MA. Homeowner charged with Murder for shooting "burglar"

[long coat]

Where was the glass, in the front door (high, middle, low) or beside the front door?
3 people outside the door trying to get in, breaking glass, he's not going to jail. ( if that's all the facts).

 

[LPMan59]

Drunk guys attempt to forcibly gain entry into an occupied home AFTER being given warnings?

murder is a pretty stretch. IANAL

 

[TangoSierraEcho]

Tough situation for all parties here. I don't agree with shooting through a door. Unless I have a clear line of sight on the target and what is beyond I would not have taken the shot. Now whether he should be charged with murder I don't know, he was reckless but he was defending his home. Just a sad situation for all.

 

[The Bubba Effect]

Bad deal, dead guy's fault. Sounds like the homeowner was not perfect, but they did not start it and I am not going to insist that a person, in their own home, wait until someone smashes their door all the way in before shooting them. Again, bad deal, but the dead kid caused it all to happen.

 

[jamil]

Bad deal, dead guy's fault. Sounds like the homeowner was not perfect, but they did not start it and I am not going to insist that a person, in their own home, wait until someone smashes their door all the way in before shooting them. Again, bad deal, but the dead kid caused it all to happen.

Did he even have any idea what he was shooting at?

 

[singlesix]

Article states the homeowner attempted to communicate with teenager, so I guess he knew they were people outside his door.

 

[The Bubba Effect]

Did he even have any idea what he was shooting at?

Since the dead person broke glass in the door while he was beating on it, I assume the homeowner could see him through the glass in the door. The article said that the homeowner was yelling at the attacker to stop, so it appears to me he correctly perceived it was a person who was breaking in his door.

 

[oldpink]

The homeowner went wrong shooting through the door.
That last barrier between him and the belligerent kid should have been allowed to stand.
Also, the homeowner had no idea exactly where a shot through the door would end up, either into one of the other two people outside or across the road and into a totally uninvolved bystander.
If the homeowner had called 911 while stationing himself at the door, at the ready to fire if the kid actually broke through, firing only if the door was breached, the homeowner would have probably been in the clear.
However, I have to ask exactly how stupid and/or criminally disposed, drunk or not, a person has to be to continue to get into a house when met by someone who clearly lives there?
There's more to this story than we're hearing regarding this kid's actions.

 

[cbhausen]

First in with a Joe Biden reference...

He said it's okay to do this right? Or was that only with a shotgun?

And, from the linked article:

Lovell will be arraigned in Chicopee District Court on Monday.

On his Facebook page, Lovell has a picture of him aiming a gun as the main picture. He also has posted several things supporting the Second Amendment.

That oughta fly well in a Massachusetts courtroom.

 

[Kutnupe14]

Article states the homeowner attempted to communicate with teenager, so I guess he knew they were people outside his door.

That may be the key behind the charges.
I believe there are a LOT of people that simply want to shoot somebody, and if they end up in a situation where shooting a person would appear to be justified, they have no reservations about shooting a person....even if there are other ways to handle the situation.

 

[LPMan59]

Of course

 

[Kutnupe14]

Of course

You disagree?

 

[oldpink]

That may be the key behind the charges.
I believe there are a LOT of people that simply want to shoot somebody, and if they end up in a situation where shooting a person would appear to be justified, they have no reservations about shooting a person....even if there are other ways to handle the situation.

Define "lot" of people.

 

[TheHive]

The homeowner went wrong shooting through the door.
That last barrier between him and the belligerent kid should have been allowed to stand.
Also, the homeowner had no idea exactly where a shot through the door would end up, either into one of the other two people outside or across the road and into a totally uninvolved bystander.
If the homeowner had called 911 while stationing himself at the door, at the ready to fire if the kid actually broke through, firing only if the door was breached, the homeowner would have probably been in the clear.
However, I have to ask exactly how stupid and/or criminally disposed, drunk or not, a person has to be to continue to get into a house when met by someone who clearly lives there?
There's more to this story than we're hearing regarding this kid's actions.

I agree, not until they come into the house and continue to pose a threat after they find the owner is pointing a gun at them and they continue to push forward and do not retreat.

 

[Kutnupe14]

Define "lot" of people.

Well more than there should be.

 

[HoughMade]

Bad situation. Drunk 15 year olds are already on the path of bad decision making and possible bad results. The article leaves a few things unclear. Was there a storm door? What could the homeowner see? How did the glass get broken? The attempts to communicate...what was the back and forth, if any? Did they sound like drunk teens looking for a friend's house?

Several things left to figure out.

 

[Spear Dane]

Never shoot through a door. Clear violation of safety rule #4.

 

[jamil]

Bad situation. Drunk 15 year olds are already on the path of bad decision making and possible bad results. The article leaves a few things unclear. Was there a storm door? What could the homeowner see? How did the glass get broken? The attempts to communicate...what was the back and forth, if any? Did they sound like drunk teens looking for a friend's house?

Several things left to figure out.

This is what I was thinking. As I read the article I sort of filled in missing information. I assumed the glass breaking was on a storm door. I also mentally pictured the drunken kids pounding on the storm door, causing the glass to break. And I imagined that the homeowner couldn't see the kids through the door. None of that is necessarily the facts though. And we don't know what those facts really are.

But the way I imagine it from the account of the article, I think the guy wasn't justified in using deadly force. But I don't think it was murder either.

 

[eldirector]

This whole things gets me wondering again... when does something like this become an:

unlawful entry of or attack on the person's dwelling, curtilage, or occupied motor vehicle.

?

 

[Denny347]

Shoot, you're right, I misread.

Yeah, that does make a lot of difference and is probably a big reason he was arrested on this.

Not a lot of home invasions in broad daylight. Much harder to justify that your life was threatened.

Actually, this is when most of our home burglaries occur. During the day, during the week, when owners are at work. It was a few years ago that we had that EXACT same situation happen here and there were no charges filed on the home owner.