Police scanner audio is revealing new details from the night a Dearborn Heights, Mich. homeowner shot and killed Renisha McBride on his porch.
In the recording, collected from Broadcastify and published by the Detroit News, a female dispatcher can be heard telling police that she received a call from a man who said he “thinks” he shot someone on his porch, before hanging up.
Later, an officer on the scene can be heard telling the dispatcher: “There’s somebody down on the porch … it appears it’s going to be a black female.”
McBride’s death was characterized as a homicide on the autopsy report released Monday by the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office. The report indicated she died of a shotgun wound to the face fired from a great enough distance that no gunpowder residue or soot was found on her. No other remarkable injuries were found.
McBride’s family believes she was at the home seeking help after being involved in a car accident. Police say that accident occurred shortly before 1 a.m. when McBride hit a parked vehicle. By the time police responded to that crash, she was nowhere to be found. The homeowner did not call 911 to report the shooting until 4:45 a.m., according to the Detroit News report. What happened in the hours in between is unclear.
The homeowner’s attorney has defended his reaction.
“There was a lot of banging. It was a lot of noise, and it didn’t sound like just knocking,” attorney Cheryl Carpenter told Michigan Radio in an interview released Monday.
“This is a tragedy for everybody involved, and the homeowner is completely torn up. He realizes another person’s life was taken. It was a young woman, and he is devastated by that fact,” she added.
Although the case has brought Michigan’s “stand your ground” law back into the spotlight, the lawyer for the McBride family reiterated Tuesday what he explained to Rev. Sharpton on PoliticsNation Monday — that he didn’t think that line of defense would be valid.
“She had no weapon. She’s five feet four inches tall. He’s got a shotgun. He has to show that he’s in imminent fear of his life. How’s he going to show that?” Thurswell asked Monday.
“All he had to do was stay in his house, and if he came outside with his shotgun, he didn’t have to pull the trigger,” he added.
Thurswell has said that the McBride family wants nothing less than a conviction in the case, but that they are patiently waiting for the Wayne County Prosecutor to take the next steps.
Morgan Whitaker