Saturday, July 26, 2014

Slow Saturday Special: Is a Man's Home His Castle in California?

"Calif. man, 80, says he shot burglar who claimed to be pregnant" Associated Press   July 26, 2014

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Police on Friday were considering whether to bring charges against an 80-year-old man who shot and killed one of two burglars who attacked him when he found them ransacking his home.

Tom Greer, whose collarbone was broken in the assault, told a television station he fired even though the female burglar told him not to shoot because she was pregnant. ‘‘She says, ‘Don’t shoot me, I’m pregnant — I’m going to have a baby,’ and I shot her anyway,’’ Greer told KNBC-TV.

An autopsy confirmed that 28-year-old Andrea Miller was not pregnant.

The surviving suspect, Gus Adams, 26, has been arrested on suspicion of residential burglary and murder, McDonnell said. The murder charge is possible because he is accused of being involved in a felony that led to a death, the chief said. He was being held on bail just over $1 million, and police did not know if he had hired an attorney.

Both Miller and Adams, who had histories of similar crimes, were unarmed, McDonnell said.

Prosecutors will have to determine whether Greer’s chasing after the suspects and firing on them outside the home goes beyond self-defense, McDonnell said.

Unless you are a cop.

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