I can not and will not support politicians
who support any more limits on our
Second Amendment rights.
Posted on 08/06/2014 1:08:22 AM PDT by nickcarraway
In November 2013, 54-year-old Theodore Wafer was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, and possession of a firearm for fatally shooting 19-year-old Renisha McBride on the front porch of his suburban Detroit home. McBride, who had been drinking heavily and smoking pot that night, wound up at Wafer's door after wandering away from the scene of a late-night car accident several hours before. (Witnesses said she appeared "disoriented.") Prosecutors and McBride's family say she was clearly looking for help. Wafer said that he acted in self-defense, having taken the noise McBride was making outside for a sign that someone was trying to break into his house. Wafer, who said that he'd purchased his 12-gauge shotgun for protection from neighborhood criminals, is white. McBride was unarmed and black, and her death quickly attracted comparisons to that of Trayvon Martin (especially since Wafer wasn't charged until two weeks after she died). Unlike George Zimmerman, Wafer has been testifying at his own trial, which is now in its tenth day.
Michigan's self-defense law permits a person to use deadly force when they "honestly and reasonably believe" that they are in immediate danger of being killed or badly hurt. Like most states, Michigan also has a "castle doctrine," which means that a person isn't required to "retreat" from a threat when they're in their home. As with Florida's similar, much-discussed "stand-your-ground" law, critics of castle doctrines say that they can encourage people to act more aggressively than they might if they didn't think that the law was on their side.
Over the last two days, Wafer has described how he was awoken at around 5 a.m. by loud banging. "I’ve never heard anything like it," he said. "I still can't wrap my mind around it that a woman can make those sounds." He also claimed that he was unable to find his cell phone to call 911, so he crawled around in the dark until he reached the closet where he kept his gun. "I needed to find out what was going on. I was not going to cower. I didn't want to be a victim in my own house," he said.
The New York Times reports that, on cross-examination, prosecutor Athina Siringas "questioned [Wafer's] account, pointing out that he had told the police that his phone is regularly kept in his jeans pocket." From the Times:
“You didn’t call the police because you were mad and you wanted to handle this thing yourself, right?” she said.
“I was upset,” Mr. Wafer said. “I had a lot of emotions. I was scared. I had fear. I was panicking.”
Wafer eventually opened his interior steel door and, without opening the screen door behind it, shot McBride in the face. During his testimony, he claimed that he didn't get a look at the five-foot-four, 184-pound teenager until after she was dead, repeatedly saying that he "just reacted" to a "figure." "I shot in fear," he said. Later, Siringas pointed out that, on the night of the shooting, Wafer didn't tell the police that he had felt afraid until they prompted him to. "I guess in front of a cop I didn't want to come across as less of a man," he explained.
19-years-old, 5'-4", and 184 lbs is not a "little girl". Other than that, I agree. He didn't know who/what he was shooting at. He had a steel door that she was unlikely to get through (though, maybe someone bigger, or a group of people, could have gotten through), and he took the time to find his gun in the dark, but not his phone.
I believe he opened the door because he wanted to shoot whoever was banging on the door. I believe he’ll be convicted and rightly so.
Gun first - THEN phone. If you have a shotgun and a steel door, you can afford to turn on the lights, find the phone, and call. If you have a shotgun, and you open the door, you have an obligation to LOOK before shooting.
I fully understand his getting a gun first. I do not understand shooting someone with a shotgun without looking before pulling the trigger. In my book, that is evil.
For the record, I’ve grabbed my 357 and gone looking to see what was making noise. at night. But I don’t shoot - EVER - without knowing what I am shooting at.
In this type of situation... if you are truly fearful of who or what is banging at your door in the middle of the night,
You don’t grab a gun and just OPEN THE DOOR.
SURELY his house has windows, huh?
SURELY he has a BACK DOOR that he can use to go around and see who/what are at the front door.
Blowing her head off was not justified. He had other options. Too many to ignore.
its guys like this that the libs take and show off and say see this guy is a nut! he just blew away some kid!
The story made it clear that the man had no idea what threat, if any, was being posed to him. He had a loud black person raising a ruckus on his porch. He opened the door and immediately shot the person in the face, without trying to identify any real threat. You are allowed to defend yourself. But first there has to be a reason. Something to defend yourself against. In this case there doesn't appear to have been one. He killed the girl for no good reason.
A steel door can probably be kicked open by a relatively strong person if the door frame and hinges are weak.
I can't imagine, with what facts have been presented so far, of convicting this man of anything more severe than involuntary manslaughter.
People keep saying: breaking in. But there is no indication this woman was breaking in, it’s only been said that she was banging on the door. That might have scared this guy or annoyed him but in and of itself it is not a threat to him.
And it does not seem that anyone has established that she was a threat to him.
Well it’s not pre-meditated murder, certainly. Those laws vary a lot from state to state. I feel like there was some depraved indifference going on but that’s just me.
And if you were this guy you would have opened your door, blown your neighbor's head off, and wondered what he wanted to begin with.
Maybe, maybe not.
And how would you have felt about killing someone who was only trying to summon you because your son was in trouble?
How could a dead man inform me of the information he had.
If you are not pointing a pistol at the culprit, you deserve what comes your way if he attacks you.
Finally, an intelligent response.
You are correct in what you say.
And if you were this guy you would have opened your door, blown your neighbor’s head off, and wondered what he wanted to begin with.
If you read my story you just might realize that the neighbor told me about the emergency. When I opened the door it was dark on the porch and I did not have my glasses on and could not see very well. However, to your dismay, I did not simply shoot him.
As a matter of fact, we both had a good laugh over it.
“If you are afraid of who is on the other side of the door, why do you open it?”
Because I have some responsibility to investigate what is happening on my property. And if it sounds weird, I’m going to have a gun with me when I do it.
I can’t speak to what this guy did next, but if she was zonked out of her mind and screaming like a banshee...
From reading the article this was no case of someone knocking on the door. It says she was pounding on the door so hard he believed she was trying to break in; he didn’t believe it could possibly be a woman. I guess technically during a home invasion you should wait until they breach the door, but when someone is attempting to break in you are in imminent danger in my book. If there are multiple assailants and they are armed you need to get in the first shot (or three) or be dead. Again, if I am on the jury I would NEVER convict in any case like this if there is an indication of defense of property. Unless you’ve faced armed assailants trying to kill you, you have no clue what it’s like (I have, multiple times). I live in the country now and don’t have to worry about that anymore. It is all adrenaline and no reasoned out thought process, and if you make a mistake you are dead instead of them.
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