He Stopped A Car Thief — Now, He’s Charged With 7 Felonies

A Memphis man who acted in self-defense against a car thief has been charged with seven felonies by local prosecutors.

Authorities claim 27-year-old Demarcus Collier fired at least nine rounds at a teenager trying to break into his car after the would-be burglar acted as if he had a weapon, according to Action News 5, a Memphis-area TV station. Some of the rounds Collier fired apparently hit a room with children inside and a vehicle, leading to charges of aggravated assault and vandalism, Action 5 News reported.

“What the police do when the process starts to charge you is result-based. Did you intentionally fire and did it put the other people, the victim in fear?” Memphis attorney Michael Working told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a Thursday interview. “And so in Tennessee that case is an aggravated assault and it’s for the homeowners that had a bullet come through the wall, a reasonable fear of serious bodily injury. That’s an entirely separate inquiry from whether the defendant or the gun owner acted reasonably from a legitimate fear himself.”

Investigators told Action 5 News that Collier saw the suspect breaking into his car on a home security camera. Collier’s family expressed shock at the charges.

“He’s a hardworking man, family man, doing the right things in life,” Collier’s great-uncle told Action News 5. “He reacted like any human being should do, you know? Because, it could’ve been the other way.”

Tennessee has the Castle Doctrine, which creates a presumption that a person has a reasonable belief of imminent death or serious bodily injury when they use deadly force against someone who unlawfully and forcibly entered (or was entering) and the defender knew or had reason to believe the entry was unlawful and forcible. Working says additional changes in the law are needed.

“Tennessee is an 88% Republican conservative lawmakers in our state Legislature. I mean, it is an overwhelming Republican supermajority,” Working told the DCNF. “But the law is still written with this disconnect where police come out and apply the perspective of the victims only and not the gun owner.”

Second Amendment Foundation President Massad Ayoob, a self-defense instructor who has also served in law enforcement and an expert witness on the use of force, said that more information was needed on the specific case.

“If the shots were fired with a reasonable degree of responsibility, the law has historically said they should be treated as if they had struck their intended target,” Ayoob told the DCNF. “If there is Ring camera video of the shooter firing wildly with his eyes closed or over his shoulder blindly, there is a negligence element.”