Malique Jamal Black

Sometimes you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. That is the case if you’re a drug dealing, stolen gun possessing homeowner defending yourself against the break-in of your home. And that was certainly the case for Pennsylvania man, Malique Jamal Black as reported by the Bridgeville Signal Item.

The Bridgeville Signal Item reports that Black, 26, “pleaded guilty in October to weapons and drug charges in three cases dating to 2022 in which prosecutors said he sold drugs and illegally possessed guns. One weapon, a stolen .45-caliber Glock handgun, was used in the Jan. 12, 2024, self-defense shooting of Allen L. Austin Jr., 29.”

Black shot Austin after the man broke into his home where “nearly $40,000 in cash and illegal drugs were kept, police said.”

Black, who was playing video games with friends in an upstairs room at the time, told police he grabbed his gun after he heard glass break and confronted the intruder and shot him as he came toward him on the stairs. There were allegedly other suspects involved in the break-in but they fled the scene and were never identified.

Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli decided not to press charges for the shooting death of Austin, given the circumstances, ruling that the shooting was justified.

Despite skating on a murder charge, “Assistant District Attorney Katie Ranker argued for a lengthy prison sentence for Black, saying his criminal history of repeated illegal gun possessions and pending drug charges led to the fatal shooting,” the Bridgeville Signal Item reported. 

Black was already a convicted felon barred from possessing firearms and was also free on bail while awaiting weapons and drug charges at the time of the shooting, prosecutors argued. They suggested the drugs and cash made him a target that ultimately led to the break-in and subsequent shooting.

The judge sentenced Black to serve 5 ½ to 12 years in prison for the illegal gun possession as well as another 2 ½ to 5 years for illegal possession of a firearm related to the original 2022 search of his home in which drugs and guns were found. Black was also charged in 2023 and pleaded guilty to drug charges related to a totally separate search of vehicle during a traffic stop.

It’s amazing this bad character was allowed to be out of jail for so long courtesy of our soft justice system, but with the DA deciding his defensive actions were justified, he literally dodged a bullet where he could’ve been looking at life in prison instead of a max of 17 years.

31 COMMENTS

  1. … luckily for him, he’ll be included in Biden’s upcoming final blanket pardon before next weekend, to include all “socially impacted victims”

  2. Gotta say it seems like victim blaming to me in a lot of ways.

    At the same time, it’s hard to feel bad for the guy considering how much pain and suffering he’s likely imparted on humanity via independent pharmaceutical business including the “trickle down victims” his trade creates.

    • I tend to draw the lines on this based on what they’re selling.

      That said, I also tend not to care in general because it’s not like the users are being forced to use. Just like I’m not that interested in holding liquor store owners or bar tenders responsible for liver cirrhosis and drunk driving deaths.

  3. Selling drugs and not paying your taxes should send you to prison. Just like any other income tax or business tax evader.

  4. Clickbait title.

    Defense of home did not earn this man 17 years. Illegal use of firearms, illegal drug trafficking, and subsequent violation of parole did.

  5. I don’t even care that he was a prohibited possessor. He was out of prison, so that means to me that the people of Pennsylvania didn’t think he was dangerous. Hope he had some sweet guns.

    But the fact that he committed other crimes; that’s why he got hooked up by the Po Po.

    If you think he’s dangerous, put him in prison for the next 40 years, and just make sure nobody brings any guns into the prison. THAT is how you keep guns away from dangerous people.

    • I’m far more concerned that the prosecutors are worried about making a name off this guy more than they are about looking for the violent home invaders that targeted him. Their statement(s) pretty well declare that.

      Because, you know, the people who did this would, quite clearly, never target innocent people who might have something worth stealing. That’s never happened in history.

      Criminals prefer hard work and taking risks against other armed criminals instead of easy scores against soft targets, right?

      • News flash.
        Drugs dealers are prime targets. And they always have been. Even tho the l;e-g?a”liz:ati:o,n, cro.wd said by making drugs legal there would be no need for the black drug dealers to carry guns.

        “Make it legal and all the crime will go away.”

        Their utopian view.

        • “Make it legal and all the crime will go away.” Their utopian view.

          Inescapable logic: law is the root cause of all crime; no law, no crime.

  6. I’m surprise he skated on the self-defense. It’s always been my understanding for a self-defense homicide to be excused or justified, the person must be totally innocent in the ordeal, specifically meaning, you cannot be a drug dealer and expect to be able to murder your co-workers in the industry just because they tried to murder you first.

  7. On the one hand it’s hard to really feel bad for someone who’s knowingly engaged in criminal behavior and gets jammed up during that behavior because of someone else’s criminal behavior. Being a criminal comes with risks, including this kind of thing. You knew or should have known that going in.

    OTOH, this article leaves a lot of unanswered questions given what we factually know about how the government operates. Which is to say, how it openly perpetrates fraud on the public to continue to the public filling the .gov slop trough with piles of taxpayer cash.

    What drugs was he found with and what quantity was he found with? I don’t want your nonsense “valuations” of the drugs, tell me the drugs and the quantities present so that I know you’re not just popping some guy with a few hundred in cash an a pound of high grade weed or an onion or a sheet of LSD that you’re massively overvaluing. I’ve seen you call say a tiny ditchweed plant was worth $5000 and just like I’ve seen you claim that a sheet of blotter acid was worth $10K. You’ve done this quite publicly, bragging about it in the papers.

    Further, what drugs was he caught with in 2023? Again, type and quantity please.

    Further still, and far more concerning IMHO, is the statement by the DA that “but if he hadn’t been in possession of drugs and cash this might not have happened” is something that should raise A LOT of questions.

    Excuse me, but part and parcel of that statement is the sub rosa directive of “don’t have cash”. Oh, so if you possess “unacceptable amounts of legal tender” you’re asking for it? Weird, I’ve heard that before… quite a lot actually.

    Pardon my bluntness, but it seems more than reasonable to hang that public official from the nearest tree or lamppost on general principle because this amounts to a confession in public.

    Also, it might not have happened or it might have happened anyway. While I’m not going to criticize a DA for prosecuting a case dropped right in their lap, the comments they made make it pretty clear that they’re far more concerned about sending this guy up the river to make a point than they are about anything else.

    That’s extremely concerning. You very clearly have armed home invaders working in groups yet you seem not to care. Now granted, this is potentially pure a rip crew but it’s also potentially a crew of robbery boys running around committing straight up home invasions for any target they deem worth it. Yet it seems that this is, at best, a secondary concern to the prosecutors. That’s damned disturbing IMHO because such people, in my experience, are going to target anyone who has anything that the group deems worth stealing. Super specialized rip crews that only target other criminals are actually pretty damn rare.

    Sure, they’ll hit this guy for drugs and cash today and tomorrow they’ll hit some other house for the BMW in the driveway and the next day they’ll hit an upper class house because the wife got noticed wearing jewelry. It would be shocking if they didn’t because they have to know that the criminal-class drug dealer is more likely to be armed and willing to use it than the normies are. His business necessitates a defensive mindset and weapons, the normie life mostly doesn’t.

    The only way the DA could know if they are a robbery crew or a specialized rip crew is if they already know who they are, in which case… where are they? Why are you, at the bare minimum, not putting out a forceful “We’ll find you before you hurt an innocent person” statement about the violent criminals? You know, to assure the public that you give a fuck and put the criminal class on notice more generally?

    So, by all means, prosecute this guy (though the “illegal gun” bit is a bit much for me) but your public statements need to reflect an actual concern for public safety and not simply an interest in enhancing your reputation as tough on crime.

  8. BREAKING NEWS: Supreme Court DENIES (cert) Two BIG 2A Cases! Still Considering Three!

    h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGQHEAemHnU

    • BREAKING: CERT DENIED IN MAJOR 2A CASES.

      SCOTUS denied cert in two major 2A cases. Mark Smith, Four Boxes Diner, discusses.

      h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCuMLjp3oHw

  9. Another Major Loss for this Federal Gun Law.

    We circle back to a big issue we have discussed on many occasions here at WGL, the prohibition on those that consume cannabis from exercising their Second Amendment Rights. Washington Gun Law President, William Kirk, circles back on a case that we’ve already discussed a handful of times, United States v. Daniels. This is a challenge to the Federal prohibition on those that use cannabis, for any reason including medical, from possessing a firearm. The 5th Circuit had previously found the law unconstitutional and then on remand from the United States Supreme Court, has once again, found that law, as applied to Daniels unconstitutional.

    h ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL3v_IfEkyk

  10. Was he a bad character?
    Selling drugs only pisses the system off because the system isn’t getting any tax revenue.
    Felon in possession of a gun.
    Well, he wasn’t incarcerated, disregard the probation/ parole BS because if your that bad of a character you should not be amongst us holy saints who can cast stones.

  11. Those seem like absurdly long sentences for “illegal possession of a firearm” that isn’t connected to another crime. I could see throwing the book at him if there were other serious crimes being committed at the same time.

  12. If there was a federal law that said 3 felony convictions at the state level, constituted a federal crime, and the punishment was execution, we would have a lot less repeat offenders.

  13. The only way this could have turned out better is if both had been killed. I suspect neither would be missed except for family and customers. In the meantime, I’m going back to my book. Ghost Soldiers. A good read. Especially sitting in a stand on the GA farm. I have a food plot full of turkeys with four long beards strutting and gobbling to beat the band. They shouldn’t be doing that until March. I guess they don’t own a calendar.

  14. Seriously, he didn’t hide the money & drugs before he called 911? Deserves every minute of the time and more just for stupidity.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here