By Alexandra Brodsky • @azbrodsky • 10 years ago

BREAKING: Man who killed McBride charged with second-degree murder

The Detroit News reports:

A Dearborn Heights man was charged Friday with second-degree murder, manslaughter and possession of a firearm in a felony in the shooting death of 19-year-old Detroiter Renisha McBride.

Homeowner Theodore Wafer, 54, faces arraignment Friday afternoon in the charges, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced.

McBride was fatally shot in the face early Nov. 2 by Wafer,whose lawyer said was “justified” in firing at McBride. About two and a half hours earlier before the shooting at the home in the 16800 block of Outer Drive, McBride crashed into a parked car a mile away on Brammell and Warren in Detroit.

Worthy said Friday that the evidence shows Wafer shot McBride through a locked screen door. He is not in custody and will be asked to turn himself in to authorities, the prosecutor said.

“We have issued these charges because we believe the evidence will show that self defense was not warranted,” Worthy s[a]id.

We’ll keep you updated as the charges move forward. As we know too well from George Zimmerman’s acquittal — and the countless other times American juries have sided with those who kill black people — today’s news doesn’t ensure justice for Renisha. But it’s one step in that direction.

Washington, DC

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com. During her four years at the site, she wrote about gender violence, reproductive justice, and education equity and ran the site's book review column. She is now a Skadden Fellow at the National Women's Law Center and also serves as the Board Chair of Know Your IX, a national student-led movement to end gender violence, which she co-founded and previously co-directed. Alexandra has written for publications including the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Guardian, and the Nation, and she is the co-editor of The Feminist Utopia Project: 57 Visions of a Wildly Better Future. She has spoken about violence against women and reproductive justice at campuses across the country and on MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, FOX, ESPN, and NPR.

Alexandra Brodsky was a senior editor at Feministing.com.

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