From the Porch

Armed intruders forced the Accused and his family down into the basement of their home. His son was shot. During the struggle the Accused managed to wrestle a handgun away from one of the intruders. Everything that happened inside the house was met with a defence of self-defence, and the trial judge accepted it, acquitting him on those counts. What remained was what happened next: the Accused came out onto his front porch and fired at the intruders as they fled. He also gave police a false account in his first statement. The Crown said that firing at men who were running away, from a porch, in a residential street, was retaliation rather than defence, and that the obstruction was aggravating. The Defence said the whole episode was one continuous act of a father defending his family moments after his son had been shot, and that the seconds between the basement and the porch could not sensibly be split apart.