Posted on 10/13/2006 10:52:32 AM PDT by holymoly
A grand jury Thursday decided a 14-year-old boy who shot and killed an intruder in his home Monday acted in self-defense and no charges were necessary.
"I guess, as far as we're concerned, this was a completely justified shooting," said District Attorney Carlos Valdez.
Valdez said details of the Ocean Drive shooting were presented to the grand jury for consideration in the same manner as any other case, which ensured fairness.
"Any time there's a shooting involving the death of one citizen at the hands of another it is our policy to present it to the grand jury," he said.
Family attorney Jimmy Granberry also has said the shooting was in self-defense and that the boy, Michael Kozlowski, and his mother, Rose Ann Kozlowski, feared for their lives during the ordeal.
Granberry did not return calls for further comment late Thursday.
Police on Monday responded to the Kozlowski home in the 4200 block of Ocean Drive after receiving a call about 12:55 p.m. from Rose Ann saying a man had bound her and her son and held them at knifepoint.
When police arrived, they found 57-year-old James Slaughter dead with a gunshot wound to his head. Police said he had been shot by the teen after the boy and his mother were able to free themselves and grab a revolver from a security box under a bed. Slaughter had ransacked the home and packed the family's SUV with valuables, police said. He was released from prison late last week after violating his parole in June.
Police also are looking for Slaughter's possible accomplices because neighbors reported seeing a suspicious 1970s green, four-door Lincoln Continental or Mercury Marquis slowly drive past homes a short time before the burglary.
Investigators said Slaughter's criminal record included several convictions for burglaries in Texas and Oregon dating back to 1967.
In 1983, he was shot by San Patricio County Sheriff Leroy Moody and by a deputy after he refused to drop a rifle during a confrontation with authorities. Earlier that day, he burglarized a home in Taft, bound the two residents and packed their vehicle with stolen items. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison for those offenses but was paroled in 2001.
IMO A brave young man, and a damned good shot.
Way to go kid!
Don't threaten a boy's mom.
Head shots will do the trick!
This should never have come to a grand jury, and the kid should not have been forced to go to a "security box", so-called, for his revolver. The "security box" is more properly termed an insecurity box, as it delays access to a defensive weapon.
This young man should have been given a metal, not jail time!
Coroner's report: too much lead in the head, so he's dead.
Was this in Texas??!
Did the boy go to jail? I didn't gather that from the article.
I believe so. "Caller.com" (The Caller-Times) is in Corpus-Christi.
My favorite - the wheelgun. Ease of operation is fundamental.
Actually, I think it is better for him to have been formally cleared by the GJ. It removes any cloud that was hanging over him.
ping.
Guy got what he deserved. Saves us some tax dollars.
Hate to say it, but none of this would have happened if Sheriff Moody had done his job correctly in the first place. Right or not (and he WAS right, obviously), this kid is still going to have to live with this for the rest of his life and he is going to suffer inevitable condemnation from the sheep for being a young sheepdog. Like a combat vet, he may suffer from the stress syndrome.
Unless the prosecutor's name is Ronnie Earle, in which case he'd just keep shopping grand juries until he bullied one into issuing a flimsy indictment for show.
Kid deserves a medal and the N.R.A. should hire him as a shooting instructor.
What cloud? Sorry, I don't agree.
How is the kid doing?
It's never easy...even when necessary, and he's probably going to need someone to talk to about it.
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