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Tyiesha Annan sounded tired, but mostly angry, as she talked about her 14-year-old son and the questions she has for the homeowner in Lake County, Ill., who shot and killed him, telling police he fired his gun to scare the boy and five other teens off his property.
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Police say Ja'quan, four cousins and a friend had traveled to Old Mill Creek near the Wisconsin border in a stolen black Lexus SUV. Around 1 a.m. Tuesday, a 75-year-old man went outside his home in the 17600 block of West Edwards Road after seeing some of the teens near his 2011 Audi.
He told investigators that he yelled at them to leave and then fired his gun when one of them moved toward him with an unknown object in his hand. Ja'quan was hit in the head.
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A knife was recovered from the driveway, authorities said.
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Lake County State's Attorney Michael Nerheim has said in a statement that the teens "decided to come to Lake County with their sole intention to commit a series of residential and vehicle burglaries," and drove to the area "armed with a large 10-inch-long hunting knife with a stainless-steel blade."
But see this followup column:
Column: Lake County homeowner probably wasn’t justified shooting at car burglars, but our absurd felony murder law says it doesn’t matter
I can put myself in the position of the homeowner in Old Mill Creek, startled at a little past 1 a.m. on Aug. 13 by the sounds of six strangers in his driveway evidently attempting to break into hi…
www.chicagotribune.com
You've probably read about it: The man yelled at the group to leave. He later said that two of them advanced on him, one with an unknown object in his hand that police said turned out to be a hunting knife with a 10-inch blade. The man opened fire, intending, he said, to frighten off trespassers, but one shot fatally wounded 14-year-old Ja'quan Swopes of Chicago.
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From the safety and literal and emotional distance of my position at the keyboard in my office in the light of day, my conclusion is that he was not justified in using deadly force against people who at the time were some 40 feet away, according to law enforcement officials.
The man, who has not been charged, should have gone back in his house, locked the doors, called police and waited for help. Yes, he's 75 years old — every news story has pointed this out — but a gun is an equalizer in such situations.