Justified to kill: Why Detroit dominates the state's justifiable homicides

Mlive ^ | June 13, 2012 | Jonathan Oosting

[cripplecreek]

DETROIT, MI – In a city that just might be the nation’s justifiable homicide capital, Willie White was watching basketball when he heard the intruders return.

So, after he flipped off the television and grabbed his gun, the 75-year-old retiree took the last shot of the night.



More at link.

[cripplecreek]

White had worried they might come back. They'd broken a gate to his backyard the night before, and thrown rocks through two different windows. He'd called police, but an officer told him it could be days before someone showed up to take a report.

Like many Detroit residents frustrated by the city’s dwindling police resources, White prepared himself for the worst.

He watched the game on mute as his sick wife slept in a second-floor bedroom above him. When he heard his side door being forced open, he grabbed the rifle he'd loaded with a single bullet hours earlier.

"When he came through the door to that top step, I let go with the shot," White said, two months after killing 18-year-old Bronco Mosley and scaring off at least two accomplices. "I didn't have very much of a choice. I was nervous, but I knew what I had to do."

White called 911 and, as Mosley lay in his doorway, waited for police to finally arrive.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy did not charge White, explaining he was well within his rights when he shot Mosley, who he later learned was armed.

[cripplecreek]

Detroit, justifiable homicide capitol. (That's a good thing BTW)

[Darteaus94025]

So, an armed perp broke in AT NIGHT with the TV light flickering. He knew someone was home at that time, and yet he still broke in. So his motivation was not just the acquisition of property, but something more sinister.

Good riddance, rest in hell.

[ronnie raygun]

Black on black ok, white on black not ok, white hispanic on black definitley not ok

[cripplecreek]

"People are sick and tired of being victims," Angelo said. "And it's time to fight back. They're not going to run scared anymore."

This is why I'm a lot more optimistic about Detroit than a lot of FReepers. Granted they've got a long way to go but taking responsibility for their own defense is a great first step.

[SES1066]

Paging the usual suspects, will Rev. Jackson or Rev. Sharpton please pick up at the black courtesy phone? Perhaps they can do something about this black-on-black crime that 50 years of solid Democrat rule of Detroit has not been able to do.

Seriously, Detroit has never recovered from the 1967 riots and the subsequent annual Halloween arson 'celebrations' known as "Devil's Night". At some point, if not already, Detroit will serve as a case study in total urban disaster and government corruption!

[PowderMonkey]

"So his motivation was not just the acquisition of property, but something more sinister."

Absolutely. Without a doubt. I've experienced it twice so far. Forced entry of a dwelling known to be occupied, and whose occupants are understood to be up and about, seldom ends well.

[umgud]

When he heard his side door being forced open, he grabbed the rifle he'd loaded with a single bullet hours earlier.........

In CA he would have had to prove there was a there was a threat of death or great bodily harm. Kicking in your door isn't always enough.

[cripplecreek]

Tigh Croff was sent to prison for two years for killing an intruder that he chased down and shot.

Like White, Croff had been victimized before. After his east side home was burglarized three times in a single week, Croff came home from his security guard job and found a group of men attempting another break-in.

But unlike White, Croff gave chase when the intruders fled. He eventually caught up to 53-year-old Herbert Silas and shot the unarmed man in the chest.

"I told him he was going to die, and I shot him," Croff told a detective. "I ain't no angel, but I ain't done nothing stupid."

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Detroit looks worse than Tikrit, Iraq.

At least they are rebuilding Tikrit...

[Polynikes]

“In CA he would have had to prove there was a there was a threat of death or great bodily harm. Kicking in your door isn't always enough.”

Maybe not by itself but it goes a long way.

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/PEN/3/1/8/1/s197

CAL. PEN. CODE § 197 : California Code - Section 197
Homicide is also justifiable when committed by any person in any of the following cases:

1.When resisting any attempt to murder any person, or to commit a felony, or to do some great bodily injury upon any person; or,

2.When committed in defense of habitation, property, or person, against one who manifestly intends or endeavors, by violence or surprise, to commit a felony, or against one who manifestly intends and endeavors, in a violent, riotous or tumultuous manner, to enter the habitation of another for the purpose of offering violence to any person therein; or,

3.When committed in the lawful defense of such person, or of a wife or husband, parent, child, master, mistress, or servant of such person, when there is reasonable ground to apprehend a design to commit a felony or to do some great bodily injury, and imminent danger of such design being accomplished; but such person, or the person in whose behalf the defense was made, if he was the assailant or engaged in mutual combat, must really and in good faith have endeavored to decline any further struggle before the homicide was committed; or,

4.When necessarily committed in attempting, by lawful ways and means, to apprehend any person for any felony committed, or in lawfully suppressing any riot, or in lawfully keeping and preserving the peace.

[Larry Lucido]

Another killing of a black by a White. /s

[cicero2k]

I wonder if the dead intruder looked like zero’s hypothetical son?

I guess we’ll never know.

[cripplecreek]

I can’t find any photos of Bronco Mosley but the story about Tigh Croff is interesting. What kind of a moron does one have to be to commit a robbery at 53 years old.

http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2009/12/was_detroit_man_justified_in_s.html

>>Police say Croff chased down two men, but one man — 53-year-old Herbert Silas — didn’t get away. Reportedly, Silas turned to Croff and asked, “What are you going to do? Shoot me?” and Croff responded with a bullet to his chest.<<

[Jack Hydrazine]

Is he a member of the Fightin’ Whities? LOL!

[Mich Patriot]

"Paging the usual suspects, will Rev. Jackson or Rev. Sharpton please pick up at the black courtesy phone?"

Black courtesy phone? That's racist! /s

[Jack Hydrazine]

An “Escape From Detroit” movie in the making?

How about a “Grand Theft Auto: Deadly Detroit” video game?
Subtitle: “John Q. Public fights back. This time it’s personal!”

[Jack Hydrazine]

He kinda looks like Bo Diddley or maybe his brother!

[cripplecreek]

Holy Crap!

I done been shot by Ray Charles.

[SES1066]

Black courtesy phone? That's racist! /s

And a WHITE courtesy phone would not be? Actually, I thought of that when I wrote my reply. An example of how "Political Correctness" can drive our thought patterns. Maybe I should have said plaid (no that is too scottish), gold (no that is too plutocratic), pink (you guess), red (too political), maroon (sounds too moron-ish), brown (just kidding) ... The possibilities cover the spectrum, don't they!