Saturday, November 11, 2006



NC: Man shot by homeowner, not deputies: "A man wounded during a home break-in on Tuesday was shot by the resident, David Grice, the sheriff of Davidson County, said yesterday. A news brief in yesterday's paper incorrectly said that the man had been shot by deputies. Grice said that Zackary Allen Staley, 21, of 149 Clapp Farm Road was shot by the homeowner, Phillip Cross Jr. The shooting remains under review and no charges have been filed against the homeowner, Grice said. Grice said that deputies were sent to Cross' home Tuesday on a report of a home invasion and that shots had been fired. Grice said that deputies learned that Staley was shot after he kicked in a door into the basement of Cross' home. He was hit in the knee and hand."


WI: Wrong to shoot menacing black? "The teenager accused of killing a Green Bay man will go to trial. Carl Morgan, 16, faces first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree attempted homicide charges in the shooting death of 21-year-old Greg Smith. Smith's family members were visibly shaken as they listened to witnesses talk about what they saw happen in a downtown Green Bay parking lot in the early morning hours of October 13th. Carl Morgan was not in court for Friday's hearing because of a motion asking to keep his identity hidden while witnesses are on the stand. A written statement submitted by Morgan says he drank vodka with friends that night, and they were waiting in a car in the parking lot as one of them went into Hip Cats bar. Morgan's friend says a group of guys were standing nearby when "the people in the car asked if we had a lighter." Witnesses say somehow a verbal confrontation ensued between the two groups, and it quickly turned physical. That's when Morgan's statement to police says he reached in the trunk and grabbed a gun that he'd bought. Morgan's statement was read in court, "When I pulled the gun out, the black guy started walking up to me, saying, 'What's up? What's up?'" "I know I shot him but I don't know how many times. I don't remember where I shot him, but I put the gun straight out. The black guy staggered around and then fell." One of Morgan's friends who was with him that night says he thinks Morgan fired a warning shot toward the ground before opening fire but says Smith kept coming at him. The district attorney refutes any case of self-defense. "I think other testimony shows that there was a significant enough distance between those two people that this wasn't any kind of case where any kind of self-defense necessitating gun shots," John Zakowski said."

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