462
submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

The homeowner who fatally shot a 20-year-old University of South Carolina student who tried to enter the wrong home on the street he lived on Saturday morning will not face charges because the incident was deemed "a justifiable homicide" under state law, Columbia police announced Wednesday.

Police said the identity of the homeowner who fired the gunshot that killed Nicholas Donofrio shortly before 2 a.m. Saturday will not be released because the police department and the Fifth Circuit Solicitor’s Office determined his actions were justified under the state's controversial "castle doctrine" law, which holds that people can act in self-defense towards "intruders and attackers without fear of prosecution or civil action for acting in defense of themselves and others."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Silverseren@kbin.social 42 points 1 year ago

If someone is breaking into your home, you should defend yourself and your family with whatever means is available. The amount of people here saying you should have a polite conversation or comply with the robber's demands (even if that demand is to harm you) is bizarre.

[-] Microw@lemm.ee 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

~~No one was actually breaking into their home though. Literally nothing would have happened to that home owner if he had been less trigger-happy and tried to comminucate with the kid.~~

[-] TheFrirish@jlai.lu 24 points 1 year ago

Donofrio repeatedly knocked, banged and kicked on the front door "while manipulating the door handle" while trying to enter the home.

Donofrio broke a glass window on the front door "and reached inside to manipulate the doorknob"

[-] KiloGex@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

He broke the glass and tried to open the door from the inside. If I were inside that house, I'd certainly feel threatened.

[-] Silverseren@kbin.social 16 points 1 year ago

That is completely incorrect and shows you didn't read the article. The guy physically was breaking the door open.

[-] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

But he literally broke a window and reached around to open the door from the inside. After trying to kick the door in.

It's a tragedy, but the homeowner was 100% justified.

[-] Malfeasant@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

The problem is you can't judge people's actions on what we know after the fact, you have to look at what the person knew in the moment, and for the residents, it sure seemed like someone was breaking into their house, and it's not reasonable to expect to have a dialogue with a burglar.

this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
462 points (100.0% liked)

News

22890 readers
3328 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS