The vast majority of the defensive gun uses that occur every day in this country save innocent victims from people who would do them harm. And while there are certainly exceptions, police and prosecutors, by and large, tend to give defenders the benefit of the doubt, either based on the circumstances, common sense or because they’re bound by local laws (see: stand your ground and castle doctrine).
And while we like nothing better than to trumpet DGUs here, we tend to dispense one consistent bit of advice to anyone who’s put in the uncomfortable position of having to defend himself with a firearm: STFU. Don’t say anything to anyone until your lawyer gets there. Given the circumstances surrounding a Thanksgiving DGU outside a small central Minnesota town, all the yakking the shooter’s done after the fact probably couldn’t have made the situation much worse. But it sure hasn’t helped.
Byron Smith was in his basement Thursday when he heard a window break and then footsteps on the floor above him. Smith told police that he’d had a number of break-ins and was worried that his uninvited Thanksgiving Day guests were armed. So he grabbed his Mini 14 and waited until Nicholas Brady came down the stairs.
Smith said he fired when Brady came into view from the waist down.
After the teen fell down the stairs, Smith said he shot him in the face as he lay on the floor.
“I want him dead,” the complaint quoted Smith telling an investigator.
Smith said he dragged Brady’s body into his basement workshop, then sat down on his chair.
Brady’s partner in crime was his cousin, Haile Kifer. Haile was either hard of hearing or none too bright because after the shots fired at Brady, she came down the basement stairs, too.
(Smith) shot her as soon as her hips appeared, he said.
Though Kifer was “already hurting,” she let out a short laugh, Smith told investigators. He then pulled out his .22-caliber revolver and shot her several times in the chest, according to the complaint.
After shooting her with both the Mini 14 and the .22-caliber revolver, he dragged her next to Brady. With her still gasping for air, he fired a shot under her chin “up into the cranium,” the complaint says.
“Smith described it as ‘a good clean finishing shot,'” according to the complaint.
But even after all that, Byron didn’t bother to call the police until the next day. That’s when he asked a neighbor to recommend a good lawyer and call the cops for him. When asked why he delayed, he told police “he didn’t want to trouble (them) on a holiday.”
Smith’s now facing two charges of second degree murder. While he undoubtedly had cause to fear the burglars who’d broken into his home, could he have done anything to make what happened any worse?
Probably, but you’ll have to give us some time to come up with exactly how. No, the hash he made of the whole thing is pretty much an object lesson in what not to do both during and after a defensive gun use.
As Morrison County Sheriff Michel Wetzel said, “The law doesn’t permit you to execute somebody once a threat is gone.” Truer words…. [h/t Patrick C.]
Good riddance. No sympathy for scumbag ju nkies who invade elderly peoples homes. They knew the risk and they rolled the dice. And if your kid is invading someone’s home on Thanksgiving……YOU failed as a parent.
To Raven…. Your dead friend had NOT fixed her drug problem as she had stolen drugs in her car when she was killed. These people were brazen in there quest to damage peoples lives and thanks to Mr. Smith they have robbed their last home. Also…he did not let them in, they broke a window.. stop coddling these dead scumbags. 1 plus 1 equals 2, next?
Ok, Raven, you`re trying to say that his security system proves that he was not frequently robbed. That`s stupid. He go the security system BECAUSE he was frequently robbed. And did he have a monitor hooked up to those cameras so he could view it in real time, or was it just recording? I won`t say that Smith is a hero, or even did the right thing. He definitely has a screw loose. He definitely should have ridden the cops harder to help him, but the fact is that stolen property is rarely recovered, even when the burglar is cought. And a lot of his missing stuff had value far beyond the monetary.
Put under the same pressure that he was, I can see myself making the same decision that Smith did. He had been living in fear for months, being terrorized by these “Kids.” That`s another thing. Everyone keeps calling these criminals “Kids,” showing their smiling yearbook pictures, even pictures from when they were toddlers. One of these “Kids” was 18, legally old enough to smoke, pay taxes, or join the military. The other one was still a minor, but was a wrestler and weight-lifter, a noted athlete, a potentially physically dangerous individual.
The real red flag against Smith are his follow-on shots to finish the burglars off. The prosecution`s argument that the finishing shots crossed the line into murder because at that point the burglars were no longer a threat is a valid one, but there is another perspective….
I know Smith spent time in the Air Force. I don`t know what his firearms training from the military was like, but MY training (from the Marine Corps) taught me that the threat is eliminated when you see “Spine or brains.” In those words. I was taught the “Dead Check” of a fallen enemy, which is either a thumb in the eye, or a “Just-to-be-safe” head-shot. I would probably deliver those follow-on shots out of ingrained habit.
The matter of when the attackers are no longer a threat is very ambiguous. There is only one time that you know for sure your attackers are no longer a threat; When they are dead. This especially holds true if, as you say, the home-owner knew the attacker. Smith is a 65 year old man. He can`t afford to take chances with a strong, athletic young man like Brady.