Source: U.S. news
On November 2, Renisha Mcbride, 19, was shot dead on the porch of a homeowner whose help she sought following a car accident. Her body was found in the early hours of the morning with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
According to reports, around 2:30am Mcbride crashed her car when driving through Dearborn Heights, Michigan, where she then knocked on the door of a house for assistance. It is unclear what exchange, if any, occurred before Mcbride was shot dead by the homeowner.
The police have identified the shooter but are yet to release details. The homeowner is believed to be a male in his fifties although it has not been confirmed.
Renisha Mcbride’s death is being compared to that of Trayvon Martin’s last year and has reignited anger surrounding “stand-your-ground” laws. Since Michigan, like Florida, has a stand-your-ground law, Mcbride’s shooter may well go uncharged. The homeowner is currently claiming self-defense, but it is unknown if he has yet cited stand-your-ground in his defense.
Stand-your-ground laws allow individuals to use deadly force if they feel they are faced with physical assault or that their life is danger. Clearly, such laws are susceptible to abuse. A racist homeowner can violently attack somebody and then argue that it was self-defense even though the only threat to their life was an imagined one based on racial profiling.
Afrikan American Mcbride, who lived in an 83 percent Black neighborhood in northwest Detroit with her mother, was unarmed when she knocked on the door of her shooter in an 86 percent white Detroit suburb in Dearborn Heights.
Mcbride’s aunt Bernita Spinks told The Detroit News that she believes her niece’s death is a case of racial profiling saying, “He shot her in the head … for what? For knocking on his door.” Spinks described the suspect’s decision to shoot Mcbride as inexcusable. “If he felt scared or threatened, he should have called 911…. She went looking for help and now she’s dead,” said Spinks.
Treva Lindsey, Assistant Professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at Ohio State University, referred to the disproportionate number of minority victims of stand-your-ground killings in an interview with The Huffington Post, “Who is always the victim of these stand-your-ground laws?”
In September, 24-year-old Jonathan Ferrell, an Afrikan American former Florida A&M University student, died after the police shot him 10 times for reportedly seeking help at a woman’s home after he had been involved in a car crash.
The woman who answered the door, thinking it was her husband, closed the door when she saw Ferrell and dialed 911.
Ferrell’s mother described her son, who was engaged to be married when killed, as a “very uplifting, happy person” who “wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
Police Officer Randall Kerrick, who shot at Ferrell 12 times, was charged with voluntary manslaughter after turning himself in.
Questions are also being raised as to why so little media coverage has been given to Mcbride’s death, with many arguing that it is because of her race.
Author: Greta Tugwell
Nommo Staff