Shreveport, Louisiana

From the Shreveport Times of July 13, 2006

Business owner kills suspected burglar

A suspected burglar was shot dead shortly before midnight Wednesday at a tax business in the 4500 block of Rightway Avenue in Shreveport. And police say the owner of the business where the shooting occurred, a 74-year-old who lives next door, will not be charged.

An alarm company called the business owner to report that it had detected motion in the building located between Drexel and Woodford streets. The business owner armed himself and went to check it out, not calling authorities at that time, police spokeswoman Kacee Hargrave said.

The business owner found a suspected burglar hiding in a bathroom in the back of the business and fired one shot, fatally wounding him, Hargrave said.

Police were summoned to the scene at 11:45 p.m., records show.

Authorities found hunting and fishing equipment, including guns, in a pile in the business as if they were being rounded up to be taken, Hargrave said.

The business owner "is not going to be charged. But the case will be sent to the DA's office for review, as is standard in cases of justifiable homicide," she said.

Hargrave would not identify the business owner. "We don't release names of people unless they are charged."

And all authorities know about the dead man is that he is a black male in his upper teens to early 20s, Hargrave said.

From Shreveport’s KTBS.com of August 2, 2006

D.A.: Business Owner Justified in Shooting Burglar

Shreveport business owner was justified in shooting and killing a burglar he caught in his business last month, Caddo District Attorney Paul Carmouche said Wednesday.

The district attorney's office reviewed the shooting and determined no charges should be filed against 74-year-old Dudley Hay.

Hay went to his business in the middle of the night after a burglar alarm alerted him to trouble at the tax-service and gun-cleaning and repair shop located next door to his house on Rightway Avenue.

Hay got a gun and went to investigate on his own and found a man hiding in a bathtub, Carmouche said. Hay said 19-year-old Eric Bryant of Shreveport stood up and confronted him, so he fired one shot.

"We feel it very clearly fits under the justifiable homicide statute," Carmouche said. "The business owner was convinced it was 'him or me.'"

Hay did not call police after the alarm company call, deciding to go check on it himself. Carmouche said there had been false alarms at the business before.

"The alarm company called him and asked if they should call police. He said, 'Let me check it first,'" Carmouche said, not that is not unusual in cases of repeated false alarms.

Louisiana's shoot-the-burglar law allows property owners to defend themselves.

In the 28 years Carmouche has been district attorney, his office has never prosecuted a property owner who shot a burglar inside his home or business. The ones who were charged had shot people who were outside their home and posed no threat.