Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
A homeowner in the Bay Area was arrested earlier this month after fatally shooting a burglary suspect. He has now been released without charges.
According to initial reports from KTVU, the 77-year-old homeowner was found holding a woman at gunpoint.
Attack In Oakland
A neighbor says three people arrived at the home around 6 p.m. Police later revealed that the woman and two men were driving a stolen car.
One of the men visibly held a crowbar. All three entered the property, and the neighbor heard a gunshot.
Police arrived and found one of the three intruders fatally shot. The homeowner was reportedly pointing a Colt Python at the woman.
The third intruder fled. Police found him nearby with a fake gun and took him into custody.
Homeowner Arrested And Released
The police arrested the homeowner on suspicion of murder. He was not given the option of bail.
Even then, Bay Aread attorneys pointed out the homeowner could have shot in self-defense.
Prosecutors cannot file charges unless they believe they can prove the case. After several days without charges, the police had no choice but to release the homeowner, per policy.
The Mercury News reported that the case is still under investigation. More details have been released since the arrest.
The homeowner caught the intruders on his property and confronted them. They attempted to scale a fence and one of them was shot.
The Colt revolver the homeowner used was stolen from Eureka recently.
Police Stance
According to Police Chief Frederick Shavies, one main fact led to the homeowner’s arrest. The homeowner refused to make a statement to police.
“Absent any sort of statement, if ‘A’ shoots ‘B’ without an explanation, we can only go with what we have,” Shavies said. “All we know is an individual lost his life.”
This is when some became disturbed. Every person has the right to remain silent, per the 5th Amendment.
Some self-defense instructors even direct you not to make a statement to the police in this situation. The adrenaline from a self-defense situation warps perception. Statements made in this state are often inaccurate.
Attorneys in the Bay Area agreed with this.
Attorneys Weigh In
“I find it very troubling that the police would arrest someone because they didn’t make a statement,” Matthew Martinez, a defense attorney, said.
“You have a Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate yourself,” Martinez said. “And the fact that you exercise that right doesn’t seem like a reasonable basis to arrest somebody.”
Another defense attorney, Daniel Horowitz, pointed out how this contradicts policy. Police must have a solid basis for arrest. Someone’s silence is not sufficient.
“If there’s just somebody on your property, and you have a gun and you shoot them, that’s not sufficient to arrest them. It just isn’t.”
California Police Ignoring Rights?
Another issue people are now concerned about is the Castle Doctrine. Even in California, homeowners can legally defend themselves on their property.
READ MORE: Homeowner Gets Into Shootout Over Attempted Theft of Luxury Cars
The disregard of these policies does not bode well for California. If citizens are prosecuted for defending themselves at home, when can they defend themselves?
This Bay Area homeowner will hopefully avoid being charged. He has a right to defend himself, especially inside his home and on his property.
*** Buy and Sell on GunsAmerica! All Local Sales are FREE! ***
The homeowner with a stolen firearm is probably more of the issue in the long run.
Kalifornia cops blindly ignore citizen’s Constitutional rights in Kalifornia at the behest of their
communist Democratic political masters. If they will ignore this victims 5th Amendment right,
they will have no problem ignoring the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th Amendments also. “This is Kalifornia,
we don’t pay much attention to the Constitution here,” Reggie Jones-Sawyer(D), Kalifornia Assembly.
Oakland, CA?? Go figure.
I don’t know what kind of quack attorneys the author talked to but there isn’t a state in the Union that allows you to shoot someone just for walking on your property. It is good advice not to give a detailed statement until you have had time to calm down but it is terrible advice to not say a single word to the police. You can’t invoke your right to self defense without stating that you shot in self-defense. Having a pre-planned standard response would be smart. Something like, “I feared for my life and unfortunately had to shoot. I will be happy to give a more detailed statement once I have talked to my attorney.”
Arrested for exercising a constitutional right to remain silent.. it is the cops who are the criminals.! Sue them, get the scum fired!
If it smells like fish, it’s either fish or…
Yeah, well, this is the Bay Area where the police firmly believe that no one but police officers should have firearms, and the DAs have been known to pursue murder charges (except against gangsters) even in clear cases of self defense on no other basis than that killing other people is bad, and you should have to retreat before using deadly force (neither of which is true). It is also the place where police chiefs and sheriffs bragged about denying CCWs to any and all. There was one case where a homeowner in Napa was followed into his garage by a road rager; after shooting the intruder, the homeowner, a retired physician, was tried to mistrials three times before the DA finally gave up.
Now that it is clear that the DA has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that the homeowner was NOT acting in self defense, prosecutions for shootings such as this are a rarity.
His only flaw was shooting with the stolen gun. Everybody knows that your supposed to shoot with your registered gun and plant the stolen gun on DEAD GUY.
Here’s another fine mess for Oakland’s new police chief.
Way, way, WAY too little information to say who’s guilty or innocent. It’s swiss cheese so far. At face value it leans toward the homeowner being in the right but that can change quickly. What we do know for sure is that California hates gun owners will violate their rights without blinking. Hopefully the homeowner comes out as the good guy and sues the police department for violating his rights.
Thin gruel. Always never enough information. Whole thing stinks like Hillaries excuses. Wanna bet these people all knew one another?
He does have the right to defend himself and the right to an attorney before questioning. He had in his possession a recently stolen handgun. Even if he bought it from a private party he is required to have the sale recorded by a dealer, which “should have” identified the revolver as stolen.
If he claims it was a shooting in self-defense, the burden falls upon him to support that claim. He cannot do that without talking to the police at some point, and he is entitled to speak with the attorney prior to that statement.
The shooting appears to have taken place outside the home, but on the property. “Reasonable fear” is often not as strong under those circumstances. The crowbar is easily considered a dangerous weapon, in his favor.
Clearly it is a case that will need his cooperation at some point.
You have one guy armed with a crowbar, one guy armed with a gun (fake or not) and another person that climb your fence into your backyard and you shoot one of the armed men and hold the woman until police arrive and you get arrested and held for several days. Gosh, I wonder why he didn’t make a statement? Any lawyer would tell you, “do not say anything without a lawyer present”. As to the stolen gun, that’s another case.
He did the right thing for keeping his mouth shut. Everyone has the right to remain silent. Some lack the ability.
It’s hard to have any sympathy for the fine folks that live in the Republic Of Kalifornistan, especially when they vote into office ultra liberal turds like ‘Grabum Newson’, Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, and others of that ilk, to represent them. When will people learn that this is not the same democratic party they remember in the heyday of the Kennedy era. The socialistic ideology of today is just a heartbeat away for sheer communism.
Why did you vote for Biden then?
I didn’t jackass…
Bingo dumbass.
Well Todd, obviously YOU did. Ronald Reagan once said: “Liberalism is a form of mental illness”. You proved him right.
Well LJ you’ve proved you’re brain has been calcified by liberalism. Don’t say California voted to elect the liberals when you have Biden as a president. Can you correlate the two or do I need to 2nd grade it for you?
Ahhhh – did I hurt your tender little left-coast feelings? Don’t worry – Grabum Newson, Nancy Pelosi, and all the other liberal fruit cakes, like yourself, have YOUR best interest in mind. But you can take great solace in knowing the rest of the country wishes you nothing but the very best … oh wait … SOME of the country wishes you the very best. The others are laughing their collective asses off, like myself. Enjoy your freedoms, or lack thereof, and life out in the Republic Of Kalifornistan. 🙄
LJ the The Biden supporter accuses California of voting in Newsom. How excited he will be when Newsom runs for Biden for president and he votes for him. Oh but wait his big strong Republicrats will save him..lmao yeah right they do nothing. Vote Red…lol
Yes, I do vote red troll, and proud of it!
That’s how stupid you are. The Republicans do nothing to stop Democrats and you keep voting for them. Morons keeping this country in a failed state.
Colt Python…classic. But it was stolen? Did it belong to the home owner or was it brought in by the perps?
Whoever gave the arrest order should be arrested and relieved of his job.
At the crime scene, up until any court appearance, the cops are judge, jury and executioner, and they want everyone to be found guilty.
The process is the punishment. Cops are not punished for heavy-handed tactics, lying, coercing, intimidating, falsely accusing, or detaining and imprisoning anyone before that innocent person is released.
He shot him with a stolen gun?
I wouldn’t hold to much stock in that. I have recovered numerous stolen weapons in my career that were sold by gun stores on a 4473. Someone takes a gun in on trade from a state that doesn’t require 01 FFL’S to run the S/N through their local PD’s. Most 02 pawn broker FFL’ s do run the S/N.