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.”

  • legion02@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Hard to shoot someone who’s made an honest mistake when you don’t have a gun…

    • ALilOff@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Honest mistake ain’t busting in a window tho. I’ve locked myself out of my own house before and I’ve never went “I’ll just break a window to get in”

      I’d be terrified if someone was trying to break into my house at 2am.

      • legion02@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        You hear stories about people with dementia doing this all the time. Guess they don’t deserve to live anymore either.

    • BenderOver@artemis.camp
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      10 months ago

      I wouldn’t call breaking and entering into the completely wrong home at 2 am “an honest mistake…”

    • RoboRay@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      Also hard to shoot somebody breaking in to your home with violent intentions when you don’t have a gun.

      And the only way to find out what the intruder’s intentions are is to wait until it’s potentially too late to defend yourself.