An Oklahoma City homeowner was charged after he allegedly k!lled a man he found squatting with a girlfriend inside one of his vacant homes.
Timothy Smith discovered Justin King in a bedroom with an unidentified woman in the residence in Southwest Oklahoma City on May 1, according to KOCO.
The 59-year-old landlord, who was armed with a handgun and accompanied by his daughter, “engaged in an argument” with King, ordering him to leave the property on the 1500 block of SW 44th St in the Rancho Village neighborhood, the Oklahoma City Police said.
Police allege that Smith aimed the gun at King and fired, striking the squatter in the neck during the confrontation.
Smith told police that King had stepped towards him before the f@tal shot, according to the outlet.
Smith and his daughter had arrived at the home that day armed with a gun as the neighborhood had been having problems with the homeless in recent months.
Smith defended his actions, admitting he didn’t see King with any weapons but that the suspected trespasser shouldn’t have been in the house in the first place.
“It wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t here,” Smith told police after the shooting, according to the outlet.
King was hospitalized for over a week after the shooting before he was pulled off life support on May 8.
Smith was initially charged with assault and battery with a de@dly weapon, but prosecutors upgraded the charge to first-degree m@nslaughter after King’s de@th.
He also faces one count of reckless conduct with a firearm.
Smith was booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center and is being held on a $25,000 bond, according to court records.
Defense lawyers opposed the use of force against King for simply trespassing inside the home that Smith was living in at the time of the shooting.
“There’s not the d£ath penalty for squatting in the state of Oklahoma. You can’t just take a gun in and shoot somebody,” criminal defense attorney Ed Blau told KOCO.
“At trial, I’m sure the defense will be self-defense. What’s going to make that difficult? He told the police that he didn’t see a weapon in the hand of the victim,” Blau said.
The attorney broke down different scenarios for a homeowner to claim self-defense if they shot an intruder.
“If a trespasser or a burglar breaks in or comes into your home that you live in and you’re there, you can pretty much shoot them or do whatever you want to with,” Blau added. “In a situation like this, an abandoned house, it’s much different. You can’t go in, put yourself in a situation and say, ‘This is my house, so I felt I had the right to shoot him.’”