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.”

  • entropicshart@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Good - one less idiot walking the earth.

    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,” at which point the male resident fired the shot through the broken window that struck Donofrio in his upper body, according to police.

    He wasn’t “trying to enter” he was literally breaking into the home.

    I would’ve let off more than one shot at that point.

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Good - one less idiot walking the earth.

      A college student gets drunk and makes a mistake, and you gleefully execute him for being an “idiot”. He doesn’t get a trial by a jury of his peers. He doesn’t get to explain his story. A frightened home-owner hopped up on adrenaline and his righteous belief he can blow away anyone who scares him just executes him on the spot. That’s a terrible system of justice.

      Americans are nuts.

      • sudo22@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Spoken like someone who’s never feared for their life or more importantly, feared for their partner’s life.