I’ve been obeying Berg‘s 18th law pretty religiously. I mean, it makes sense – I wrote it, right?
So when I saw this case – of a Minneapolis homeowner who shot a burglar in her backyard, several weeks ago – I went quiet on the case for a bit.
The story went a little like this: the burglar entered the woman’s backyard, couldn’t get into the house, and then broke into the garage. The homeowner went to investigate with a pistol.
So far so good. W
When the guy didn’t leave, she then fired four warning shots.
As the story goes, the man then advanced on the woman, causing her to shoot him with a rifle (whose arrival on the scene may or may not have been related to her son, who had been standing guard inside the house with a rifle, perhaps the one used in the shooting).
Clearly there is some part of the story that isn’t public knowledge, yet.
The media responded the way they frequently seem to dec cases like this – with a borderline hagiography of the deceident. Worst, the case was apparently investigated shortly after the shooting, and the Hennepin County attorneys office – one of the more anti-gun jurisdictions in Minnesota Dash declined to prosecute. At which point, “the public“ Dash read “Nekima Levy Armstrong”, according to some rumors, the de facto arbiter of all justice in Hennepin County – went to the county attorney and demanded another look.
So, possibly at second glance, the results are back:
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman says they don’t have evidence to disapprove a self-defense argument.
“While this case is tragic, there is not sufficient proof that the homeowner and/or her son are guilty of a crime,” a news release from the county attorney reads. “Based on the evidence provided to our office, it appears the woman and her son would have valid self-defense claims.”
Not sure what we don’t know about this case, but it’s got to be interesting.
they don’t have evidence to disapprove a self-defense argument
Don’t they mean “disprove”? I mean, I’m pretty sure they disapprove of the shooting, but whether that disapproval can disprove a self-defense argument is another matter. Or what?
There’s a ton of stuff we don’t know:
Why did the ‘concealed carry permit holder’ fire warning shots? I was taught NEVER to fire them; only fire to stop a deadly attack. And why no lesser charge for discharge of a firearm within city limits?
The shooting took place in the yard. Does ‘curtilage’ now include ‘yard’ such that there is no duty to retreat, and when did that change from the holding in State v. Clayborne, 404 N.W.2d 385 (Minn. App. 1987). Must retreat into the residence.
Why didn’t the permit holder retreat inside the house? Was there a reason she could advance to investigate and fire warning shots, but could not retreat to safety to avoid killing him?
The news says she fired a pistol, her son was there with a rifle, but the DA says they can’t tell which weapon killed him. Really? Were both weapons the same caliber? That’s unusual enough to be worth mentioning. If not – if the medical examiner can’t distinguish a .38 Spl from a 5.56 assault rifle – I will have grave doubts about his testimony in every shooting case from now on.
The homeowner and son have not been identified. That’s unusual, particularly when a Black man is shot. Who are these people connected to, that they get anonymity?
Lots of unanswered questions.
JD – they may not have been able to determine which bullet killed him because the bullet passed completely through his body. They seem pretty sure it was the rifle that killed him, though. It doesn’t matter much, however, since the investigation stated both mother and son were within their rights – although the “standing at the threshold” is a curious description. Freeman apparently isn’t requiring you retreat to the last corner of your bedroom farthest from the attacker.
With the price and scarcity of ammo, who fires warning shots?
My cynical assumption is that the residents are of the right ethnicity (non-white) that they won’t be charged.
There is no precedent being set by the County Attorney. Whites better assume that warnįng shots and shots from outside the home will be vigorously prosecuted against us. All liberal ethics are situational.
Night Writer, look at this case:
https://law.justia.com/cases/minnesota/court-of-appeals/1987/c6-86-1473-0.html
Yes, completely different fact situation, history of violence, etc. But the similarity to the present case is shooter standing in the doorway, victim standing in the yard. The court says shooter had a duty to retreat inside the house and shut the door, same as the court decided in the 1907 Touri case.
The law in Minnesota has been the same for 100 years: you can’t stand in the house, shoot a person in your yard, and claim self-defense. Until now. Why?
Freeman apparently isn’t requiring you retreat to the last corner of your bedroom farthest from the attacker
This time. Why is that?
Not piling on, NW. Just a surprising turn of phrase, events, position for Freeman.
I’m with Moose on this one. The mother and son are non-white. If they were white, there names would have been released and BLM would be calling for their heads.
JD, .22 and .223 are the same caliber yet results are devastatingly different. There is no effing way an LEO would not be able to IMMEDIATELY tell which gun the shot came from. Plus, this case was already reviewed by the coroner’s office.
There is a LOT more to the story we are not being told. And when truth and facts are suppressed, you can be sure politics and narrative are involved.
Why is that?
We know why. Freeman hates the 14th amendment precisely because it does guarantee the right of equal protection of the law. As a dyed in the wool racist, Freeman will ignore the 14th amendment to further his obsession with race-based law enforcement.
The law in Minnesota has been the same for 100 years: you can’t stand in the house, shoot a person in your yard, and claim self-defense. Until now. Why?
JD, et al –
SWB? (Shooting While Black?)
There is no precedent being set by the County Attorney. Whites better assume that warnįng shots and shots from outside the home will be vigorously prosecuted against us. All liberal ethics are situational.
I dunno about that. If a White man (or woman) shoots a thief in the yard in Hennepin County under similar or same circumstances, and gets charged, this decision most certainly would come up in court.
Now, whether the jury takes it into consideration is 50% political ideological and 50% race based.
Down here in racist Dixieland, if you shoot an unarmed man in the chest from a distance >5′, you’d better put a weapon in his hand before the Sheriff gets there, or you’ll get charged regardless of your race, gender or political affiliations. But we’re just a bunch of crackers, so what do we know.
Maybe the County Attorney is practicing a form of Community Service, engaging in the new Violence Prevention methodology which is all the rage?
Maybe he intends to bring in counsellors and community activists to hold an engagement session with the homeowners, neighbors and other stakeholders, possibly including a drum circle and giant papier mache heads, culminating in a group hug and raised conciousness all around?
This may be part of the whole “defund the police” initiative – not only do we refuse to arrest Persons Whose Lives Matter, we decline to prosecute them either, to avoid burning down the rest of the city. Maybe we should cut Freeman some slack to see how it plays out for them?
Note to Persons Whose Lives Do Not Matter: these techniques have explicit but unstated social justice pre-requisites which you lack. Do not try this at home.
Nothing gets a point across better than a giant papier mache head. Nothing!
I lived in Minneapolis for a few years when it had the monitor “Muderapolis.” The anonymously sourced advice from the Minneapolis police was that if you shot a guy climbing through your window, and he fell to the ground outside your house, you should drag his corpse into your house, through the window, so that they could make a good faith finding that the crook was shot inside your home.
Freeman is on the record as stating that he does not want to put black people in jail. The voters of Minneapolis heard these words and voted for Freeman to be Hennepin County Attorney, He won his last election with something like 58% of the vote. The elites of Hennepin County filled his campaign coffer with money. The people who voted for Freeman are getting exactly the Hennepin County Attorney they wanted to have in that office.
I said: “The law in Minnesota has been the same for 100 years: you can’t stand in the house, shoot a person in your yard, and claim self-defense. Until now. Why?”
Technically not correct.
You have a duty to retreat into the house, if you can do so safely. The yard has never been considered part of the house. If you don’t retreat, you’ll have to explain why you were unable to safely retreat in order to succeed on a self-defense claim.
Maybe Mom went out to investigate, was surprised by the villain, fell and hurt her back, couldn’t regain her feet to retreat inside the house so she fired four shots to halt his vicious attack but missed every time in her panic. Unable to safely retreat = valid self-defense.
Son (hearing the shots) came to the door with his rifle and, seeing mom laying defenseless on the ground as villain attacked, fired one shot in Defense of Others, killing the attacker. Valid Defense of Others.
Could happen. Don’t know if it did. I stand corrected until we have more details.
Note: there’s at least one Minnesota case in which the court muddied those waters too, suggesting the Defense of Others shooter had a duty to retreat, leaving the victim to die. I don’t think that’s good law, just sloppy writing, but it’s out there.
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It doesn’t guarantee the race of those involved, but I googled the address seen in the video, and (a) bars over the front door and (b) a pretty low likely price for the home indicate it’s at least in a poorer neighborhood, if not minority per se. So that would be consistent with the notion that Freeman is avoiding prosecuting minorities.
Do we know what calibers were represented? The thought about not being able to tell which gun was used that I’ve got is “was the rifle a lever action that uses pistol calibers?”. Or possibly it was a .44mag pistol and a .223, and the coroner is incompetent.
I had the same question. I suppose it’s perfectly possible Mom had a .22LR pistol and son had a .22LR rifle, in which case it might well be impossible to tell who fired the kill shot.
Also, I once knew a guy who had a 9mm Glock and also had a HiPoint 9mm carbine, both fired the same bullet so again, maybe hard to tell who shot him.
But it’s frustrating the news media has no interest in reporting anything about the guns.
the coroner is incompetent.
bike, I can assure you the coroner is NOT incompetent. At least one of them does ballistic tests just for funzies on his spare time. Put the blame where it is due, on the politicians, not the worker bees.
JD, muzzle velocity and energy from the same 22LR round is about 20% higher from a rifle than a pistol. You would be able to tell the difference just by looking at the damage.