Miguel has covered this ongoing story in previous posts.
Let’s go over the details again:
Three teens broke in a home through the back door with the intent to burglarize it.
The son of the home owner opened fire with an AR-15 and killed all three home invaders.
It was determined by police that one teen had been armed with a knife, another with a pair of brass knuckles.
As per Oklahoma Title 21 § 1272 Unlawful Carry (see bold)
It shall be unlawful for any person to carry upon or about his or her person, or in a purse or other container belonging to the person, any pistol, revolver, shotgun or rifle whether loaded or unloaded or any dagger, bowie knife, dirk knife, switchblade knife, sword cane, knife having a blade which opens automatically by hand pressure applied to a button, spring, or other device in the handle of the knife, blackjack, loaded cane, billy, hand chain, metal knuckles, or any other offensive weapon, whether such weapon be concealed or unconcealed, except this section shall not prohibit:
(Paraphrasing) law enforcement, hunting , licensed CCW, historical reenactment, etc.
The getaway driver admitted to being part of the break-in, they they didn’t know the shooter, and chose the house because it seemed like a promising payday.
After waiving her right to an attorney, Elizabeth Marie Rodriguez, 21, told investigators Wednesday that “she did not know Zach Peters,” but said she “indirectly became aware of Peters’ father.”
“She said she determined Peters had money and expensive belongings, and that was why she selected his home, to ‘hit a lick,'” Mahoney said. “Hit a lick,” Mahoney explained, “is a term some criminals use to describe getting a significant amount of money in a short period of time.”
Rodriguez turned herself in to authorities shortly following the home invasion and shooting. She stated to investigators that she “planned the robbery and drove the vehicle,” Mahoney said.
Rodriguez, the getaway driver, knew the homeowner, even using his first name, and planned the burglary, apparently aware that the house contained valuable items.
She admitted that the group had broken into homes before in the Tulsa area, and were responsible for other burglaries.
The teens were dressed in all black and were wearing masks and gloves, concealing their identities.
At this point, everything is pointing to a good shoot. Three people, armed, and concealing their identities, broke into a house. The person occupying the home at the time was scared and opened fire with a legally possessed firearm, killing the perpetrators.
You’d think that with this orgy of evidence, the people associated with the break-in should just keep their heads down and try not associate themselves with this crime spree.
You’d think. But the desire to claim victim status is just too much for some people to resist.
Family member of teen burglary suspect killed in Wagoner County break-in speaks out – KTUL
The grandfather of Jacob Redfern took his grief to the cameras.
“What these three boys did was stupid,” said Leroy Schumacher.
Schumacher agrees his grandson and his friends made a bad decision, but not one worthy of deadly consequences.
“They knew they could be punished for it but they did not deserve to die,” said Schumacher.
Ah yes, the “stupid teenager” defense.
Grandpa then doubles down on his stupidity.
Schumacher says his grandson didn’t have a chance. The 17-year old, he says, never got into trouble.
“Brass knuckles against an AR-15, come on, who was afraid for their life,” said Schumacher.
I guess Grandpa thinks that brass knuckles rank in lethality somewhere between a wiffle bat and a NERF gun.
One punch killings are fairly common. Add in the additional mass and hardness of a pair of brass knuckles and they are definitely a lethal weapon (examples 1, 2, 3) .
This is a video of some idiot using a pair of brass knuckles to kill a spider.
Imagine that drywall being some skull. Now the impact force of a pair of brass knuckles starts to make sense.
So to answers grandpa’s question, I’m pretty sure the homeowner, seeing three people in masks, armed with a knife and brass knuckles had every right to be afraid for his life.
The homeowner’s son has not been charged with a crime. Deputies believe he fired in self-defense.
“There’s got to be a limit to that law, I mean he shot all three of them; there was no need for that,” said Schumacher.
Who should have the homeowner’s son shot? Just the kid with the knife? Brass knuckles are also a lethal weapon, seems like the shooting of his grandson was pretty justified. Considering that at least two of the three invaders were armed, it seems that their intent to do harm to any occupant of the house was obvious. I’d argue that shooting all three was pretty necessary.
Schumacher does say he supports the right to bear arms and protect your home. But he doesn’t agree with shooting and killing intruders.
Then why support the RTKBA?
“You can’t change history, but you can damn sure learn from it, and maybe some kids will learn from this,” said Schumacher.
Yes kids. Learn from this. Don’t break into people’s houses and try to steal their stuff.
I thought that grandpa’s attempt at becoming the next Sybrina Fulton was bad enough.
I was wrong. There was a candlelight vigil for the three teens killed.
No official organizers for the vigil were named, however, I have a feeling that it was not an organic event. I suspect that some people aligned with Social Justice are trying to make hay out of this, but it doesn’t seem to be catching on.
Despite the large crowd at the vigil, no one was willing to talk on camera.
Several, telling us off-camera that it’s awkward because of the teen’s involvement in the crime.
It’s really hard to publicly mourn three teens that all evidence points to them braking into a house to kill and rob the homeowner.
Also, the vigil didn’t end well.
About an hour into the vigil, someone was heard yelling that someone had a gun.
People scattered and police converged on the scene, along with an ambulance.
“Everything was cool, going alright. The, kinda, ring leader of the whole situation took off, came back screaming said, ‘Everybody get down, everybody run, run,’ this and that. No shots were fired but, ya know, everybody was scared just like it happened,” said witness Matthew Anderson.
I have a feeling that this case isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
Treyvon Martin’s mother parlayed the shooting of her son into a lucrative foundation, a book deal, and perhaps even a run for public office.
Losing a family member to a gun owner in a criminal act can be a windfall, if you play your cards right. In this case we have three teens dead and the shooter defending himself used the dreaded AR-15.
The rub is, the kids were white and so was the shooter. There is no racial tension here to play off of. I don’t think that is enough to kill this, but it is a hurdle the Social Justice victim-mongers will have to overcome.
Time will tell.
Thank you for emphasizing the serious (and often fatal) nature of single punches and fighting tools like brass knuckles.
I often have to explain to folks (unfortunately, often without them getting the point) that responding to an assault by an “unarmed” person by defending oneself with a firearm is more than “fair.” Some folks have absolutely no clue that death can result from something seemingly as “minor” as a single punch.
Someone who is assaulting someone else has already made the assessment that it ain’t gonna be a fair fight — they’ve already determined that they will dominate. Otherwise, they would not have started the assault in the first place.
When I posted this, the video link didn’t embed. I updated the post with the video to really show what I am talking about.
I’ll never understand that type of argument.
The “but it was brass knuckles vs AR-15, how could he be scared?” thing.
It’s only vs. AR-15 if you can USE the AR-15…but somehow they think that that means you’re not allowed to use it…so at that point it’s brass knuckles vs. nothing…which, then means you can fear now, so now you can use your AR-15…oh but now you can use your AR-15 so you have nothing to fear…which means you can’t use your AR-15 anymore…
The circular retardedness of it is just too much…
It’s the same mentally ill argument that says you can learn karate, or use a knife or a perhaps even a baseball bat to defend your home, but (horror of horrors!) don’t use a gun!
The idea that using a gun has somehow taken self defense up a notch into the realm of “unfair” is stupidity at its finest.
3:1 is more than enough disparity of force. Add element of surprise and some visible weapons and the only response is to hose all of them. The grandfather is an idiot and he probably contributed to the evil nature of his grandson. His failure to ascribe all blame shows he is defective.