Anderson, South Carolina



From Greenville's CarolinaChannel.com of March 8, 2004:

Intruder Shot, Killed In Anderson Home



One man is dead after a shooting in Anderson late Sunday night.



Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said the shooting happened just before midnight at 1208A N. Main St.



Shore said a man broke into the apartment looking for money and found an ax. The man living in the apartment grabbed a gun and shot the intruder in the neck when the intruder came at him with the ax.



The intruder, Earnest Leroy Miles, 41, of Anderson, died at Anderson Area Medical Center a short time later.



Detectives said the apartment resident, Lance Myers, will not face charges.

Update from the Anderson SC Independent Mail of May 29, 2004

Solicitor rules shooting self-defense



Tenth Circuit Solicitor Druanne White agreed with investigators’ initial assessment of a March 7 shooting and said she will not prosecute Lance Myers, of Anderson, for killing an ax-wielding man who broke into his house.



Ms. White said the evidence in the case showed that Mr. Myers had acted in self-defense when he killed Ernest Leroy Miles, 41.

...



Under South Carolina law, the break-in gave Mr. Myers the right to shoot in self-defense as long as he reasonably feared bodily harm or death, and hadn’t instigated the attack, she said.



"We always hear about how guns kill innocent people, but we don’t seem to hear about the ones where it ends up saving your life," Ms. White said Friday.