http://gr.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/20011120gnocharge105803.frm

http://www.mcrgo.org/news_story.asp?key=661
Grand Rapids man uses gun to stop home invader. Shooter will not be
charged
Tuesday, November 20, 2001
By Doug Guthrie and Tanda Gmiter
The Grand Rapids Press

Calling the shooting justifiable, Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth
will not charge a Southeast Side man with wounding a teen who reportedly
kicked in the man’s front door last week.

Sherman L. Rose, 50, shot the 16-year-old boy in the leg and upper
chest.

“In fairness to this homeowner, he shouldn’t have to worry about this
over the Thanksgiving holiday,” Forsyth said today. “It was a pretty
clear cut thing.”

State law permits the use of deadly force when life is threatened or a
felony has been committed and force is necessary to apprehend the
fleeing felon.

The suspect remains under police guard in Saint Mary’s Mercy Medical
Center. The youth has yet to be charged with any crime.

Because of his status as a juvenile — he turns 17 at the end of the
month — a hearing may first be required in Kent County Family Court to
determine if he should be charged as an adult.
Police, who have declined to identify the youth, said they have had
prior contact with him as a criminal suspect.

The shooting occurred about 7:15 a.m. Friday in the entryway of Rose’s
home on Merrit Street SE.

Rose told investigators he carried his 9 mm semiautomatic handgun
downstairs when awakened. He said he reached the bottom of the stairs
just as the front door burst open. The teen stood no more than 10 feet
away.

While police don’t believe the teen was armed, Rose told detectives the
intruder “made a move,” and he started shooting.

Neighbors reported hearing as many as six shots. Bullets struck three
houses across from Rose’s home. Police found spent cartridges from the
gun on Rose’s front lawn.

The wounded teen ran two blocks and collapsed on a relative’s porch. His
relatives called police.

Police confiscated Rose’s properly registered handgun and the trigger
lock Rose had used on it.

This is the second time in 15 months that Forsyth has decided a
high-profile shooting is justified.

In August 2000, the prosecutor declined to charge a West Side Party
Store clerk who shot and wounded a man who allegedly implied he had a
gun and grabbed cash from the store’s till.

Forsyth’s stance was criticized largely because the clerk was
intoxicated at the time of the shooting. The clerk’s blood-alcohol level
was 0.145, above the level considered drunk under state motor vehicle
laws.

Friday’s case also is similar to one in 1989, when charges were pressed
against a Sparta party store owner who shot at a car containing four
teens fleeing after two attempted to break into the man’s closed store.
One of his bullets pierced the car door and struck a female passenger.
The store owner was charged, but the judge eventually dismissed the
charges, saying the shopkeeper had the right to use deadly force.

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