Friday, August 08, 2014

Michigan Man Convicted of Murdering Renisha McBride
 
A funeral program for Renisha McBride killed in 2013. Her killer
was found guilty on all counts by a Wayne County jury in Detroit.
By Mark Berman
Washington Post
August 7 at 4:09 PM

The man who shot and killed Renisha McBride, a 19-year-old woman standing at his front door, has been convicted of murder.

Theodore Wafer was found guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. He could face up to life in prison when he is sentenced on Aug. 21.

Wafer shot McBride through the screen door of his home outside of Detroit last November. The case was racially charged: McBride was a black teenager killed by a white man less than four months after George Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder and manslaughter after shooting and killing Trayvon Martin.

“Her life mattered and we showed that,” Monica McBride, her mother, told the Detroit Free Press on Thursday.

In a news conference after the verdict was announced, McBride’s parents said they supported it.

McBride knocked on Wafer’s door after crashing her car not far from his house in the early hours of Nov. 2.

Wafer, testifying earlier this week in the trial, said he grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun because he feared for his life. He said he “just reacted,” according to the New York Times. (Earlier, he had told police that the shooting was accidental.)

Wafer fired through the screen door and hit McBride in the face. He was charged with second-degree murder nearly two weeks later. The jury delivered the guilty verdict on Thursday, the second day of deliberations, following a trial that began last month.

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