Homeowner Cleared Of Any Charges After Defending Himself During Home Invasion

ROSEVILLE, MICHIGAN — On Sunday of this past week, a homeowner encountered a man breaking into his home and fatally shot him. Police came to the residence, closed off the scene, and began their investigation. In the course of that investigation, the homeowner was detained until the prosecutor could decide whether or not to go ahead with pressing charges.

As of that Wednesday, they released him and the prosecutor for Macomb County released the following statement:

via Michigan Live

“After due deliberation the (Macomb County) Prosecutors Office has declined to bring forth any charges against the homeowner who fired the fatal shot in this incident,” Berlin said in a statement Wednesday. “The homeowner, who has been held since this incident occurred, has been released from custody.”

The whole scenario of a homeowner shooting an intruder is nothing new anywhere in the country. We publish stories covering those topics at least several times a week. However, the part of this story that grabbed my attention was the length of the duration of that custody.

If the crime occurred around 10 p.m. on Sunday and he was released on Wednesday, he was held somewhere in the vicinity of almost three full days before getting released. That’s not a huge length of time, granted, but imagine your life schedule being interrupted for three full days.

For most of us, that means we’d lose three days of paid work. If you have kids, who drops them off or picks them up from school? If you have a pets, who feeds them?

This brings me to my next subject: post defensive gun usage preparedness guide.

I’ll write up a full article covering this subject at a later date but there are definitely some things any gun owner needs to consider.

• Do you have someone who can come by and take your dog out for a walk and feed him?
• If you have kids, do you have someone who can be relied upon to take care of them for three or more days?
• Are your bills set up on auto-pay so they’re not late or accidentally shut off?

These are just some of the questions we’ll attempt to address in a future article.

As gun owners, we can’t control how long the process is after a defensive gun use. We can’t control how expensive the legal proceedings may be. I know a lot of Americans who own a gun that couldn’t feasibly afford to pay the retainer for an attorney to get to the bottom of everything. So, it’s not just a question of planning for that fateful moment that you need to use a gun to save your life: it’s about planning after the fact as well.

I’m always glad to see a homeowner that was able to defend himself and his home from an intruder. The last thing I’d want to see is the poor guy lose his job or end up with a bunch of ancillary problems because his daily life commitments can’t be filled.

Be safe out there. Definitely carry a gun — your life is unquestionably worth it. But also plan for what needs to happen if you’re taken into custody after the fact.