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Next door in Clearwater, a homeowner defends his home.
In Florida, case law has explicitly declared a person's garage to be included in our castle doctrine. This means that if the intruder forced his way in, it would have been a clear cut case, as Florida's law creates a presumption that if an intruder forces their way into your home, they intend to commit violence against you, in which case use of deadly force is legal.
In this case, the intruder does not seem to have forced his way in, but it also seems as if he was given an opportunity by the homeowner to leave. BN9 states, "There was no indication if any charges would be filed." Generally in cases like this there are no charges filed against the homeowner unless a crime has obviously been committed. It is also likely that the homeowner will be immune from civil lawsuits.
It is also worth noting that BN9 describes the intruder as a "prowler". This is inaccurate as self-defense stories published by BN9 tend to be. Legally, the line was crossed between "prowler" and "intruder" the second the criminal stepped foot inside the garage.
In Florida at least, defense of yourself and of your castle is legal. |
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