In case you haven’t already heard, a 23-year-old man from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma made headlines this week when he shot and killed three teenage home invaders. The three teens had robbed the garage earlier that day, then returned to try the main house. They awoke Zach Peters, the homeowner’s son, who grabbed his AR-15 and defended himself against 3 armed and masked intruders. Max Cook, 19; Jacob Redfearn, 17; and Jake Woodruff, 16, were shot and killed. Cook’s 21-year-old girlfriend, get-away driver, and “robbery mastermind” Elizabeth Rodriguez was arrested and charged with three counts of both first degree murder and burglary. Her murder charges come from the felony murder rule which charges anyone involved in a felony with murder if a death occurs during or due to the felonious act.
Now the family of one of the deceased criminals is complaining. They don’t believe it was fair that Peters was allowed to defend himself with an AR-15 when the criminals were only armed with knives and brass knuckles.
Leroy Schumacher, grandfather of Jacob Redfearn, says his grandson made a bad choice but didn’t deserve to die. “What these three boys did was stupid,” said Leroy Schumacher to ABC News. “They knew they could be punished for it but they did not deserve to die.”
Schumacher complains that it wasn’t a fair fight and his grandson didn’t have a chance to defend himself… while breaking into another man’s home and attempting to rob him. “Brass knuckles against an AR-15, come on, who was afraid for their life,” he continued.
Zach Peters has not, and will not be charged with a crime for a justified shooting of three armed intruders and Schumacher is furious. “There’s got to be a limit to that law, I mean he shot all three of them; there was no need for that,” said Schumacher.
Do you have anything you would like to say to Mr. Schumacher?