I thought I would look into a story that was tearing apart the lives of two families and threatening to take a New Orleans neighborhood with it. A 13 year old boy, likely on his way home from choir practice, accidentally ends up in a backyard, despite the locked gates, at 2 AM. He innocently starts opening the shutters on the windows of the home and looking inside. The homeowner, finding this a disturbing turn of events, proceeds outside to investigate and has armed himself in case of trouble. One minute later the teenager is suffering from a head wound. Many were up in arms over the shooting of this unarmed boy.
9 months later and we have a different story. The grand jury was divided and did not vote to indict. The prosecutor reviewed the case and chose not to prosecute. Why? Well, it seems that since his tragic injury, he has recovered enough to commit burglary, attempted burglary, and has now been charged in a previous burglary and assault that involved the theft of a firearm. He was not charged in the last one at the time due to his injuries and being in a coma. The DA's office was in fact surprised that the teen was out and about based on the description of his condition given by the family.
Unfortunately, I am sure that the various statistics will list this as both a gun violence incident and a child shooting incident, but still lack a column for justified self defense. No word yet on how this will affect the teenager's choir practice...
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