http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061120/NEWS01/611200387/-1/CINCI

Victims fighting attackers

BY DAN HORN AND SHARON COOLIDGE

November 20, 2006

A growing number of Cincinnatians have chosen to fight.

Cincinnati police say at least nine homicides this year could qualify as justified because the killers say they were fending off criminals who intended to harm them. Last year, police reported one justified homicide.

Would-be victims include a deli owner defending his business in Winton Place, a motorist running down an assault suspect in Mount Washington and a Kennedy Heights man who shot and killed a teenager attempting to steal his car.

Police aren't sure why more people are fighting back, but some see a natural response to violent crime in a city where shootings and homicides are on the rise.

"People just want to protect themselves and their families," said Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters. "People are living in fear of what's going on in this community."

Prosecutors must review every self-defense claim, but Deters already has found that the use of deadly force was justified in at least three of this year's cases.

The most recent decision came Friday, when prosecutors chose not to pursue criminal charges against Bennie Hall, the Kennedy Heights man who shot and killed 14-year-old Quavale Finnell on Oct. 23.

Deters said Hall fired his .45-caliber handgun as Finnell drove Hall's car at him.

"I was just protecting myself," Hall said. "I'm not a vigilante."

To Hall, the word vigilante conjures images of the movie "Death Wish" and its hero, a man who hunted criminals.

Hall said that's not who he is. He said he was just trying to get ready for work when Quavale snatched his car, which was warming up on the street.

"I'm just a regular guy," Hall said.

Police say that's a theme in several of this year's self-defense cases: normal people in extraordinary circumstances. In every case, they say, the killers believed their lives or the lives of others were in danger.

Under Ohio law, that fear of imminent harm justifies the use of deadly force.

"What we've seen in recent weeks is not vigilante justice," Police Chief Tom Streicher said. "This is about somebody being involved in an incident that involves an element of self-defense. That's drastically different."

A DIFFICULT CHOICE

Self-defense is a right thousands of Americans cite every year after attacking or killing a suspected criminal.

About 13 percent of crime victims nationwide attack or threaten their assailants, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. About 2 percent use a weapon, and about half of those use guns.

Those who defend themselves say the decision is made so fast they rarely have time to consider the risks or the consequences.

Even if they survive the encounter, they often face significant legal, financial and emotional costs.

"I still have nightmares," said Samson Aregawe, the deli owner from Winton Place who shot and killed a would-be robber last month.

Prosecutors cleared him of wrongdoing, but he's still coming to terms with taking a life.

"I'm really depressed," Aregawe said. "I cannot sleep."

'I WOULD HAVE TAKEN THE HIT'

For Hall, the hardest part came when he realized he'd killed a teenager.

Hall is confident he had to shoot to protect himself, but he has regrets.

"He was so young. That really messed me up," Hall said. "If I had known he was a child, I would have taken the hit. I would have laid down and not fired."

Streicher said people are under extreme pressure when confronted by a criminal.

He said he understands the pressure because he's felt it. When he was a patrol officer in 1980, he shot and killed a man he thought was going to shoot his partner during a drug arrest.

"As a police officer, you react how you're trained," Streicher said. "For ordinary citizens, reaction is survival."

'A TERRIBLE PRICE'

Survival was Harold McKinney's goal three years ago when two armed robbers rushed into a bar and threatened everyone inside, including him.

He was carrying a gun illegally, something he'd done before to protect himself in his Northside neighborhood.

But on that day in 2003, McKinney decided he would hand over his wallet without a fuss.

That changed, he said, when one robber put a gun to a customer's head and vowed to kill him.

McKinney pointed his gun at the robber's head and fired, seriously wounding him.

"If I didn't have a gun, I would've been dead," he said. "The other four or five people in there would've been dead, too."

McKinney said he has no regrets, but he paid a price. He spent four days in jail, emptied his bank account paying legal fees, endured accusations of vigilantism and felt sick about nearly killing someone.

"You pretty much think your life is over," he said. "You just pay a terrible price when you pull the trigger on somebody."

A grand jury eventually cleared McKinney of criminal wrongdoing and, a few years later, Sheriff Simon Leis hired him as a deputy sheriff.

He said his work now is a way to "give back to the community" - and to put the vigilante label behind him.

"I wanted that vigilante thing wiped out and gone," he said.

CASES HARD TO PROVE

As McKinney learned the hard way, proving self-defense can be difficult.

Under Ohio law, the use of deadly force is permitted when someone is defending his home or business, or if he believes that he or someone else is about to be seriously hurt.

Sometimes, police say, the claim is clear cut, as when Aregawe shot Gary Eden, who broke into his deli. In others, such as Hall's case, proving someone's life was in danger is trickier.

Authorities are wary because they don't want to encourage violent - and illegal - retaliation for minor offenses.

"I don't want to live in a community where we're opening fire on shoplifters," Deters said.

But he said the evidence in Hall's case showed the car was heading toward Hall when he fired the first of three shots.

"His life was in danger," Deters said. "He had a right to fire."

But having the right to shoot doesn't mean it's always the best choice, police say.

Police generally advise a passive approach when ordinary citizens must deal with a criminal. Hand over your wallet or purse, they say. Don't threaten them or fight them because they might turn more violent.

"Money and jewelry, even sentimental items, can be replaced," Streicher said. "Think about it before you risk your life to protect it. Our advice to the victim is let it go and call the police.

"We'll come. We'll find the bad guy."

FED UP WITH CRIME

But victims don't have much time to figure out whether the criminal will settle for their wallets, or if he'll hurt them even if they cooperate.

"You don't know if somebody with a gun is going to use it," said Rich Goldberg, a Cincinnati lawyer who has represented clients with self-defense claims.

Goldberg said he expects the number of self-defense cases to continue to rise, especially now that Ohio law allows citizens to carry concealed weapons if they have a permit.

"People in this day and age are sick and tired of violent crime," he said. "There's a general attitude in society that police are there after the crime occurs. People are going to take it on themselves to defend themselves."

ROOTING FOR THE DEFENSE

Though authorities urge caution when it comes to confronting criminals, they also understand why so many victims take action. Many in the community do, too.

After Aregawe shot Eden in Winton Place, he got support from others in the neighborhood and, ultimately, from the police and prosecutors who determined he'd done nothing wrong.

"I imagine everybody, in the back of their mind, roots for the guy who fights back," said Isaac Greene, president of the Winton Place Community Council. "I think that resonates throughout the city."