Tape casts doubt on self-defense claim

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/39189962.html

Posted on Fri, Feb. 6, 2009


Tape casts doubt on self-defense claim
By STEPHANIE FARR
Philadelphia Daily News

[e-mail] 215-854-4225

The Rev. Lewis Nash believes that a voice mail detailing the last moments of the life of his first cousin Joseph McNair was a message from the beyond.
"That tape actually dropped out of heaven for us," he said.

McNair, 38, a man with a heavy rap sheet who was living in a high-end Montgomery County community, was shot and killed by his neighbor, off-duty SEPTA policeman Sgt. Darryl Simmons, following an argument last Sept. 17.

Simmons, a 22-year veteran of SEPTA's police force, claimed that the killing had been in self-defense. He shot McNair at least four times because, he said, he thought McNair was reaching for a gun, but no gun of McNair's was found at the scene, according to police.

Nearly five months later, Simmons, 48, has not been charged with a crime, but the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office insists the investigation continues, and initial statements from the office that murder had been ruled out were recanted yesterday.

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Interest was renewed in the case this week, when McNair's relatives released a message he left on a friend's cell phone the night of the killing.

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Then, before Simmons calls medics or police, he can be heard calling his wife: "Hey. I just shot and killed this b----. I said, 'I just shot this b----.' Yeah, come down to the bottom of the hill. Call 9-1-1."

McNair's family believes that the tape proves that the killing was not in self-defense

[MrSlayer]

1. I don't see how this proves anything other than he shot the guy, which was already known.

Just because he called him a bitch doesn't mean it wasn't in self defense.

[TWiley]

2. Another gun enthusiest lives out his violent self defense fantasies.

Proves nothing? Well, it also proves that he had little regard for his victims welfare. Like many others, he has probably been masturbating with the thought of actually being able to kill someone in "self defense" since childhood.

[MrSlayer]

5. If you have to kill someone why would you care about their welfare?

Aren't the two things mutually exclusive?

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. it proves he didn't call for medical care immediately. He called his wife first.

[MrSlayer]

4. Yeah, so?

That still doesn't mean it wasn't self-defense.