Jurors hear final arguments in porch shooting case

DETROIT (AP) — Instead of handling his shotgun “like a toy” and shooting an unarmed woman who showed up at his home early one morning, a suburban Detroit man should have kept his doors locked and called police, a prosecutor said today, urging jurors to convict him of murder.

Theodord Wafer didn’t need to confront Renisha McBride on the porch of his Dearborn Heights home at 4:30 a.m. Nov. 2, prosecutor Patrick Muscat said during his closing arguments in Wafer’s trial.

“He had so many other options,” said Muscat.

Wafer, 55, is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in the killing of 19-year-old Renisha McBride, who showed up drunk at his home around 3 1/2 hours after she crashed her car into a parked vehicle on a Detroit street about a half-mile away.

Wafer testified that he was afraid for his life after being awoken by loud banging on his doors. He said he shot McBride, whom he didn’t know, in self-defense after she came rushing out from the side of his house.

Muscat told the Wayne County court jury that Wafer’s Mossberg shotgun “is a dangerous weapon, and the way he handled it — he handled it like a toy,” Muscat said. “And as a result, a 19-year-old is dead.”

Jurors could convict Wafer of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. He can be acquitted of all charges if the jury believes he had a reasonable and honest belief that his life was at risk.

“He armed himself. He was getting attacked,” defense attorney Cheryl Carpenter said in her closing argument. “Put yourselves in his shoes at 4:30 in the morning.”