Autopsy Reveals Renisha McBride Died From Shotgun Blast to Mouth as Community Demands Justice for Slain Teen After Shooter Says Gun Discharged Accidentally
The autopsy for Renisha McBride revealed the 19-year-old was shot in the face with a single shotgun blast.
The incident has ignited calls for justice and references to the Trayvon Martin case after McBride was reportedly seeking help after a car accident in the mostly white Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights.
Officers were not able to respond for several hours and it is thought that McBride decided to seek help for herself. The man who has admitted to killing the teen insisted that he thought the teen was an intruder and that the gun discharged accidentally.
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"This man's claiming - believed the girl was breaking into the home. And he's also saying the gun discharged accidentally,' Lieutenant James Serwatowski of the Royal Oak Police said in a statement.
Charges have yet to be filed but the district attorney is currently investigating the 54-year-old homeowner who had admitted to shooting the unarmed teen. McBride crashed her car into a parked car about 1 a.m. last Saturday.
But McBride's family members have speculated that she may have died as a result of racial profiling, but as the investigation continues, police say there is no indication that race was a factor in the shooting.
"It's very, very, very hard to believe that it was an accident when the gun is in her face and it goes off accidentally," said McBride family attorney Gerald Thurswell.
"Somebody had to have their finger on the trigger. He was in a safe place - he was in his house and he didn't have to open the door. He could've called 911 to protect himself. And if she was seeking help, he could've called 911 to get her help," he said.
Still rights activists contend that the unarmed teen could not have posed a risk and that her killing was unjustified.
"Wherever she was shot...she was shot defenselessly," Pastor W.J. Rideout, a civil and human rights activist who has been acting as a spokesman for the family, said in a statement.
"She didn't have a weapon and my stance is that she should never have been shot. Whether it was in the front, back, side, whatever."
