A St. Roch homeowner is facing charges after police say he shot at two teens suspected of trying to steal cars from his neighborhood. Bullets hit one of them, a 14-year-old juvenile.
According to investigators, Denzal Peters stepped out of his home and shot at the teens with a rifle, hitting one of them and causing them to crash the stolen car they were driving. Peters told police he caught the teens trying to break into his car. That's when, authorities say, he emerged from his home and shot at them. The 14-year-old driver was struck by a bullet, causing him to crash the stolen getaway car into another vehicle.
According to legal analysts, the case will hinge on one question: Did Peters feel he was in danger?
"The principle in Louisiana is that you can protect yourself and hold your ground in connection with someone else threatening your or committing a crime," ALL THINGS LEGAL host Doug Sunseri told WWL's Tommy Tucker.
Sunseri said he understands Peters's frustration with crime in his neighborhood. Still, Sunseri said the law gives a person the right to shoot a criminal only if the criminal has placed that person in imminent danger.
"If you do not feel like you're not in danger, you do not have the right to shoot someone because they are committing a crime," Sunseri said. "He doesn't, at this point, have a right to protect his property with, you know, shooting the perpetrators.
"If you're looking out the window and you're seeing two people . . . someone committing a crime outside, you can't run outside and shoot him or shoot at him in connection with the comission of the crime if you're not in danger."
Even if Peters is cleared of wrongdoing, Sunseri says he still may pay a hefty price--namely, the cost to defend himself.
"It's probably a mortgage," Sunseri said. "You gotta figure out: it's only a car versus your life."
