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.”

  • Alien Nathan Edward
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    1 year ago

    Just for curiosity’s sake, if it was the middle of the night and someone started pounding on your front door and yelling, then tried to kick your door in, then broke your window, reached in and started trying to unlock your door from the inside, what’s the civilized non-American response to that?

    • LordOfLocksley@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You engage them in conversion, explain to them simply they are at the wrong house, and keep pushing that point

      Source: I had this situation happen to me at uni, explained to the side he had the wrong house, showed him the house number, and he calmly left.

      • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Cool, cool. Now, what if the intruder isn’t a drunk college kid but someone looking to do you harm? You open the door, he pushes inside because he already knew that he wanted to do harm to the people inaide this house number, and then what?

        Not everyone is a drunk kid.

      • Alien Nathan Edward
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        1 year ago

        What’s the average police response time in your area? Is it less than 30 seconds? Because that’s how long it would be until dude is physically in your home.

          • 𝙣𝙪𝙠𝙚@yah.lol
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            1 year ago

            Literally from the article:

            While the woman was on the phone with police, Donofrio broke a glass window on the front door “and reached inside to manipulate the doorknob”

          • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Well, maybe they handle mental illness better where you are (seriously, I bet they do). But here, we let them walk around untill they kill someone. So that is who you are protecting yourself from. And there are a lot of them just waiting to snap.

    • kicksystem@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago
      1. Talk to the person
      2. Call the police and tell the person the police is coming
      3. Block the person from coming in
      4. If he comes in anyway use tools like baseball bat, hammer or kitchen knife to defend yourself
    • Aux@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You can bang on a reinforced steel door all you want until the police comes.

      • 𝙣𝙪𝙠𝙚@yah.lol
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        1 year ago

        Did no one read the article?

        He smashed the window and began undoing the lock from the inside

        • Liz@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          No one ever reads the article. What do we want, context?

          I’m not gonna call it the world’s best home defense shooting, but I’m not gonna call it some kind of injustice.