Joshua Warren (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office)
A 40-year-old in Atlanta, Georgia is behind bars this week after allegedly shooting dead a man he found sleeping in a vacant house he owned.
Joshua Warren was taken into custody on Saturday and charged with one count of felony murder, possession of a firearm while committing a felony and aggravated assault in the fatal shooting, authorities said.
According to a news release from the Atlanta Police Department, officers responded to an 911 call around 6 a.m. Saturday about a possible shooting at an apartment building on the 100 block of Campbell Street SE. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they found the body of an adult male in the front yard of the home who appeared to have sustained at least one gunshot wound. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers who responded to the home pronounced the victim dead on the spot.
Police have not released the victim’s identity, but an APD spokesman reportedly told Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV that the victim was fatally shot while fleeing the home. The victim was reportedly an adult male between the ages of 25 and 30.
Warren was initially arrested for questioning at the scene before officers formally arrested him and booked him into the DeKalb County Jail.
APD’s Maj. Peter Malecki According to reports to WXIA-TV, an affiliate of Atlanta NBC, investigators investigating the circumstances of the shooting don’t believe the victim posed an imminent threat to Warren’s life, meaning he’s unlikely to stand your ground -Law of the state can leave. Coming to this conclusion, Warren was arrested.
While Georgia’s Stand Your Ground Law does not require that the person responding to a threat attempt to retreat, it must demonstrate a reasonable belief that the other person will kill or seriously harm the person immediately.
“Certainly there has to be an element where your life has to be in imminent danger, and that’s the part we’re trying to determine right now,” Malecki reportedly told the broadcaster Saturday morning.
Malecki went on to tell the station that initial investigations allegedly revealed that Warren went to the property, which he owns but is currently vacant, to check out the residence. When he arrived and went inside, he reportedly found the victim sleeping in one of the rooms. When the victim woke up, the two reportedly got into a “confrontation” that allegedly ended with Warren fatally shooting the victim, who allegedly ran away.
Jess McMillan, a neighbor who lives a few doors down from Warren’s, reportedly told WXIA that her house, too, was recently broken into. She reportedly went on to describe Warren as “one of her best neighbors,” and specifically recalled that he helped her install new security cameras and learn how to operate new security cameras that she got after the recent burglary in bought her house.
[Image via Fulton County Sheriff’s Office]
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