Posted on 11/29/2001 8:05:24 AM PST by 11th Earl of Mar
CEDAR SPRINGS -- The Cedar Springs police officer who investigated the fatal shooting of an intruder said the homeowner who fired the shot never should have confronted the man in the first place.
"In my opinion, I would not have gone outside," said Officer Jack Peters, who had searched for the intruder just an hour before the shooting at 153 W. Pine St. "If the guy's just outside, you wait for the police to get there."
Peters said the shooting of Kevin Lee Salinas, 22, followed a tense confrontation in the back yard of the homeowner, 48-year-old Robert Clarke, just before 3:30 a.m. Saturday.
But the officer said investigators found no evidence the intruder committed a felony.
Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth was expected to rule late this week or early next week whether Clarke, who lives at the home with his wife and five children, should face a criminal charge.
The Clarke family had never given police any problems, and Clarke has no criminal record, Peters said. "They're good people," he said. "I'm sure he felt his family was in danger. He obviously did."
Shortly after 2 a.m., Peters was patrolling West Pine Street, about 100 to 200 yards from the Clarke home, when he came across two hitchhiking men who appeared to be drunk.
"My lights hit them, and they took off running," he said.
One man hid behind a tree and a telephone pole, but he was wearing an orange shirt and was easy to catch, Peters said. That man was drunk and wanted on a warrant. After arresting him, Peters and a Kent County sheriff's deputy turned to search for the second man, who turned out to be Salinas, he said.
Peters said he got Salinas' name from the other man, then called for him. "Come out Kevin," he said he yelled. "We're not going to arrest you if you haven't done anything.
"I knew he wasn't going to come out," he said.
Salinas was on probation for a larceny conviction and was to appear Monday in Kent County Circuit Court to stand trial for a July incident. In that case, he allegedly assaulted an ex-girlfriend after breaking into her home, then knocked down a neighbor's porch with his car while trying to chase the woman and the neighbor.
After failing to find Salinas early Saturday, Peters drove the other man to the Kent County Jail in Grand Rapids. He said he was headed back to Cedar Springs, still not far from the jail, when he got the second call. He was the only Cedar Springs officer on duty.
Clarke's wife, Valerie, was awakened by a noise and woke up her husband, Peters said. The husband kept a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun in the house. The family told police the intruder was checking their doors and windows.
As Robert Clarke was investigating, his wife was calling 911 at 3:27 a.m., police said.
But Clarke was carrying a flashlight, not a gun, when he opened his back slider door and looked outside, Peters said. He shone the light on Salinas, who was near some outbuildings in the back yard, Clarke told police.
"He believed he was trying to get into those buildings as well," Peters said.
Instead of leaving, Salinas walked toward the light and the house, Clarke told police. Clarke said he got his gun and watched as Salinas kept walking toward him.
Police have said Clarke warned him at least twice to get off his property, but he kept approaching. Clarke told police that Salinas appeared drunk but gave no indication he was armed, Peters said.
Salinas was on the back porch, about five feet from Clarke and walking toward him when the homeowner pulled the trigger, he told police. The shot struck Salinas in the abdomen.
A Kent County 911 dispatcher was still on the phone and heard the shot. Clarke went into his house, put away his gun and waited inside with his wife and five children.
Kent County sheriff's deputies arrived seven minutes after the 911 call, followed less than two minutes later by Peters.
Salinas lay on the porch bleeding but still conscious when police arrived, Peters said. "He was stating that his stomach hurt and that he wanted to throw up," the officer said.
"Most of the time, he wasn't making any sense."
He was curled up and kicking his legs, making it difficult for rescue workers to give him first aid, Peters said. Salinas died about eight hours later at Spectrum Health Butterworth in Grand Rapids.
Peters said investigators have found no evidence that Salinas tried to break into the house or committed a felony.
"If Salinas only walked onto someone's property and was jiggling door knobs -- we've been able to discern so far that's what it was -- that's trespassing," Peters said.
The Clarke family has "expressed remorse for the situation, not so much for the action," Peters said. "He's going to be second-guessed the rest of his life..."
Rockford District Judge Steven Servaas, who would hold the preliminary hearing if charges were filed against Clarke, said a citizen has a right to use deadly force "if a number of things occur."
Servaas said he wasn't aware of the details of the Cedar Springs case and couldn't discuss it since no charges have been filed.
In the case of self-defense, a person needs to show he had no reasonable way to retreat, he said. He might be able to run from a knife, but not a gun, for instance, Servaas said.
And they are not likely to face charges for shooting a burglar inside their home, Servaas said.
"The rule of thumb is, if someone is breaking into your house, you have no duty to retreat from your house," Servaas said. "That's your last bastion."
Forsyth decided earlier this month not to charge a 50-year-old Grand Rapids man who shot and wounded a teen-ager who reportedly kicked in the man's front door.
The prosecutor called the shooting justified.
A 1990 state Supreme Court ruling allows a person to use deadly force against fleeing felons, but it doesn't appear that would apply in this case since Cedar Springs police said they found no evidence that Salinas committed a felony, and he wasn't fleeing.
Servaas relied on the Supreme Court ruling a decade ago when he dismissed charges against a Sparta man who shot into a car being used by four teen-agers after they broke into his West Side General Store on Camp Lake. Forsyth had charged the store owner with reckless discharge of a firearm.
Always drag the body into the house before you call the police.
Sounds like a real positive asset to society.
Moral of the story: sit inside and wait for the goblin to break in. Then waste his miserable ass.
All this said, of course, the dead guy was unquestionably a bad lot--crashing a car into a house? He deserved everything he got--too bad the homeowner is going to get nailed. The problem is that this took place in Iowa (Gore, 2000), instead of South Carolina (Bush, 2000).
Screw him....
More dumbing down...
Keep you powder dry!
FMCDH
AB
Sounds like this cop was in hurry to get to the Dunkin Donuts and missed the part about the perp trying the doors and windows to get into the house.
The prosecutor should give the homeowner an award for perfect shooting under pressure and call it a day.
All well and good, but he had his wife and five children in that house. And the guy did not back off from his warnings. I believe that if my husband was in that same situation, he would have done the exact same thing. I'm sure this man's primary thought was to keep as much distance between his kids and this derelict as possible.
Yeah, this punk shows up at 2 AM at your house, he's drunk and fleeing from the cops. He's on your property, you've warned him twice to leave and he still keeps coming towards your house. You can probably figure out he's not coming up to your place for a group hug, and a verse of Kumbaya.
Yet this homeowner is wrong to protect himself and his family?!
I dunno ... the moronic ideology of the left has struck again.
I think this was his biggest mistake. Always "think" you saw a weapon. Any indication that you thought the guys wasn't armed will raise questions. The phrase that pays is "he reached behind him suddenly and I thought I saw something in his hand when it came back around, I couldn't tell what, I thought it might have been a gun, so I fired".
Oh, thats it, the police are always handy. (A Colt in hand is better than a cop on the phone.)<
Up here the intruders are liable to be much larger and wear brown fur coats. Sometimes you can scare them off with a warning shot and sometimes you have to shoot them.
Geography Lesson 101: Grand Rapids is in Michigan, not Iowa.
Give the current crop of politicians another year and that won't be the case any longer.
And, it is a crime to kill your 1 day old baby, but it is ok to abort your 8 month, 30 day old fetus in the womb. Don't you see?
Yes it is, but, better to be in court than in the morgue.
Better yet, don't volunteer anything to the police until you can get a lawyer.
If this guy had been in NC, he'd be in a heap of trouble. We had a fellow in Durham a few years ago that shot some kids in the back as they ran across his back yard, after breaking into his garage. He got off, but our lovely legislature decided to define very closely when we can and can't shoot.
Can Shoot:
Coming through the door or window
Coming at you with a weapon in your home
Can't Shoot:
If he's leaving the premises with your property
If he's already in your home collecting your property
You come home and discover him in your house
Just trespassing on your property, not in your home
"If the guy's just outside, you wait for the police to get there."
YEah right, that's what they thought when they were hijacked! Just let them siege your house and do nothing except that they could create much more trouble such as burning it down, shooting at you and what not.
Never compromise and repent to an intruder. That police officer should be "hanged" for what he charges.
After trying to get into the house, and then refusing to leave when requested, just what does anybody with a lick of sense think this guy was going to do when he covered the remaining 5 feet to the homeowner, who had his wife and 5 kids in the house? Stop and shake hands?
There was obvious aggressive intent by a known violent man in the middle of the night disregarding repeated verbal warnings to leave. The homeowner was up against a young man half his age who probably had a lethal advantage, even with only hands and feet; and he certainly was being agressive! It sure looked like he was intending to do something "bad", where the homeowner would be in fear for his life or severe bodily harm.
Legitimate self-defense....
Come on now Race. The NYTimes and Boston Globe have made it clear that a baby is not a fetus, and a fetus is not a baby. <'/Sarcasm>
It all depends on the state and how wacky your state legislature has let your judges make things. If you want sanity you have to convince your congresscritter to care about this, not an easy task.
In the mean time my view is that living in a jail cell with a picture of my live wife and kids is better then living in my home with a picture of the deceased.
patent
In general I would let the police act, just because our society is so messed up. However, the man did exactly the right thing to protect himself and his family. That should take precedence. It is easy to read about such scenarios. But the threat of a stranger approaching when told to stop can even make a policeman's heart race.
Police have said Clarke warned him at least twice to get off his property, but he kept approaching. Clarke told police that Salinas appeared drunk but gave no indication he was armed, Peters said.
Salinas was on the back porch, about five feet from Clarke and walking toward him when the homeowner pulled the trigger, he told police. The shot struck Salinas in the abdomen.
If the above account is true, then it is a clear case of self defense, and there should be no charges...
First, it's his opinion of wisdom, not of legality. Second, the police don't have to show up, and in this case didn't show up for a long enough time for whatever the guy was going to do to have been completed and for him to have then fled. Third, the guy SHOULD have shut his door and waited for the guy to try to break in...then shot him.
His sentence has since been reduced, but he shouldn't have been jailed in the first place.
That is exactly what my father taught me.
No big butcher's knife on the back porch? I thought perps ALWAYS grabbed a big knife upon entering or approaching your home. That's what a criminal attorney told me.
In general, that is good advice. After all, you never know how many of them there might be and you could walk into a trap. I know that some Freepers have the right sort of training to handle that sort of situation but most of us don't.
Having said all of that, I don't think this applies here. The homeowner went out to see what the noise was, not to confront anyone. When he shot the guy, the guy was approaching him and presenting a threat. I understand that a human can cover some 20 feet of distance in under a second. Could the homeowner have gotten his door closed and bolted fast enough to ensure the guy didn't get in? I doubt it.
It sounds as if this was a justified use of force although I believe the folks will be affected by it for a long time to come.
Herein lies the problem.
This constitutes a legal requirement that law-abiding citizens give ground to criminals, that we must be victims. Why should we give an inch?
This doctrine has led to revolving-door prisons, skyrocketing murder rates, and 9/11.
A reasonable doctrine of self-defense wouldn't require retreat, it would require a reasonable likelihood of suffering bodily harm if one simply went about one's business.
Texas property owners do not have to worry about giving candy to Trick or Treaters on Halloween. They can save their candy money for ammo.
I wonder if police get that advice during their formal training since they always seem to know what to say in such situations. I wouldn't be surprised if a big part of police training is lawsuit minimization. Since I own guns I guess I need similar professional training.
Lawyers have created a world where we must tell many lies to get through life. And Clinton is the their poster boy.
Brilliant.
It's also imperative to make sure the perp is dead before the police arrive.
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