Same Whitestown
Please tell me this is a fucking joke
It’s not a joke. It’s our history repeating over and over and over again.
It’s been posted at the I-65 IN-267 exit for as long as I’ve been alive.
This is straight up murder. You don’t shoot some at your door, if it’s locked and they’re not trying to force their way in…then the lock will do its fucking job.
They were probably trying the wrong key in the door or something.
I understand you are not excusing the behavior.
Thanks. I was merely recalling my experiences as a contractor.
As I stated elsewhere in this thread, it appears this was at least manslaughter if not outright murder. Discharging a gun into an opaque door should not qualify as self-defense unless the (alleged) assailants were damned well shooting first.
From the available facts, it was not a clean shoot by any stretch. Im not familiar enough with Indiana law to know how that would play out though.
It happened in Whitestown Indiana and it’s not an onion article.
I’m a gun owner. This behavior is both abhorrent and ridiculous. There has to be some level of mental health deficit in the shooter.
4 kids. Died in her husband’s arms.
This country is broken beyond repair.
I’m a big fan of the “turn all lights on, make as much noise as possible and yell to whoever is in your house you ‘have a gun and know how go use it so get the fuck out’” approach.
Nobody who is breaking in to steal stuff wants to kill you (probably) and knowing they have a chance of getting shot themselves from an occupant they didn’t expect is a huge motivator for them to get the fuck out.
If their motivation isn’t to steal, and is in fact to harm you, then you have lost nothing by doing this. They already expect you to be there and want to hurt you, so do what you have to.
I’m being cautious enough to not shoot my roommate who got home from their trip two days early, my friend who drunkenly stumbled in after his phone died at the pub, my neighbor who needs help but can’t articulate it, or a random stranger who mistakenly walked into the wrong house (this one has happened to me at least 10 times in my life, mostly when living in apartments).
If that ends up getting me shot at by randos there to kidnap me, so be it. I’m prepared to defend myself and my loved ones. The property they can have, but if anyone comes up the stairs they’re toast.
My point is there should never be a time when you jump out at someone and kill them simply because they are there.
Besides, one of the primary rules of firearm safety is “know your target and what’s behind it” and if you don’t know the person you’re shooting at isn’t there for benign purposes, you don’t know your target.
This is manslaughter at best but I’m willing to hear any argument for straight up murder.
I feel like I’m the only one, but if someone is trying to rob me, I’d rather let them than kill someone. A bunch of stuff isn’t worth living with the guilt of killing someone for the rest of my life. Especially because of the odds of accidentally shooting someone innocent
Pretty sure I’m alone on this one though
I always used the stairs as the point of no return for a potential intruder in my home. If you come up the stairs, then you’ve made the choice to risk your life. If you’re downstairs, I’m letting you know I’m awake and giving you an opportunity to bounce. You’ve already been on camera at that point, and perhaps I take the opportunity to tighten up the security on my home. I’d rather not kill someone, regardless of the fact they broke into my home. But yeah, if you come up the stairs, that’s that.
I feel for all ranch and bi/split-level homeowners. Tough choices must be made.
Shot through the front door in the face because she tried the doorknob
Oh look, a convincing argument for murder!
It really reads like the homeowner was one of those “I hope someone breaks in so I can legally murder them” kinds of gun owners. maybe they no idea what they were even shooting at, but I’m willing to bet they looked out the window and thought “brown skin, must be gangs fox was right”
I will happily ignore people knocking on my door until they go away. Trying the door knob will certainly get my attention but just to yell at you, not enough to grab a gun.
Pulling the trigger without identifying the target; even had they identified, it probably would not qualify as self defense under law…
I am not well versed in Illinois law, but it does have a “castle doctrine”:
In Illinois, the criteria for using force under the Castle Doctrine are outlined in the Illinois Compiled Statutes, specifically 720 ILCS 5/7-1 and 720 ILCS 5/7-2.
These statutes detail when force is legally justified in defense of a dwelling. Force is permitted when an individual reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent or stop an unlawful entry or attack on their home. The term “reasonably believes” requires that the perceived threat be justifiable to an average person in similar circumstances.
Deadly force has stricter criteria. It is allowed only if one reasonably believes it is necessary to prevent imminent death, great bodily harm, or to stop a forcible felony like burglary, robbery, or assault. The law distinguishes between minor trespasses and significant threats to life or safety.
(emphasis added)
https://legalclarity.org/illinois-castle-doctrine-laws-criteria-and-legal-implications/
Illinois law does not apply in Indiana where this incident took place. Indiana has a pretty robust stand your ground law.
Indiana’s stand-your-ground law provides that a person (1) is justified in using deadly force against someone (including a law enforcement officer) and (2) has no duty to retreat if the person has a reasonable belief that force is required in order to prevent any of the following:
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Serious bodily injury to the defendant or a third person;
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The commission of a forcible felony (one that involves the threat of force or involves risk of bodily injury);
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The unlawful entry of the defendant’s home or curtilage (the area around their home) or their (occupied) vehicle;
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Trespass or unlawful interference with property in the lawful possession of the defendant, a member of their immediate family, or a person whose property the defendant is authorized to protect (i.e., an employer protecting their employees); or
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The hijacking (or threat of hijacking) of an airplane on the ground in Indiana or Indiana airspace.
So the homeowner has to show that they reasonably believed deadly force was needed to stop this woman and her husband from entering their home. That’s it. That’s all they need to prove to use this defense.
I for one do not for a moment think that it was justified, but in a town named Whitestown, who can say what the police and prosecutors will conclude?
who can say what the police and prosecutors will conclude?
Prosecutorial discretion is the real issue in most of these cases. If it were brought before a jury it could easily be argued that they tried literally nothing else before killing this person, so how could they reasonably believe anything? But it may never get to a jury because the DA might be a racist dirtbag who just decides to never press any charges.
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Whitestown used to be a sundown town and is still known for its racism.
Let me guess: The cleaning worker as a Mexican has brown skin, the shooter is white. So, in the US, this is a clear case of self defense. /s
The Boone County Prosecutor’s Office told WRTV on Thursday that they are still determining whether the shooter will face any charges, the station reported.
I live in Indiana and if no charges get filed on this, and there isn’t a conviction then I can’t wait for the next election cycle when politicians start knocking on doors.
Speaking from lived experience Boone county is a predominantly conservative county. This article won’t even register for most people that currently live there. The fact that news regarding a two-stoplight town twice in the same hour got posted to lemmy is kind of amazing.
So sad. Hope the home owners are not protected with castle doctrine.
Even if they have that in Indiana, this clearly shouldnt apply. Simply walking up to a house is not evidence of an invasion, otherwise every Halloween would be target practice.
Every UPS, FedEx, Amazon driver etc. would need full body armor…
I remember s Japanese kid in the States who got shot für going to the wrong house on Halloween about 30 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Yoshihiro_Hattori
Yoshihiro Hattori (服部 剛丈, Hattori Yoshihiro; November 22, 1975 – October 17, 1992, often referred to as Yoshi Hattori[4]) was a Japanese student on an exchange program to the United States who was shot to death in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The shooting happened when Hattori, on his way to a Halloween party, went to the wrong house by mistake. Property owner Rodney Peairs
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Peairs was an “average Joe”, a man just like the jury members’ neighbors, a man who “liked sugar in his grits”.
K. Should’ve found him guilty just for liking sweet grits.
This kind of thing happens all the fucking time in the USA .
Three shootings all happened in the span of six days and involved what some say were harmless occurrences: a Missouri teenager ringing the wrong doorbell while trying to pick up his younger siblings; a group of friends in New York pulling into the driveway of a home they thought belonged to another friend ; and a Texas cheerleader accidentally opening the door of the wrong car.
The list of things that won’t potentially get you shot in America grows shorter every day.
Whitestown is in Indiana, not Illinois.
Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
