Detroit porch shooting - different outcome in Texas?

[victory]

This is why you keep you trap shut. Tell your story to your attorney and let him present it to the cops, DA, & everyone else.

That goes double if someone can't decide if it was an "accident" or they fired in self defense.

[MoJo]

If she's trying to forcefully enter the house, use of force/deadly force could apply. But banging on a door may not meet the definition of trying to forcefully enter.

As I sit here reading the various accounts of what "happened", it's easy for me to Monday morning quarterback his situation. My plan in similar circumstances would be to ready my weapon, gain some sort of vantage point, and have my wife call 911 after she gets the baby & locks herself in our bedroom.

A better solution would be for you, the wife, and baby to move to a strong point and hole up until the police arrive. NRA's Refuse To Be A Victim and Personal Protection in the Home courses teach this tactic. Arm yourself, go to your safe room tell the police where you are pass them a key when they arrive and let them clear your house that's what they are trained to do. Put the gun away once the cops are there. By doing this you won't be shot by mistake and maybe you won't shoot someone.

[CC Italian]

Repeat after me "never go outside or open the door if someone is banging on your door" I would have barricaded my self inside and called 911. Let the pros handle it.If the sanctuary of the home is breeched and entered then as far as I am concerned you have just forfeited your right to life.

[VMI77]

Even my wife, who just listened to what I've written here before I hit the "Submit" button, just agreed with me and said, "yeah, he could have just retreated to a safer place with his gun and called 911". He chose not to. He chose badly.

I want to clarify something here. I do believe in standing my ground. I don't believe in not stepping out of the way of trouble. By "retreated to a safer place", I don't mean surrendering the home. I do mean improving your tactical situation, so that you don't feel rushed into shooting when you don't know what you're shooting at. That might mean nothing more than backing away from the door to the other side of the room, while still covering the door, instead of opening the door. It might mean looking out a window to see what's going on, instead of opening the door. Or, it might mean retreating to another room if that gives you a more tenable position.

He killed a woman because he mistakenly thought he was under attack. He mistakenly thought he was under attack because he made bad tactical decision after bad tactical decision:

1. He didn't get off the X;
2. He had bad intelligence because he made no attempt to observe the porch from some other vantage point;
3. Instead of backing away from the door to give himself some room, he opened the silly thing.

Every one of his bad choices leads to him shooting that girl. Now, was her behavior appropriate? By no means. But she had neither the means of deadly force, nor was she attempting to use deadly force. On the hand, he had the means and the intention of using it if necessary. By throwing out all of his options, he gave himself ZERO tactical room to respond except as if shooting her was necessary. He is 100% responsible for that, even though her behavior was inappropriate. It wasn't shameful because there was a disparity of force. It was shameful because force wasn't necessary at all.

Even if he were found not guilty, he would still bear the moral burden. I'm glad he's not my neighbor.

I totally agree with your analysis and assessment. Other than just shooting through it blind, opening the door was about the stupidest thing he could have done if he was afraid someone was trying to break in. If I'd been on the jury I'd have voted for conviction.

[VMI77]

Repeat after me "never go outside or open the door if someone is banging on your door" I would have barricaded my self inside and called 911. Let the pros handle it.If the sanctuary of the home is breeched and entered then as far as I am concerned you have just forfeited your right to life.

That's why I have a video camera trained on all my doors and there are no hiding places around the house. I can assess who and what is at the door and decide whether to barricade inside or help someone in distress.