Posted on 12/20/2013 5:07:52 AM PST by Uncle Chip
Judge David Turfe said Detroit-area man, Theodore Wafer, made a 'bad choice' when he shot dead Renisha McBride through the screen of his front door in the early hours of November 2
Wafer, said he feared for his life and acted in self-defense but the judge rejected this argument Thursday
He will now stand trial for second-degree murder and manslaughter ....
Victim's family cried in court as the ruling was announced
Wafer, 54, called 911 around 4:30 a.m. and said he had shot someone who was banging on his door
Three hours earlier, McBride had crashed her car into a parked car in a residential neighborhood, about a half-mile away
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You’re right — this thing should be plea bargained out.
I’m thinking the guy may have been telling the truth when he said initially that he shot her accidentally.
Look at the Mossberg he used — the thing is barrel-heavy.
Imagine your right hand on the handle/trigger, then taking your left hand off the barrel as you reach to open the door. What’s going to happen as that barrel begins to drop — boom.
That makes the most sense, in light of what happened.
I would insist my attorney file countersuit that charges the drunk with suicide. The shooter in this instance probably saved lives.If not in the immediate context—in the near future.
Did you read the rest of the paragraph? I covered that.
I certainly wouldn’t want to face a jury and a prosecutor in this case.
I have a friend who was convicted of negligent homicide years ago. He got into a drunken fight with a friend and the friend hit his head and died. Fortunately the victim’s parents are good people and even testified on behalf of my friend who they said was like a second son to them. My friend was out of jail in under a year.
I think you can add to that two more:
The neighbors who saw the accident and just let her walk away without calling the police. Someone should have kept her at the scene since she was vbisibly injured and had hit several parked cars.
The police for not putting a BOLO out for her. The accident happened at 1:00 — had the police even responded to the scene??
That is what I did when I heard my doorbell repeatedly ringing at 2 am and my garage door opening. I also called 911. I found out the next day that it was my neighbor who rang the doorbell to warn me that I had left my garage door open, then he closed it himself. He is a nice guy but not quite all there and obviously not a deep thinker. I told him thanks for the thought but that is a good way to get shot. No way would I open up a door if someone was knocking on it after dark, unless of course I was expecting them.
Looks like everyone involved in this was wrong.
I had an incident this summer. Now, I live in a suburb of a super safe community. 300,000 people and nobody gets killed by somebody they don't know. In fact the homicide rate is maybe one a year. I don't have a gun.
About 3AM one night I heard male voices outside. I saw the beam of a flashlight. The dog alerted and started barking like crazy. Instantly, I thought it was police or other emergency personnel, the neighbor is always being taken away by ambulance and someone with ill intent would not be making that much noise. Having made that determination, I rolled over and let the wife and dog handle it.
It was the police. I had inadvertently left the front entry door open to let the cool night air in. The screen door was closed and locked but they saw the entry door open and decided to investigate. After my wife assured them that there was no one there holding us hostage the front door was not kicked in and still worked, and we were all safe and nobody could get past fido anyway, they left.
Now, call me crazy, tell me I have a false sense of security, or just wonder where this kind of super safe community could exist. That's what happened. To add some context, I am older than the homeowner in the story and I live about 15 miles away from him.
I have trouble faulting the people who let her walk away. It doesn’t say whether they called the police or not. Somebody, obviously drunk, wrecks their car at 1am. Do you want to physically detain them? What you are doing might be the right thing to do for everybody, but you might be putting yourself at risk. Also, can you legally detain somebody like that?
See post 29.
But, to open the door and shoot? I don't know.
See post 29.
Yeah, this guy really screwed-up. This is MI; wonder if he’d be prosecuted if it were TX?
The judge said the defendant made a poor choice by bringing a gun to the door. EXCUSE ME???? At 4:30 in the morning, the defendant is wakened by the sound of his screen door being pounded on so forcefully that it nearly came off it’s hinges. And he’s not supposed to bring his gun to the door to see who’s attempting to breakdown it down!!!!!!!
Shoot someone through a door and you’ll be prosecuted pretty much anywhere including magical Texas.
Best not to open the door, then. Stay back and let ‘em break it down; then shoot.
With all due respect to you and the neighborhood, if what she did happened anywhere around here she would not have left the scene.
She would be either driven to the hospital where police would be waiting or her parents would have been called but no one who had just crashed into two neighborhood cars and then totalled her own would be allowed to walk away from such a crash site bleeding and disoriented without someone intervening insistently.
I had an incident this summer. Now, I live in a suburb of a super safe community. 300,000 people and nobody gets killed by somebody they don’t know. In fact the homicide rate is maybe one a year. I don’t have a gun.
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Sounds wonderful, where do you live????
I would demand a jury.
A jury member does not walk into court in a bubble that discounts life experiences and recent trends in crime.
Unfortunately, he will likely be convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
Well, according to the title, if the drunk was already dead, what harm was there?
Maybe race played a role here. Maybe the neighbors would have detained a 19 year old white girl but let the black girl go because of the present racial climate.
I cannot fault the neighbors that let her go.
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