Shooter Who Killed Unarmed Woman: I Didn’t Know Gun Was Loaded

FILE - In this Dec 18, 2013 file photo, Theodore Wafer, left, listens to his attorneys while appearing at his preliminary examination before District Court Judge David Turfe in Dearborn Heights, Mich. The Detroit-are... FILE - In this Dec 18, 2013 file photo, Theodore Wafer, left, listens to his attorneys while appearing at his preliminary examination before District Court Judge David Turfe in Dearborn Heights, Mich. The Detroit-area man who fatally shot a drunk, unarmed woman on his porch will stand trial for second-degree murder, a judge said Thursday, rejecting a self-defense argument for the killer's "bad choice." (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) MORE LESS
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DETROIT (AP) — A suburban Detroit man who killed an unarmed woman on his porch immediately suggested to police it was an accident and that he didn’t know his shotgun was loaded, according to recorded remarks played in court Thursday.

Theodore Wafer, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, met officers outside his Dearborn Heights home after they responded to his 911 call around 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 2.

“What happened here?” Sgt. Rory McManmon asked, according to the recording played by prosecutors.

“A consistent knocking on the door, and I’m trying to look through the windows and the door,” Wafer said. “It’s banging somewhere else so I open up the door, kind of like who is this? And the gun discharged.

“I didn’t know there was a round in there,” Wafer told McManmon. “I don’t get it. Who’s knocking on your door at 4:30 in the morning? Bang, bang, bang — somebody wanting in.”

Wafer, 55, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Renisha McBride, who appeared on his porch3 ½ hours after crashing her car a half-mile away in Detroit.

He told police that the victim, later identified as 19-year-old McBride, looked like a “neighbor girl or something.” McBride didn’t live in the neighborhood, and an autopsy revealed she was extremely drunk.

Wafer’s lawyers say he shot McBride in self-defense. Prosecutors, however, say he should have called police if he feared for his safety.

Police asked Wafer about his weapon, which was on the ground in the foyer of his home when officers arrived.

“It’s a little Mossberg, you know, shotgun. Self-defense,” Wafer replied.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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