Judge aquits two men who shot intruder

The Baltimore Sun Website ^ | January 24, 2003 | Allison Klein

[Ranxerox]

Arguing that the state's murder case "challenged the foundation of the right to defend yourself," two Harford County businessmen were acquitted yesterday of gunning down a drug addict who broke into their East Baltimore warehouse.

Prosecutors said the men, frustrated by repeated burglaries at their business, were acting with murder in mind, not self-defense, when they killed Tygon Walker with a shotgun and a handgun in June 2001. But Baltimore Circuit Judge John M. Glynn pronounced Kenny Der and Darrell R. Kifer not guilty of first-degree murder seconds after attorneys finished their closing arguments.

[Ranxerox]

This case never should have been presented to the Grand Jury. In Maryland, a gun owner is a criminal no matter what, and criminals with guns go free. Go figure.

Isn't there a law to go after people who deny or refuse to recognize your rights?

[SteveH]

Maryland bang

[bvw]

Some more of the article:

On June 30, 2001, Der and Kifer were on the first floor of the two-story warehouse when they heard noises upstairs. They had been fixing a table for the Mount Washington Tavern, where Der works as a disc jockey.

Der, armed with a handgun, and Kifer, armed with a shotgun, walked upstairs to investigate the noise when they came upon Walker, who had just broken in through a window. Walker, who had no money or drugs on him, was intoxicated and high on morphine, according to an autopsy report.

Defense attorneys David B. Irwin and Leslie A. Stein argued that Walker was brandishing a hammer and said he was going to kill the men. Der and Kifer fired, hitting Walker five times with shotgun pellets and six times with bullets from Der's .45-caliber handgun. ...

Walker had lived in the 1100 block of E. Belvedere Ave. He was convicted of felony theft in Baltimore in 1994, records show. He also had been arrested eight times on various charges in Baltimore between 1993 and 1996.

[Freeper 007]

The Der and Kifer case is one of a handful of Maryland self-defense killings in which the gunmen have not been held legally responsible for murder.


Believe it or not, the "gunmen" they refer to here in the article are the two victims, not the intruder.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Judge Glynn gets the Straight Thinking award for the day.

[blau993]

Not the cleanest shoot imaginable, but the outcome was right. This is a victory for Maryland gun owners, and God knows we need all the victories we can get.

[RonF]

They shot this guy 11 times! I have no problem with self-defense shooting, but isn't that a bit excessive? I'd love to see if there was any analysis of the angle of the bullets to see if he was still standing though all of this, or if they shot him repeatedly after he hit the ground.

Now, if he was loaded on morphine I can see where he might have been resistant to fall at first, but it strains credulity that he didn't go down after the first half-dozen shots hit him.

[RonF]

"Cohen said the men were angry because the warehouse had been broken into many times in recent weeks, including one incident hours before the shooting. Walker had 11 gunshot wounds, including five in the back."

Five shots in the back? Tell me again that this was just self-defense.

[CCWoody]

They shot this guy 11 times! I have no problem with self-defense shooting, but isn't that a bit excessive? ~ RonF

It is a movie myth that you are simply suppose to go down and die after a couple of bullets. Having been "loaded on morphine" before, I can assure you that Walker could have been thrown from a motorcycle at 60mph and have felt no pain while loaded on morphine.

Personally, I carry 25 rounds of hard hitting .45 hollowpoints. Do you think that is a bit excessive?

Woody.

[CyberSpartacus]

If you break into someone elses property. As far as I'm concerned they have a right to torture you to death.

[Ranxerox]

Excessive? Why does it even matter how many times the intruder was hit, or how many shots are fired? The real question is: do I have the right to use deadly force in self-defense or not? If I do have that right then the number of hits is immaterial, since the end result is the same. There aren't varying degrees of "deadness", dead is dead wether from one shot or eleven.

[ko_kyi]

five of the 11 wounds were shotgun pellets, all arriving within a hundredth of a second of each other.

[ko_kyi]

oh, and a couple of the other wounds were grazes.

[freddy]

U.S. Code, Title 18 [US Criminal Code] Section 242

Deprivation of rights under color of law..

[Tijeras_Slim]

Sounds like these guys should spend some more time at the range.

[csvset]

Tygon Walker

Tygon? What kind of name is that? Perhaps he was a Borg.

Tygon

[ko_kyi]

It was dark, they were frightened, and they survived while the attacker didn't. I guess they had enough time at the range. :)

[RonF]

Hm. See, from this account:

"Walker had 11 gunshot wounds, including five in the back. "

"Der and Kifer fired, hitting Walker five times with shotgun pellets and six times with bullets from Der's .45-caliber handgun."

I had interpreted "five times with shotgun pellets" as being five different discharges of the shotgun, not five pellets. But if you have another source that says different, then that's a different issue.

But there's still some issues, to me. First, I'd think that if you were shot 5 times with a .45, you'd have gone down before the 5th shot. So that's a bit questionable. Then there's the issue of five shots in the back. If that's five pellets from one shotgun firing that hit him as he spun around, O.K. If they stood over him and pumped 5 rounds into him after he fell down on his face, then that's wrong. Is there a source for more detail on what happened?

[freddy]

U.S. Code, Title 18 [US Criminal Code] Section 242

Deprivation of rights under color of law..

Boy..!!! Did I get that one wrong...!!!
Ignore my post..#14... Sorry...

[Dan(9698)]

>>>...They shot this guy 11 times!

They ran out of bullets. :-)