this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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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."

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[–] blazera@kbin.social 29 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Any other developed country and there wouldnt be a death involved.

[–] holycrapwtfatheism@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago (28 children)

Genuinely curious if you had someone smashing your window and trying to enter your house forcefully what your response would be.

[–] Slwh47696@lemmy.world 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Phone the police and tell him to fuck off? Maybe hit their arm with a bat or something. If I was alone I could even just leave. Not immediately execute them.

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[–] Laticauda@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well where I live there aren't nearly as many guns so the person breaking in would be less likely to have a deadly weapon and it would be a bit less risky to just call the police and hide, or comply with the (assumed) robber, or I'd feel like I'd have a better chance with using a blunt weapon like a bat to protect myself and drive them off, which would be less likely to kill someone. But where I live there are also a lot less robberies in general.

Doesn't guarantee nobody would have died if the same thing happened in a place with less gun violence, but it might have reduced the chances. Even if people get into the same kinds of confrontations, if there aren't guns involved the chances of everyone surviving a violent encounter goes up by a significant percentage. Less guns in a country over-all means less chances for a conflict to have a gun involved.

[–] Resolved3874@lemdro.id 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean if I take a swing at someone's head with a baseball bat I'm probably just as likely to kill as I would be by shooting them. I will say baseball bat to the head probably hits less since it would probably render you unconscious immediately.

[–] Laticauda@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean if I take a swing at someone's head with a baseball bat I'm probably just as likely to kill as I would be by shooting them.

You'd be surprised. While one hit can kill, concussion/brain injury without death is generally more common from a single hit. Usually it takes multiple hits to guarantee killing someone, and it's harder to aim if you're not like, a baseball player, than most people expect. You're more likely to get a glancing blow, even assuming you catch the other person by surprise. The type of bat can make a difference in how likely it is to kill from a first hit as well.

[–] Resolved3874@lemdro.id 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah I guess that's all true. Either way I personally would prefer a gun to a baseball bat for self defense for the simple fact that it puts me in less danger than attacking my attacker with a melee weapon. There admittedly isn't much in my house that is worth my life but apparently the person breaking in values my things more than their own life.

[–] blazera@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

I dont have any guns so probly hiding and calling cops. But also I dont live in any other developed country, Im not blaming the homeowner for fearing for his life in the country with more guns than people. If we were somewhere else, not only would the homeowner not have a gun, anyone trying to break in would be much less likely to have one.

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[–] Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Going to call bullshit on that.

The drunk kid smashed a window and kicked the door repeatedly. This wasn't a quiet kid accidentally wandering into a room.

[–] legion02@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Hard to shoot someone who's made an honest mistake when you don't have a gun...

[–] ALilOff@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Honest mistake ain’t busting in a window tho. I’ve locked myself out of my own house before and I’ve never went “I’ll just break a window to get in”

I’d be terrified if someone was trying to break into my house at 2am.

[–] legion02@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

You hear stories about people with dementia doing this all the time. Guess they don't deserve to live anymore either.

[–] Dem_Bo_Sain@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

The ex did once. I came home and had to cover a basement window with plywood.

[–] krayj@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's also hard to shoot someone who hasn't made an honest mistake and is actually breaking in specifically to do you harm, when you don't have a gun....so your comment is total nonsense.

[–] legion02@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe we should just stop shooting people all together.

[–] krayj@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If someone intends to harm me or immediately threaten my life, I'm shooting them. There is no moral or ethical argument you can make that will invalidate that. I consider the right of self-defense to be an inalienable right even if that requires lethal force.

[–] BenderOver@artemis.camp 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I wouldn’t call breaking and entering into the completely wrong home at 2 am “an honest mistake…”

[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

One of the presidents of the US did it regularly and he never got shot for it.

The kids only real crime was being too drunk to understand what was going on.

[–] RoboRay@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

When you choose to get drunk, you've also agreed to accept the responsibility for your future drunken actions.

[–] BenderOver@artemis.camp 1 points 1 year ago

Which US president would break into people’s homes? Sorry, I am unaware here…

And no, he was breaking and entering too. Even if that was not his intention.

[–] RoboRay@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Also hard to shoot somebody breaking in to your home with violent intentions when you don't have a gun.

And the only way to find out what the intruder's intentions are is to wait until it's potentially too late to defend yourself.

[–] BaroqueInMind@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Just make dishonest mistakes and you'll get voted as president.

[–] blazera@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

This is the US mentality. Yeah, kid was very dumb, kid was in the wrong. Kid should probably be arrested and spend some time in jail to learn his lesson. Nope, death penalty.

Yeah, the states has the same accidents as anywhere else in the world, but they sprinkle a little gun into the mix.

[–] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

People are so damned anxious to use their damned guns

[–] Kythtrid@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They are. The amount of people who confidently say they'd shoot before attempting to communicate has me terrified; like they want a reason to escalate the situation.

[–] TimeMuncher2@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'm in a developing country and such things don't happen here. Some months back an upstairs neighbour of mine tried to enter into my house when i was inside. He was trying his key and then rang the doorbell and i opened it and he was very confused. Then he looked at my house and realised he was on the wrong floor, said sorry and went away. These things happen if all the apartments look the same. No one needs to die for such small blunders. What's more disturbing is the amount of people here justifying shooting the kid because he broke a window and was forcing his way inside. They don't realise they wouldn't have to fear other people so much if there were no guns available in the first place. I'm sure I'll get a lot of replies that gangsters don't obey rules and what not but isn't that the same in every other country without guns? Maybe Americans like to kill people a lot. No wonder their entire country runs off war and destruction.

[–] Ajen@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago

They don’t realise they wouldn’t have to fear other people so much if there were no guns available in the first place. I’m sure I’ll get a lot of replies that gangsters don’t obey rules and what not but isn’t that the same in every other country without guns?

Home invasions happen in countries that have strict gun laws. I've lived in a bad apartment complex (one apartment was a trap house, a neighbor was stabbed on his way home from work, several vehicles were stolen and mine was vandalized), and a neighbor tried to get into my apartment late one night. I didn't own a gun at the time, but I absolutely would have stabbed him with a kitchen knife if he had broken a window and stuck his hand inside. Instead, I asked him if he was okay and explained that he was at the wrong apartment.

[–] wahming@monyet.cc 4 points 1 year ago

In this case, the person was literally breaking into the house, broken window, reaching for the doorknob. The homeowner had every reason to think their home was being invaded. And given how violent crime can get in the states, unfortunately shooting first in such a situation does make logical sense.

The situation sucks, but this case might be more on the system than the shooter.

[–] bi_tux@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

You don't need a gun to kill someone, it's creepy enougth to assume the intruder has 'just' a big knife

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 2 points 1 year ago

That type of thing happens in the US as well. It doesn't ALWAYS end with a gun. I'd say most of the time it doesn't.

This person broke a window though and was actively forcing themselves into the home. That's a pretty big difference from "trying a key and ringing the doorbell."

It's always going to be a judgement call, for a different intruder theirs would've been the right call. It's not even about guns, there are knives, drugs, etc. They're all relevant and the kinds of people that are breaking windows can be dangerous.

I forget all the details but a former neighbors son had an extremely traumatic experience when he was out with a trainee as a paramedic and a guy hopped up on some concoction of drugs incapacitated him (I think by throwing him against the wall) and then the dude spun around and beat the trainee's skull in with some object.

Just because you haven't heard of it... doesn't mean it doesn't happen in your country, but I hope you're right. Idealistically you're definitely right, this sort of thing never should happen, but sometimes there's no good answer; you just do the best you can with the information and situation you're in.