Theodore Wafer Will Stand Trial for Shooting Renisha McBride

Crime, Lisa Bloom, News


Hi I’m Lisa Bloom for Avvo.com. A Michigan homeowner is going to stand trial for the second-degree murder of 19-year-old Renisha McBride. She’s the young African-American woman whose car broke down, she then pounded on Theodore Wafer’s door at about 4:00 AM. It’s undisputed that he came to the door with a shotgun, shot her in the face, and killed her. His defense; self-defense.

In a preliminary hearing that took place this week, the judge said “This court recognizes you can’t automatically penalize someone for making a bad decision when pressed to react quickly, but at the same time, we can’t allow one to use a bad decision as a shield to criminal prosecution. The defendant made a bad choice when there were other reasonable opportunities, such as; staying in the house, keeping the door locked, and calling the police.”

So the matter will proceed to trial. Many people are comparing it to the Trayvon Martin case. I think there are a lot of similarities and there are differences as well. This homeowner immediately called 911 afterwards and apparently gave a police statement. That statement has not been publicly released and it hasn’t come into court yet, so it will be interesting to see what he said exactly on the day of the shooting.

I’m sure he’ll be asked at trial, if he testifies, why he didn’t ask a single question, apparently, to Renisha McBride, like “Why are you pounding on my door?” Instead he pointed the gun at her and shot her and killed her. And now he’s facing trial for second-degree murder. I’m going to continue to follow this case and I’ll report back to you when we have more information. For now, I’m Lisa Bloom for Avvo.com.

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