Posted on 12/02/2015 7:46:00 AM PST by Da Bilge Troll
ST. LOUIS • Ernest Williams, 14, says he, his cousin and their friend were wrong to sneak out on their bikes at night, hop a backyard fence and rummage through someone’s car for pocket change.
The car’s owner interrupted the boys and shot at them about 12:45 a.m. Sunday, killing Ernest’s 13-year-old cousin, Martinez Smith-Payne.
Ernest wishes they had gone home instead of riding down that North Point neighborhood alley. “I was just thinking while in the jail cell, what was up in that car was not worth Martinez’s life,†Ernest said on his front porch Monday, standing next to his mother. “We all were responsible for going in that car. All three of us made that choice.â€
Their friend ran off, but Ernest called 911 and stayed with Martinez until police arrived. Ernest was taken into juvenile custody for several hours.
The shooting could test Missouri’s laws regarding a homeowner’s right to protect himself.
Prosecutors said Monday they are reviewing the case, though authorities released only a broad outline of the facts: a 60-year-old man shot Martinez after catching him and two other boys searching his unlocked car in the 5900 block of Riverview Boulevard.
Martinez, who lived in the 5200 block of Davison Avenue, died at a hospital. Police arrested the man who shot him Sunday, but the man was released after prosecutors did not charge him. The man could not be reached for comment Monday.
A spokeswoman said St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce’s office would not make anyone available to answer questions Monday because the case was under review. A prepared statement from Joyce called the case “a terrible tragedy,†adding that “Missouri law regarding a homeowner’s right to protect himself and his property is complicated.â€
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Nothing to test, it seems to be working fine.
Stealing is a human right and anyone interfering with that right is a terrorist.../s
Love it!
“Criminal Mischief” under cover of darkness justifies deadly force in this, my Lone Star State.
Mike Dukakis, then gov., pushed it through in MA.
No surprise, because MA was also the only state to have car theft, for the purposes of joyriding, a misdemeanor. For the children, of course.
I can tell you that in the Anaheim,CA area the answer is NO! What newspapers are left are delivered by car, door to door sales of what? magazines, candy bars, Fuller brushes?
Lawns are mown and leaves are blown by truck loads of Mexicans (haven't seen a Japanese gardener since I was 12), before I had to sell my house this year there were three houses in the tract overflowing with Mexicans gardeners, kids don't have a chance. Shoveling snow? I don't know what snow is in SoCal. Hell teenagers that want to work can't even compete with the Hispanics for fast food jobs. Does this mean I approve of the little shits stealing and robbing? Hell NO! But the world ain't Mayberry anymore.
Thank you, I am edified. :)
Death: the free prize in every box of stupid.
L
No I don’t think kids today have a lot of these options for part time work. Papers are delivered by adults in trucks or cars nowadays. The routes cover hundreds of homes and can’t be serviced by kids on bikes. Anecdotal evidence is that people not born in this country are doing lawn and landscape and snow shoveling type work nowadays. Anecdotal evidence is also that many fast food type jobs are filled by people.not born in this country.
There are things an enterprising teenager can do but there aren’t as many choices as people had in decades past.
Certainly no evidence of that from your posts.
“I know that I raised Martinez to the best of my ability, being a single, black parent.”
Often the “best” a single parent can do just isn’t good enough.
“Are NONE of those options available anymore? “
Yes they are, but they’re also called WORK, and WORK is the anethema to our Black utes today in large measure. They are raised by perambulating vaginas like this kid’s mother, so they are never taught about the value of WORK!
Depends on the prosecuting attorney and their political goals.
Off hand, I would say the shooter is in deep legal trouble. He is about to see that for some cultures, crime is a profession that is protected.
While it may not be the case in Missouri, in Texas, you have the right to defend your property as well as your life.
Personally, I think it should be like that everywhere. We are all born into this world with a finite amount of time on our hands. We exchange some of this time to employers for money, which we use to purchase property. In a very real sense, when someone steals from you, that which you have worked for, they are stealing a portion of your life.
Pretty much not. Illegals have destroyed most of the avenues you mentioned. That is one reason why I strongly support forceful mass deportations of illegal invaders.
Federal regulations related to farm work: http://youthrules.dol.gov/know-the-limits/agriculture/
That 13 year old can shoot a gun too. If you do not want to get killed then do not rob people.
That is what I think, too. But, maybe he did not know if they were armed or not. Maybe they did something to make him think they were armed when he called out to them.
The bottom line is “don’t steal” from your neighbors. It’s dangerous.
“Are NONE of those options available anymore? “
Oh, they’re AVAILABLE. Kids are just too lazy and pampered by their mommas to do any actual work. I’m a 61 year old woman and I do all of my own yard work while the neighborhood kids strut by bouncing basketballs.
Preaching to the choir, friend.
Oddly, my comment was meant to be somewhat critical of the OP’s assertion the the man be charged, yet it seems to have been taken differently.
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