JUSTICE FOR RENISHA! Detroit homeowner found guilty of murder in Renisha McBride case
Theodore Wafer was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 19-year-old
A Detroit-area homeowner is convicted of second-degree murder in the porch shooting of Renisha McBride
Theodore Wafer had said he shot in self-defense. 'I wasn't going to cower in my house,' he testified
A Detroit area homeowner was found guilty Thursday by a jury of second-degree murder for shooting a teenager who had come onto his porch and knocked on his door after surviving a car crash.
Theodore Wafer of Dearborn Heights was also found guilty of manslaughter and a related felony firearms charge in the Nov. 2, 2013, shooting death of 19-year-old Renisha McBride, according to local media reports.
The case's racial overtones, and the fact that McBride was not armed, drew national attention. Wafer is white, McBride was black.
Wafer had argued that he was acting in self-defense, testifying earlier this week that McBride was banging loudly on his door and that the shooting was “total reflex reaction, defending myself.... I wasn’t going to cower in my house, I didn’t want to be a victim.”
Michigan state law allows homeowners to use deadly force if they "honestly and reasonably believe" someone is breaking into their home.
The prosecution has said McBride was just looking for help after crashing her car nearby.
"She just wanted to go home. On Nov. 2, 2013, Ms. McBride, injured, disoriented, just wanted to go home," prosecutor Patrick Muscat told jurors during closing arguments Wednesday, who then picked up the weapon Wafer used in the killing.
"Yet she ended up in the morgue, with bullets in her head and her brain, because the defendant picked up this shotgun, released this safety, raised it at her, pulled the trigger, and blew her face off."
The jury apparently disagreed with his arguments, finding that the killing was not justified. Wafer could now face life in prison.
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