General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Already, another Trayvon Martin incident has just happened [View all]TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)If there's any law that covers what he did it's basic Castle doctrine. This was his own gated property, not out in public.
That said, it's nuts that he shot the kid just because he hopped the fence and was in his yard. Yeah, the kid was probably up to no good intending to steal or vandalize something, but that's not a good reason to shoot them. He probably could have just hollered out the window at kid, and the kid finding himself discovered would likely have tried to run away. There's just no reason to kill someone that comes onto your property without some actual REASONABLE fear that they're going to attempt to break into your home and harm you or someone else in the home. Seeing as he's charged with attempted murder the police saw some kind of evidence on his surveillance tape that showed he didn't have any such reasonable fear. Castle doctrine doesn't cover someone killing a person just going into their yard... there has to be an actual reasonable threat.