A woman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, found herself under attack at 1:30 am on Sunday when four men tried to break into her apartment. Thankfully for her, she was armed. So, despite the strength and size advantage men have over women, and her being outnumbered, she was able to fend them off by firing on them.
Police officers from the Philadelphia Police Department responded to a shooting report at 1:34 am that morning and found her standing near one of the suspects, who had been injured by the gunfire. She told the police that she didn’t know the men and only opened fire when they entered her apartment.
The Philly Police Department described things slightly differently, saying, “The complainant had arrived to her apartment and found four unknown males inside her apartment without her permission.” The police added, “A confrontation ensued and the complainant shot the offenders, who then fled from that location.”
Regardless of who was in the woman’s apartment first, her aim was reasonably accurate given the circumstances. Of the four alleged burglars, two were wounded by her gunfire. One, 48-year-old Jermaine Parker was hit in both his right leg and right arm and had to be treated by medics before being taken to the hospital. The second suspect, Randy Miller, 45, was found shot in the back and was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Both of the found suspects were, in addition to being taken to the hospital, charged with burglary. The police noted that the woman was defending her living space and person when she fired on the four burglars.
Title 18 Section 505 of Pennsylvania law provides that “The use of force upon or toward another person is justifiable when the “actor” (party taking action against an intruder or assailant) believes that such force is immediately necessary for the purpose of protecting himself…”
The necessity of such force is generally presumed when the individual using deadly force uses it against someone who has illegally entered their home with seeming ill intent, in which case an attack on the person whose property it is or their family is not necessary to justify the use of deadly force.
As that here appears to have been the case, as the individuals had illegally entered the woman’s apartment, she was likely in the clear to fire on them. Adding to the reasonableness aspect of her actions is that it was four men in the apartment and she is a woman, so it would have been easy for them to overpower her and kill, sexually assault, or rob her.
Further, Pennsylvania’s self-defense doctrine also makes the actor who uses force immune from civil liability for personal injury sustained by a perpetrator which was caused by the acts of the actor as a result of the use of force, so the woman should not face civil liability for her use of force against the four alleged burglars if they had, in fact, broken into her apartment and she had the right to use force against them.
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