ST. PETERSBURG, Fla (WFLA) – A St. Petersburg teen is back home after he tells News Channel 8 that he shot and killed an intruder who tuned out to be his father.
Malachi Heisler tells us he woke up to cries for help early Tuesday morning.“I woke up to my name being called, OK. I heard the words Malachi and help, that’s all I heard when I woke up,” said Heisler in front of his home. Heisler spoke in with a bandana covering his mouth.“
He pointed it at my mother first, and then when I came out of the room he pointed it at me. So picture in your head, it was a standoff between me and him. He had his pistol and I had my rifle. It doesn’t matter a bullet is a bullet, one shot, you’re dead,” explained Heisler.
Source: Florida teen kills masked intruder who turns out to be his dad | WNCN
At first and not very careful glance, you get the idea that this is another of those unfortunate cases of mistaken identity where a joke or a lack of proper identification resulted in the dead of an innocent person. It is not into you go past half the article that you find out the Father was a dangerous felon with a retraining order that had broken armed into the house, probably with evil intentions since good people do not break into houses they are not invited in the wee hours of the night, armed and wearing a mask.
The article however, is written in such a way as to elicit the “ZOMG! Gunz are bad! A Kid with a gun!” instead of a young man defending his family from a known predator. And don’t bother confronting the writer because they will use the standard journalist response: The facts are accurate.
And as usual, I will refer to the best movie when it comes to both governmental, political and journalistic shenanigans: Absence of Malice.
-Mac said to quote you directly. You can say whatever you want.
-Just… say we were involved.
-That’s true, isn’t it?
–No. But it’s accurate.
Absence of Malice. (1981)
Left a comment. We will see how long it lasts.
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The TL;DR is that dad was a felon with a restraining order and had broken into the home while armed. Kid shot his dad in defense of the family.
Now to address the bias of this story: the fact that the father is a criminal with a restraining order is of supreme importance to the story, it makes what looks like an accidental tragedy into a clear and justified self defense case. But this fact is buried in the middle of the story, when it belongs in the title (or at the very least the byline). It is obvious the author wants you to assume this was a bad shoot, and withholds key facts for as long as possible. I give Mr. McCowan an F for honesty in reporting. New is not a drama, report the most relevant facts first.
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