Criminals have friends, and when you shoot them, their friends make threats.
Jonathan McCormick sat in his recliner on the morning of Nov. 4 watching television when a man masked in a bandanna came into his living room and stuck a gun to his head.
A few minutes later, he shot and killed the 26-year-old intruder, later identified as Jonathan William Corke, in front of his wife who had been asleep on the living room couch.
Although many are armed to protect themselves, few people expect to kill someone in self-defense.
McCormick and his family are now moving from hotel to hotel, afraid to go back to the house where the killing happened. He said he can’t sleep at night after shooting the man who pointed a gun at his family.
Police say, that of the average 76 homicides a year, self-defense killings are relatively rare. The Nashville Police Department wrote press releases on four in 2012, four in 2013 and two so far in 2014. The final decision as to whether a killing was justified is made by the District Attorney’s office, who reviews whether a case should be taken to a grand jury.
Nashville criminal defense attorney Rob McKinney says the critical determinant in whether someone is justified in killing another person is whether the individual feels in “imminent danger.” But Leslie Kirby, an assistant psychology professor at Vanderbilt University, said that even though our society usually supports people who defend themselves, the level of one’s own empathy can determine the trauma of the event.
Election day
The paths of Gary Jonathan McCormick and Jonathan William Corke now seem to have been destined to cross on Election Day 2014.
They both woke early and went about their business. McCormick, 34, was up with back pains, his wife was with him and his children were out of school for the day.
Corke, 26, dropped off his girlfriend at her job and took a drive in her car.
When Corke drove his blue 2007 Nissan Altima through the cul-de-sac of Long Branch in Antioch, with him in the car were items stolen in a string of Davidson and Robertson County burglaries, and a 9 mm pistol, reportedly stolen on Oct. 31. The Altima would later be found parked in a field beyond the cul-de-sac.
“The children were home that day, but they still get up early,” McCormick told The Tennessean on Nov. 7, in the lobby of a hotel he wished to remain undisclosed.
“They were running in and out playing with the neighbors’ children. As I was sitting there, I heard the door open again and I looked up to tell the kids to close the door and quit running in and out, and a guy walked in with a mask. He had bandanna on. All you could see was his eyes and his pistol.”
McCormick said the suspect, later identified as Corke, walked in and pointed the gun at him and demanded all of his money. He said he reached in his pocket and gave Corke $30 and told Corke that was all that he had. McCormick said he pleaded with Corke to take the money and leave his family out of it, but that Corke demanded he get more money.
McCormick said that is when things started to change. His wife Angela Moore woke up to Corke standing over her.
McCormick said that while Corke focused on interacting with his wife, he made his way into his son’s room. He said he grabbed a .45 caliber pistol that was in the room and turned and pointed the gun at Corke and told him to leave.
“He just took like a half a step toward the door, and I thought, ‘Great. He’s going to run out the door, and before he made a full stride he raised the gun up and aimed it toward me and that’s when I started to shoot,” he said.
At the time of his death, Corke was under indictment in Nashville on multiple counts of home burglary and felony theft, police said. Corke was not carrying any identification when he was shot. He was positively identified through his fingerprints.
Corke had two prior convictions for felony theft and two prior convictions for felony evading arrest.
He was rushed to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, but died shortly after arriving.
No charges have been placed against McCormick and the overall investigation continues.
McCormick said he has read threats against his family on social media and that he hopes people can understand the actions he took for the sake of protecting his family. Corke was known to have gang affiliations, police said.
“We have seen posts that have said it may take a week, a month, a year, but that they are going to come and kill us all,” he said. “What would you do if someone came in and pointed a gun at your family? I just want to call a truce. Who wouldn’t do the same?”
Source: http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/crime/2014/11/15/antioch-man-wants-truce-self-defense-shooting/19096731/
Outrageous, isn’t it?
