, his extended family, and friends that this man who killed him in cold blood is put away for many years.
I'm sorry that your friend is dead, but he's dead because of a horrible accident that was at least partly his own fault.
If you intend to stick around on FR, you'd better learn the basics of logic very quickly. False "appeals to emotion" like you posted in the quoted sentence fragment above don't work too well around here.
I'm sorry your friend is dead, but any after-the-fact crying jags are 100% irrelevant to the facts of the case.