17 year old German exchange student shot by home owner in Montana

I'm surprised that noone is talking about this.
It's all over the news here in Germany (online, radio, tv...)


A western Montana man has been charged in the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy after prosecutors said he set a trap in his garage to catch any would-be burglars because he was frustrated over recent thefts.

Markus Kaarma, 29, of Missoula made an initial appearance in Justice Court on Monday but did not enter a plea to the count of felony deliberate homicide filed in the death of Diren Dede, an exchange student from Hamburg, Germany.

Kaarma's attorney, Paul Ryan, said his client feels terrible about the death of the young man, but he was also was disappointed that the Missoula County attorney filed the charge.

Court records said Kaarma and his wife, Janelle Pflager, had set up sensors outside the garage, a video monitoring system in the garage and left the garage door open. Pflager said she put personal items that she had cataloged in a purse in the garage "so that they would take it."

Early Sunday, the sensors went off, and Kaarma and Pflager looked at the video feed and saw that someone was in the garage.

Kaarma went outside with his shotgun. He told investigators he heard a noise that sounded like metal on metal, and he was afraid the intruder would come out and hurt him. He said he did not see anyone in the darkened garage and did not communicate with anyone before sweeping the garage with four shotgun blasts. Dede was struck in the head and arm and died at a Missoula hospital, court records said.

Kaarma said he didn't want the suspect to get away and added that police can't catch burglars in the act, the affidavit filed Monday said.

Pflager told police that they had been burglarized two times within the last three weeks. Ryan said.

They were frustrated, on edge and felt someone in their neighborhood was watching them, Ryan said. The couple called police "and nothing was done," he said.

Pflager had made a list of the items in the purse so if it was taken she could attempt to track the thief, Ryan said. Despite the recent burglaries, they left the garage door open, prosecutors noted.

"They certainly didn't tell the kid to come in (the garage)," Ryan said. "He entered voluntarily."

On Sunday, a woman told investigators that Kaarma had told her that he had been waiting up for three nights with his shotgun to shoot a kid, court records said.

Dede was a junior at Big Sky High School, where officials set up brief support for students.

Justice of the Peace Karen Orzech set Kaarma's bail at $30,000.

Less than two hours before the Missoula shooting, a homeowner 350 miles away in Billings shot and wounded a houseguest he thought was an intruder.

The 19-year-old seminary student was making a phone call in the home's garage late Saturday when he was shot, Billings Police Sgt. Pat Curry told The Billings Gazette.

The student, who was not named, appeared to be shot in the chest, but the injury was not life-threatening, Curry said.

The homeowner, who also was not identified, probably won't face charges, Curry said.

 

RIP

 

If the teenager would have been black, this thread would be at page 50 now instead of

*crickets*

 

WTF is wrong with these people? They were robbed twice, and set a trap for a burglar to come and take from them again??

This is madness.

And WTF was this guy blindly shooting in the dark for? Good God.

RIP to the unfortunate youth. What a sad, tragic, senseless death at the hands of complete and utter stupidity.

 

Well yeah, that's natural selection.

Compare the number of black posters on this site (american or not) to the number of german ones. Way to vast of a comparison.

 

This is sad. A boy in another country. Away from home. Now dead. Why do people shoot first instead of actually looking around? R.I.P.

 

This is terrible. R.I.P. Maybe now some states will start to reevaluate our gun-happy regulatory scheme.

 

RIP.

 

You forgot to add moon. Racist

 

Haha yeah I'm a racist. You must know me very well, you funny motherfucker.

 

^^^^U4E, don't know why you responded to him, his post made NO DANG SENSE!

I had read about this the other day ... Shocking that this horrid man (and woman) would lay in wait.



Sometimes to teens, their curiosity gets the better of them, or it is too tempting, maybe he was investigating?.. how often do you see a garage open and a car and bag... he could have thought someone was passed out?

I hate gung-ho gun owners....

Another man is on trial right now for shooting two cousins who broke into his basement.. he was waiting for them to come through, didn't warn them to scoot or fire a warning shot, he executed them as they came through the window... he was yelling at them 'to die', or something like that... harrowing.
Who shoots to kill over 'things'?

 

I'm so tired of lethal force being the only tool people seem to have these days, even before they ascertain whether or not there's even a bona fide threat to their life.

 

Thank the NRA for such deaths. They want gunowners to do whatever they want. Unique,that is true if a young Black male had been killed by people like him that man would get away with it.

 

Don't be a dick about it, it's not like we knew and ignored it. It was fucked up, happy now?

 

Good Lord, what n earth were these people thinking

They left a garage door wide open to entice someone in and they intended to shoot whoever took the bait.
Here we would call that Murder!

 

We call that murder here, too.

The NRA has never advocated for people to shoot first and ask questions later. They do not want gunowners to do whatever they want.

And no, they wouldn't get away with killing a young black male.

Your post is just illogical on many levels.

 

They wouldn't get away with killing a young black male? What country do you live in? Lol

 

Amen.

Too many gun nuts really have an itch IMO to shoot someone dead and prefer shooting someone as a first option to conflict resolution instead of it being a last act of desperation.

If you want to catch an alleged burglar in your garage why not have motion sensors that turn on a BANK OF FLOODLIGHTS to actually see what the fuck is going on????

These assholes set a trap to deliberately kill someone, like they were hunting some wild animal.

Sorry but the current rhetoric coming from the NRA absolutely advocates the use of deadly force for any perceived threat to someone's person or property.

The NRA's solution to everything is more guns, ever since they were co-opted by right wing extremists groups and the gun lobby.

I bet if you asked an NRA rep what they thought about this shooting, they'd say unequivocally the kid shouldn't have been where he was and got what he deserved.:smt031


When people value gun ownership more than human life, you get horrific tragedies like this one.

The murderer didn't even announce his presence to his victim.
That's called a premeditated hit job.

As a kid I cut through neighbor's backyards all the time, day or evening.
No way would that happen now in today's cultural climate.

 

If he didn't see who it was that could have been an even younger kid, I mean a kid kid, would he have still defended his right to shoot someone if it was a 7 yr old fetching a football that may have rolled into his open garage?

In the UK I watched a police show where a druggie broke into this mans Van on his drive and was stealing his work tools, the owner caught him in the act and punched him and broke his jaw.
It was deemed unreasonable force and the owner was up on an assault charge.
(I was like WTF) but now I realise the reason we have these rules, it's to stop everyone going vigilante and taking the law into their own hands.


I reckon he he saw the teen and executed him.

 

Self-defense is one thing. Deliberately shooting someone is another. Some folks just want an excuse to use deadly/ lethal force against someone whom they think had wronged them. Some have legitimate reasons like to protect the life of another. Some just want to advertise that they are armed and ready to use firearms. But baiting someone to steal property so that they can make a statement is just plain stupid. I recall some years ago a story on the local news in Jacksonville, FL. A white homeowner in a mostly black neighborhood was afraid of crime on his property. He solved the problem by doing a simple, yet controversial act; a flag with KKK stenciled on it. He said he wasn't a member and he wasn't a racist. But he was afraid of crime hitting his home. The neighbors were naturally upset and went to the police to order the man to remove the flag. But, this flag was on his property and he had a right to fly it.