Jury Rules Self-Defense



A pastor went into his church in April because an alarm went off in the middle of the night. Once there, he confronted two burglars. He shot and killed them. By his own description, he panicked, and acknowledged that he might have misread their movement towards him as an attack, when they were actually headed for an exit. It was one of those split second decisions that you hope you never have to make.



He was prosecuted. The news is that he was found innocent on all charges:

Speaking by phone Monday evening, Mielke said he was glad it's all over. He said he's sad that two people lost their lives in the situation, but he still feels he would have been killed if he had not pulled the trigger that morning.



Mielke faced charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide after shooting and killing 31-year-old Christopher Palmer and 23-year-old Francis Jones.



The pastor had caught Palmer and Jones as they were robbing his Big Lake Community Chapel around 5 a.m. on April 24. Mielke testified that, when he went to the church to check out a noise, it was dark and he panicked in the confusion, then shot the two men in the back after they ran past him up a flight of stairs and tried to get out of the church.



Palmer's family members were clearly disappointed by the not guilty verdicts.

Well, yes I guess they were disappointed. It's hard for me to be very sympathetic when two adults commit a felony, and get killed. Even if they were not a threat to Mielke, and were just running towards him to get out an exit, the burden was on them for committing a felony under conditions where a reasonable person could misinterpret their actions as a threat.



This situation isn't something to be thrilled about, but neither is it an argument for gun control. It is an argument against burglary.



It is also an argument against going into an unoccupied building yourself, instead of calling the police to do it for you. Whatever was lost in that church was, I'm sure, less expensive than hiring an attorney to defend Pastor Mielke.