Prosecutors in Hillsborough County, Florida have concluded no charges will be filed in the case of a man who shot a 15-year-old who had attacked him because the office “would be unable to successfully refute a claim of self-defense.”
The incident started with a lost cell phone on September 20. The teen who lost the phone and two of his friends used the “find my phone” feature, which placed the device somewhere around the River Willow Place community.
The three drove to the area, left their vehicle in the middle of the street, and reportedly started going door-to-door asking residents about the phone.
Police say the group then went into the backyard of a home after the resident, a man in his mid-20s, didn’t answer the door. They proceeded to enter the back patio of the home and started banging on the sliding glass door.
The man told investigators that he put on a mask and armed himself to scare off the group. As the two friends fled the scene, police say a physical altercation happened just outside the enclosed patio between the 15-year-old and the man.
Police say the man was “placed in a headlock and feared for his life” during the altercation, at which point a single round was discharged from the gun, striking the teen.
The boy was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say the man, who was not identified, fully cooperated with the investigation.
The firearm was secured as evidence. Investigators say the teen’s phone was not inside the home and has yet to be found.
Now, I don’t know why the homeowner felt the need to put on a mask but it’s ultimately irrelevant. What matters is that he was where he had every right to be, while the teens had no right to be on the man’s property.
Simply setting foot on someone’s back porch isn’t justification for using deadly force, but once the teen had placed the man in a headlock, I think it was reasonable for the man to assume that his life was in danger. The two teens who ran away could have come back, but the teen who had him in a headlock could also have choked the man to the point of unconsciousness or death.
Under Florida law, a person may use deadly force when they reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to themselves or another person, or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony. The law also provides that a person meeting those conditions generally has no duty to retreat if they are legally present and not engaged in criminal activity.
The homeowner meets that definition to a T. He was legally present. He wasn’t engaged in criminal activity. He was assaulted, and reasonably concluded that he faced death or great bodily harm once the teen had him in a headlock.
If the homeowner had simply opened fire when he spotted the teens in his back yard, I have no doubt that he’d be facing charges today. That isn’t what happened, though. It sucks that a 15-year-old lost his life over something so stupid, but he and his buddies made a series of bad decisions that directly resulted in him being shot. Banging on people’s door demanding a cell phone is dumb, but attacking someone on their own property was a fatal mistake.
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