Expert: No accident with gun in porch shooting

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Expert: No accident with gun in porch shooting

| July 29, 2014 | Updated: July 29, 2014 2:22pm

DETROIT (AP) — An expert says the shotgun used to kill a young woman on a porch in suburban Detroit wasn't accidentally fired by the homeowner.

Detective Sgt. Shawn Kolonich of the Michigan State Police testified Tuesday at the fourth day of trial for Theodore Wafer. The 55-year-old Dearborn Heights man is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 19-year-old Renisha McBride last fall.

Wafer says he shot McBride in self-defense after she repeatedly pounded on his doors before dawn last Nov. 2. But a recording played for the jury last week quotes Wafer as saying he didn't know the shotgun was loaded.

Kolonich says his tests on the weapon show it couldn't have been fired without Wafer pulling the trigger.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Testimony-to-resume-in-porch-slaying-trial-5653040.php

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(Short article, no more at link.)

[IdaBriggs]

1. "...it couldn't have been fired without ... pulling the trigger."

Seriously? This needs an "expert" to explain to people? You actually have to PULL THE TRIGGER for the "magic stick" to make bullets come out?

[Stryst]

8. One of the origional uses

for trigger locks was to prevent accidental discharge. One of the selling points Glock used to use, actually, was that their guns had an internal safety that prevented non trigger discharges even when the guns are spiked into the ground. A dropped shotgun, especially an older one or one that is in bad shape CAN sometimes discharge when it hits the ground.

Which, you know, is still blatant negligence. But in this case, the weapon was tested and was obviously not an accidental discharge, which makes this cold blooded murder.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Why would he pull the trigger if he thought the shotgun wasn't loaded?

[Hoyt]

3. Just another responsible gun owner trying to lie himself out of murder charges.

[QuestForSense]

4. This is the strangest case.

The girl was seeking help following a car accident. The guy acknowledged to the police that she was asking for help. But instead of helping her, he shot her in the face, through a locked screen door, killing her. When he called 911, he said the gun went off accidentally, that he didn't know it was loaded. But when the police arrived and asked him where the gun was, he said "It's a little Mossberg, you know, shot gun, self-defense." His attorney is claiming that he feared for his life and acted in self-defense, but it's ringing hollow.

[GeorgeGist]

5. terrible writing.

[crim son]

6. I find Wafer's actions despicable but

it seems to me that he could have pointed his weapon at McBride and truly not known that it was loaded, but pulled the trigger trying to intimidate her. Why, I have no idea idea and his hysterically inappropriate response to her pleas for help is reason enough to punish him, whether or not he intended to kill her. It is a mysterious case and I probably don't know all the facts.

[lunasun]

7. 19 yr old AA girl who had a car accident wants help

If scared why not call police and not open the door
Tell her police are coming I will not help you
Better than shooting her in the face!