WE DEMAND JUSTICE
FOR RENISHA MCBRIDE
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Once Again, a Black Person Is Shot
and Killed While Looking for Help
Less than two months after Charlotte police shot and killed an unarmed man who was trying to find help after having a car accident, a woman is dead in Michigan under similar circumstances, shot in the head while reportedly searching for assistance late Friday night.
Renisha McBride, a 19-year-old from Detroit, is presumed to have been asking for help when she knocked on the door of a Dearborn Heights home at 2:30 A.M. on Saturday. McBride’s family says McBride had been in a car accident and her cellphone was dead. Rather than offering shelter to McBride, however, the homeowner came out and shot her in the head with a shotgun. The buckshot entered McBride’s head from the back, according to statements from her aunt, as the girl had already turned to walk or run away from the home. Police reports say the teenager was found dead on the home’s front porch.
While the initial stories around McBride’s death dubbed it a “possible case of self-defense gone wrong,” today police sent a request to the Wayne County prosecutor asking for charges to be filed against the unnamed resident who shot McBride.
“He shot her in the head … for what? For knocking on his door,” McBride’s aunt told the Detroit News. “If he felt scared or threatened, he should have called 911.”
Michigan’s self-defense act, which bears a resemblance to Florida’s infamous stand-your-ground law, says that an individual “may use deadly force against another individual anywhere he or she has the legal right to be with no duty to retreat” as long as that person “honestly and reasonably” believes deadly force is necessary to prevent imminent death, great bodily harm, or sexual assault.
>via: http://gawker.com/once-again-a-black-person-is-shot-and-killed-while-loo-1459780870
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THE INDEPENDENT
Friday 08 November 2013
Renisha McBride death:
Man who shot teenager claims
his gun discharged by accident
The man who allegedly shot an unarmed black teenager in the face claims he discharged his gun accidentally, according to Michigan police.
Renisha McBride was shot on 2 November while reportedly seeking help after a car accident at 2.30am.
The 19-year-old died after being shot on a man’s porch in the middle class Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights.
Her family had asserted she was shot in the back of the head as she turned to leave a property after asking for help.
However, Dearborn Heights chief detective Lt. James Serwatowski disputed this claim. He said: “This girl was not shot in the back of the head while leaving the porch. I don’t know where the family is getting this. She was shot in the front of the face, near the mouth”, according to theDetroit Free Press.
The gunman, who has not been identified by police, is understood to have claimed he mistook Ms McBride for an intruder.
Mr Serwatowski said on Thursday: “This man’s claiming – believed the girl was breaking into the home. And he’s also saying the gun discharged accidentally.”
Bernita Spinks, Ms McBride’s aunt told Fox Detroit: “This man just came to the door, by somebody just knocking? She didn’t break in his house; she didn’t break a window.
“What, you seen somebody on your porch and you just start shooting? And then you say it was accidental? That wasn’t accidental; that wasn’t accidental, no.”
Ms Mcbride’s family held a protest outside the Dearborn Heights Police Station yesterday evening, calling for justice over her death.
Prosecutors have requested further information from police and have not at this stage pressed charges, a spokesperson for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy told Detroit News.
“We have requested further investigation by the police that must be submitted to our office before a decision will be made,” the spokesperson said.
Cheryl Carpenter, the attorney representing the unnamed man said she was confident that “when the evidence comes it will show that my client was justified and acted as a reasonable person would who was in fear for his life.”
Like Florida, Michigan also has a ‘Stand Your Ground’ law, asserting a home-owner’s right to use deadly force if they feel their life is in imminent danger or they face physical harm or sexual assault. Some have compared her death to that of Trayvon Martin, who was shot dead by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was later acquitted of manslaughter charges.