Posted on 10/26/2003 4:41:29 AM PST by lifacs
Sunday, October 26
Teen pulling prank killed by neighbor
By Sarah Eisenhauer and Cynthia Kopkowski, Palm Beach Post Staff Writers Sunday, October 26, 2003
A birthday celebration capped off by an early-morning round of mischievous doorbell ringing ended in the death of a Boca Raton-area teenager early Saturday after a neighbor who believed his home was about to be burgled shot and killed the boy, deputies said.
Mark Andrew Drewes, a popular Pope John Paul II High School sophomore who celebrated his 16th birthday at a party Friday night, died from a single gunshot wound at Delray Medical Center. The shooting occurred shortly after 12:30 a.m. in the Woodbury neighborhood, a quiet, upper middle class neighborhood in the Boca Del Mar region.
The man who shot Drewes, Jay Steven Levin, 40, was not arrested, Palm Beach County sheriff's spokeswoman Diane Carhart said. Investigators questioned Levin at his home at 6115 Woodbury Road and collected evidence but did not take him into custody, Carhart said.
"He's a homeowner there," she said. "He was very cooperative."
The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office will review the evidence and determine whether Levin's actions were justifiable self-defense or grounds for criminal charges, spokesman Mike Edmondson said.
When Levin, a Palm Beach County businessman who lived alone, was awakened from his sleep by a knock at the door early Saturday, he armed himself with a handgun and answered it, deputies said. He told deputies he saw someone he believed was holding a weapon.
Levin fired one shot, hitting Drewes, according to deputies. The boy ran into a neighbor's yard and collapsed.
"He feared for his life," Carhart said of Levin, adding that the teenager was 6-feet-2 and 210 pounds. "So he's a big 16-year-old."
Gathered at a family member's home Saturday morning, Drewes' relatives disputed Levin's self-defense claim and said they were furious that he was not arrested and charged with a crime Saturday.
"How can they call that self-defense?" said a family member who asked not to be identified. "If they thought it was a burglar, what kind of burglar knocks?"
The previous night, the large family and a bunch of friends had gathered at the house on Woodbury, where the Drewes have lived for about 10 years, for birthday cake. The teenager had been eagerly looking forward to three things: his 16th birthday, when he would be able to trade in his learner's driving permit for the real thing; the family party; and his school's homecoming dance Saturday.
"It was such a good day," said his grandmother Patricia Drewes, who drove from her Stuart home for the birthday party. "He was so happy. He told me it was the best day of his life."
Throughout the evening Friday, Drewes and his friends darted back and forth between his home and the fall festival at nearby St. Jude Catholic Church and school, where he graduated from eighth grade two years ago.
About 11:30 p.m., Drewes and a friend decided to go for a walk, family members said.
"They were playing knock on the door and run," said one family member. "They were being silly. They weren't bad kids."
Family members said the teen who was with Drewes told them he was not holding anything in his hand.
Investigators did not find a weapon on the victim, Carhart said. They confiscated Levin's handgun as evidence, she said.
Carhart said ringing doorbells and running is not generally considered to be a crime.
Family contends teen was shot in back
The sheriff's office would not release the name of the teenager who was with Drewes Saturday morning. Nor would it confirm the family's assertion that morgue officials told them Saturday afternoon that Drewes was shot in the back.
Carhart said the sheriff's office did not know when an autopsy was to take place.
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.
State records show Levin ran his own business called Caxin Consulting Inc. from his home since 2001. He filed papers dissolving that corporation in August. Before that, he was listed as president of two other businesses, which are now inactive, the Halifax Group Inc. and L&L Accounting Inc.
Levin has a concealed weapons permit, according to state records.
He has lived at 6115 Woodbury, which has a market value of $195,000, since December 1996, according to county property appraiser records. It's on the next block from the Drewes home, several houses up the street.
Levin's doorbell was not the only one the boys rang Saturday morning. Residents up and down the 6100 block of Woodbury reported being awakened by ringing doorbells and knocks shortly after midnight. Most said they sloughed it off or answered the door, found nobody there and went back to bed. But a second round of frantic pounding and shouting from Drewes' friend minutes later caught their attention.
"It was pounding, pounding," said Lauren Hahn, one of several residents who talked to the boy through her front door, then called 911. "He said 'Call 911. My friend's been shot.' He was hysterical."
Droopy-eyed neighbors repeated the same story as they gathered Saturday morning in small groups up and down the block, some just a few yards away from blood stains where Drewes fell.
Carol Quiroga, who lives across the street from Levin, heard nothing outside as she made her way to bed minutes before the shooting -- no arguing, no scuffling. A loud "pop," broke the silence, followed by someone saying calmly, "Call 911" once, then again, she said. What sounded like a boy's voice came next, saying "Help. I need help."
She expressed the same disbelief shared by Drewes' family and several neighbors.
"What is so important that you are defending that you need a gun?" said Quiroga, the mother of two teenage boys, before breaking into tears.
"Teenage boys do things like that," she said.
Determining whether Levin's actions were protected by the state's self-defense laws now falls to State Attorney Barry Krischer's office. Someone can use force to protect his home if he think it's being burgled, Edmondson said, but it can only equal the force he's being threatened by.
And that law doesn't generally protect homeowners who use deadly force against someone coming into their yards or on their sidewalks, Edmondson said. That's considered trespassing.
"A trespass would not constitute a breach of someone's safety," he said.
If Krischer's office determines that Levin acted legally, the case is closed, Edmondson said. If the state attorney believes it was an unjustified killing, worthy of a second-degree murder charge or a lesser offense, he will charge Levin. If the evidence isn't clear-cut and could point to a first-degree murder charge, then Krischer will refer it to the grand jury, Edmondson said.
A man in Louisiana was cleared of wrongdoing in 1993 after he shot a Halloween-costumed Japanese exchange student knocking on his door looking for a party in 1992. He turned himself in after a grand jury had indicted him on charges of manslaughter in the killing of Yoshihiro Hattori of Nagoya, Japan. Hattori's friend testified in the trial that he was carrying a camera when they knocked on Rodney Peairs' door.
A shattered Drewes family Saturday described Mark as an A student and soccer player, the type of kid who easily made friends with just about everyone he met. More relatives from Brazil are expected to arrive today, along with Mark's father, Gregory, who is captain of a private yacht and was in France Saturday.
Many of Drewes' classmates would learn of his death at Pope John Paul II High's homecoming dance Saturday night, said the Rev. Guy Fiano, the school's president. Counselors were scheduled to be on hand at the dance and Monday at the school, a Catholic private school attended by 925 students, including 250 in Drewes' sophomore class. A prayer service is planned Monday for the "very well loved" student, Fiano said.
"It's very, very sad," he said. "I think it's going to be a very stressful week."
Student called 'very polite, very respectful'
Word began to spread Saturday morning through St. Jude's festival, a few blocks from where the shooting occurred. Standing amid the cotton candy vendors and whirling carnival rides, several attendees recalled the slain teenager as friendly and well-liked.
Classmate Danielle Denofa, 16, put her hand over her mouth and gasped when she heard the news.
"He was really nice," said Denofa, who attended YMCA teen camp with Drewes this summer. "I can't believe that happened."
Tracy McCarver, who taught Drewes math at St. Jude Catholic School, remembered him as a "very polite, very respectful" youngster with "a good sense of humor."
After this afternoon's youth Mass at St. Jude, members of his Life Teen group, a faith-based social organization, are expected to attend a special meeting, said Kevin Cleary, the church's religious education director and youth minister.
"Everyone's in a state of shock because of the senselessness of it," he said. "He was a boy's boy."
He called Drewes a "delightful" young man who could be relied on to help with every pancake breakfast, raffle and car wash that cropped up on his youth group's schedule. Before every Sunday night Life Teen meeting, Drewes was there setting up tables, Cleary said. When they ended, Drewes stayed to clean up.
"He was a beautiful, beautiful boy," said his aunt, Renata Piza. "He goes to church every week. He was so excited about turning 16."
Grandmother Drewes said he always greeted her on the phone by saying, "I love you, Nana."
"He's what you'd call the ideal son, just too good to be true," she said. "If there was some way I could understand this. It was so pointless."
sarah_eisenhauer@pbpost.com,cynthia_kopkowski@pbpost.com
bttt for later read ...
However, the kid used bad judgment too, thinking that his imposing frame would be a humorous apparition, in literally the middle of the night.
Overall, a terrible tragedy.
I cannot possibly understand how this dead boy was guilty of any crime. Knocking on a front door is not a capital offense. If you fear answering the door, don't answer it or peek out the window to see who is there before you open it. If you don't recognize the person, don't open the door or yell through the door for the person to identify himself.
There were too many common sense options available to this shooter before he opened fire. I'd put the shooter in prison if I was on the jury.
If the boy had broken into the house, I'd be with the shooter all the way.
Only if the kid was shot in the back.
Part of the responsibility of owning a gun is the training when to use it.
Shooting someone in the back while fleeing is illegal
No. Why?
Times are a changing. If I was home alone, what would I do at midnight? I have no idea.
I know what I wouldn't do and that is to open my front door at midnight and shoot out it into the night. Granted, he did hit his target, but it still seems pretty irresponsible to me. I take gun ownership a little bit more seriously than this guy does and I don't even have a ccw permit (don't need one for shotguns).
I understand, but would you answer the door? Or would you call through it to see who was there? Or peered out a window to see who was there? Or maybe called 911 and ask someone to investigate. The very last thing I'd do is open the door without knowing who was behind it.
Beyond that, something else doesn't add up about this report. The kid rang the bell and stood there waiting for someone to answer. That doesn't jibe with "playing knock on the door and run". Even other neighbors/prank victims reported they "found nobody there".
If you're 8 years old, ok.
If you're 6feet 2inches tall and 210lbs, at 12:30 am you don't bang the crap out of a neighbors door for fun or otherwise. Intimidation is not always met with fear, and shouldn't be. The homeowner was obviously intimidated and responded to that intimidation with leathal force out of arrogance, ignorance or whatever.
Sorry the giant kid died.
Let me answer that one Mrs. Quiroga. My father, who just had a heart attack and was implanted with a pacemaker/defibrillator and is NOT a candidate for heart surgery, was just awakened where he lives by the VERY SAME THING the other night. He picked up the pistol he owns and went to the door around MIDNIGHT to see who it was. No one was there. If it continues to happen, then I am going to go over there and stay with him. Do you need any more information, Mrs. Quiroga? Keep your child at HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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