Home Invasion Turns Deadly After Cologne Gives Suspect Away
Rachel 04.27.18
Fact:
When a South Carolina woman returned from taking her children to school last week, she sensed that someone was in her Greenville apartment. She could smell “an odor, or cologne” in the air and began searching, room by room to secure the premises.
Upon discovering a man hiding in her master bedroom closet, she shot the intruder and called the police. Responders found the body and listed his cause of death as “a gunshot wound to the chest”.
Opinion:
Do not get me wrong – I applaud this woman for having the fortitude and courage to secure her home. Her kids would have had a completely different life if she’d not listened to the hairs on the back of her neck that told her something was amiss.
HOWEVER, it is this writer’s opinion that she should have taken her cell phone, left the apartment, and called 911. There was zero apparent need that she had any reason to fear for her own personal safety, at least that would have prevented her from leaving the house.
The purpose personal protection isn’t so you can kill someone if they challenge you. It’s like-for-like defense. As in, you can’t shoot someone running at you from 28 feet away with a butter knife.
Similarly, you can’t kill someone just because they’re in your home. There has to be clear and present danger. We don’t know if he was armed. If she knew him. If he had any intention of doing anything other than robbing her while she was gone and she just happened to come home too early for him to finish.
According to Wikipedia:
A castle doctrine, also known as a castle law or a defense of habitation law, is a legal doctrine that designates a person’s abode or any legally occupied place (for example, a vehicle or home) as a place in which that person has protections and immunities permitting one, in certain circumstances, to use force (up to and including deadly force) to defend oneself against an intruder, free from legal prosecution for the consequences of the force used. The term is most commonly used in the United States, though many other countries invoke comparable principles in their laws.
Does that apply in this instance? Who’s to say. The fact of the matter is that things could have gone in a much different direction and it could have been avoidable if she’d gone for help, rather than taking matters into her own hands.
What say you? You’re a woman, alone in an apartment and believe someone’s in there with you. Comment your thoughts in the section provided below. I look forward to reading what everyone has to say!
