WALKER COUNTY, Ga – In another example of “stand your ground” law gone wrong, a 72 year-old man suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s disease who had wandered away from his home was shot four times and killed early Wednesday after ringing the doorbell and turning a doorknob at a home in Georgia.
This is the second reported case this month of someone being killed after approaching a home in the middle of the night. On November 2, 19 year-old Renisha Mcbride was shot and killed in Dearborn Heights, Michigan.
The man, Ronald Westbrook, of Walker County, who had one or two dogs with him, apparently wandered three miles away from a home he shared with his wife, who did not know he was gone until contacted by police. Suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s, Westbrook was wearing only a light jacket and straw hat in sub-freezing temperatures.
He was killed about 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning by Joe Hendrix, 34, who, apparently thinking it was an intruder, went outside with a .40 caliber handgun to investigate, as his fiancée was on the phone with police. They had just moved into the home, at the end of a cul-de-sac, a few weeks ago.
Hendrix claimed Westbrook approached him, ignoring several commands to stop, and that he fired four times, killing Westbrook with a shot to the chest. Reports are that Westbrook had been diagnosed with dementia two years ago and was mute due to the Alzheimer’s.
Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson, who was personally acquainted with Westbrook through church services, said the victim was likely lost and confused. He also said that, though he thinks Hendrix should not have gone outside the house, it doesn’t appear he violated any laws.
Hendrix has not been charged as an investigation of the shooting continues. Georgia has a stand your ground law – the “no duty to retreat” – which may justify the shooting. The district attorney must decide whether the case fits the criteria for stand your ground.
“We reserve our options and rights to file charges once the investigation is complete, if we feel like Georgia law warrants charges being filed,” Wilson told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition recently filed a lawsuit against Georgia challenging the state’s stand your ground law.
Related articles
- When Stand Your Ground Went International (endstandyourground.wordpress.com)
- Can Renisha Mcbride Killer Claim Stand Your Ground Defense? (endstandyourground.wordpress.com)
- Killed For Knocking At The Door (dish.andrewsullivan.com)
- Justice Denied: Bystander Killed, Man Freed By Stand Your Ground (endstandyourground.wordpress.com)
- Don’t get Alzheimer’s in America. They shoot you for it. (wellthisiswhatithink.wordpress.com)
End Stand Your Ground 
I have a sick theory that if enough whites or influential people die, then, and only then it will end. I’m posting this again since yo have the man’s photograph.
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I’ve had the same theory for a while now, Jackie, and it may eventually prove to be right. But how many more unarmed people will lose their lives before that?
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I just signed another Petition:
https://www.facebook.com/MomsDemandAction
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Reblogged this on The ObamaCrat™.
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Reblogged this on Blackbutterfly7 and commented:
If only had the homeowner had not had a gun. If only had the homeowner had not walked out of his house. If only the homeowner did not have a spirit of fear. (sigh)
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
… and how do you keep explaining these incidents??
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Awful!! Keep them coming, right!!! SMH …. Reblog!
Thx for posting.
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we need to demand that our lawmakers give us an explanation to justify unarmed people being killed with the killer even having an option to claim SYG. Before SYG, it was called manslaughter.Thx for being a faithful supporter, and for reblogging.
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Agree!! There have been one too many of these “incidents” …. Unwarranted!
Great job!
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This makes me sick. I just posted it on Facebook.
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ty for helping spread the word
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You can inform people till the cows come home but they probably will not listen till their own kind start falling to this scourge. I don’t like to be negative but some people just do not care. Whatever happened to the community of humanity? Keep doing what you are doing now and if there are more petitions or news, please, send them my way.
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