Theodore Paul “Ted” Wafer was charged in the shooting death of Renisha McBride near Detroit, according to reports.
Reports say that Wafer thought that McBride was trying to break into his house in Dearborn Heights earlier this month when he allegedly shot her.
Wafer was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, and possession of a firearm, CNN reported, citing Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
McBride’s family said the 19-year-old woman was looking for help after she was involved in a car accident on Nov. 2. She was described as “bloody and disoriented” when she came to his porch.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office this week found that McBride’s blood alcohol level was 0.218 percent, while the legal limit for a driver is 0.08 percent in Michigan.
The Medical Examiner’s Office found that McBride suffered a fatal shotgun wound to the face and it was fired from a distance. “She was found with a very large gunshot would to the face,” Worthy told CBS.
Worthy said that “these are the appropriate charges and he did not act in lawful self-defense,” reported NBC.
Wafer has claimed that the gun went off by accident.
“There is no evidence of forced entry into the home,” Worthy said on Friday. “Our evidence shows she knocked on the locked screen door.”
The family of McBride, who is black, has claimed that the shooting may have been race-related, and some say the case bears some similarity to the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case in Florida. Civil rights leaders like Rev. Al Sharpton have called for a thorough investigation into the matter.
Detroit-area police have said they believe the shooting was not race related.
McBride family attorney Gerald Thurswell told CBS: “This was a man who did not value human life. If he valued human life, he would have called 911 and not gone out of his home where he was safe, with doors locked, and blow off her head. He doesn’t value life.”
In Michigan, second-degree murder--the most serious of the charges filed against Wafer--can carry a life sentence.
