Your Best Homicide Defense: 'I Feared For My Life, Officer'

“It's easier than ever to kill someone in America and get away with it.

 

In 30 states, it often requires only a claim you killed while protecting yourself or others.

 

While Americans have long been free to use deadly force to defend themselves at home, so-called stand-your-ground laws in those 30 states extend legal protections to public places and make it difficult for prosecutors to file homicide charges against anyone who says they killed in self-defense.

 

The number of legally sanctioned homicides by civilians in the 30 stand-your-ground states has risen substantially in recent years, The Wall Street Journal found in an analysis of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

 

Justifiable homicides by civilians increased 59% from 2019 through 2024 in a large sample of cities and counties in those states, the Journal found, compared with a 16% rise in total homicides for the same locales.

 

With more guns in more hands, families are grieving loved ones lost to quick-tempered killings, often involving law-abiding civilians, with no one held accountable.

 

A retired Las Vegas police officer walked free after fatally shooting a retired computer network engineer during a dispute over who had the right of way in a Walmart parking lot. Both men got out of their vehicles. Both were armed. The ex-officer said the retired engineer pointed a gun at him first.

 

"Only two people know what happened," said Kathleen Hoy, the dead man's widow. "Unfortunately, my husband is dead."

 

In many stand-your-ground cases, authorities are left to rely on the word of survivors. The laws are written to protect those who tell authorities they feared for their life.

 

The Journal analysis, which examined detailed homicide reports from 3,700 police agencies in the 30 states, is the first to examine the impact of stand-your-ground laws using the FBI's National Incident Based Reporting System, a modernized crime-reporting system known as NIBRS.

 

Nationwide, NIBRS data show there were at least 1,993 justifiable homicides by civilians in the six-year period studied by the Journal, including 406 in 2024. The true number is higher.

 

NIBRS only covered about half the country in 2019, and even by 2024, police agencies that cover large portions of California, Pennsylvania, Florida and a handful of other states weren't reporting through the system. In addition, not all justifiable homicides are reflected in the data, particularly those that underwent lengthy investigations and were later declared self-defense killings.

 

In De Leon Springs, Fla., Edward Druzolowski, 78 years old, was watching TV when his wife said their neighbor's 42-year-old son was cutting branches and had come into their yard. Brian Ford, accompanied by his 8-year-old son, had entered through a gate and carried a chain saw.

 

Druzolowski went out to see for himself. He brought his .357 Magnum handgun, later telling police that he knew Ford had a criminal record and a reputation for violence. He told Ford to get off his property. Ford cursed and walked toward Druzolowski.

 

Druzolowski shot Ford once in the chest, killing him on a Sunday in September 2023.

 

"Why did you shoot my Daddy," the boy screamed, said Ford's mother, Linda Ford, who hurried toward the commotion. She said she saw Druzolowski "pointing his gun at my grandson, saying, 'Shut up kid, shut up kid.'"

 

Druzolowski's wife dialed 911, and her husband's voice was recorded on the call saying, "I told him to get out of here but he didn't. That f---ing asshole come walking at me, so I shot him."

 

An autopsy showed Ford had methamphetamine in his system. The chain saw was found next to his body.

 

The jump in justifiable homicides from 2019 to 2024 mirrored a sharp rise in gun ownership and the adoption of laws that allow people to carry firearms without a permit in many of the same states in the Journal analysis. Experts say the relationship is simple: More Americans carry guns everywhere they go, raising the chances of using them in disputes.

 

Rand, a nonpartisan research group, did an analysis last year of more than a dozen academic studies and found "a significant increase in firearm homicides and total homicides associated with stand-your-ground statutes," said Andrew Morral, co-head of Rand's gun-policy research.

 

Druzolowski was charged with second-degree murder in the tree-trimming shooting. A judge later dismissed the case, citing Florida's stand-your-ground law. Druzolowski, the judge wrote, believed that "such force was reasonably necessary to defend himself from Mr. Ford's imminent use of unlawful force."

 

"There's no justice," said Linda Ford, 79. She said her grandson, who was celebrating his birthday on the weekend of the shooting, was traumatized.

 

Druzolowski's lawyer, Scott Richardson, said that while his client was innocent of wrongdoing, he worries that people reading about the case will feel emboldened. "They hear Druzolowski shot his neighbor and got away with it," he said. "So they feel 'You're going to come mess with me, I have the right to shoot you.'"

 

Self-defense laws have long varied. In many states, people faced with an aggressor had the responsibility to retreat, if possible. The general exception fell under the so-called castle doctrine: A resident could legally kill a home intruder who posed a serious threat without retreating.

 

Under stand-your-ground laws, a person no longer had the duty to retreat from anywhere they had legal right to be. They could defend themselves and others with lethal force if they reasonably thought they were in danger of death or serious harm.

 

"When a violent criminal presents a life-or-death scenario for a law-abiding gun owner, they should not have to worry about meeting arbitrary 'duty to retreat' laws that could cost them their lives," the National Rifle Association said in a statement.

 

Florida's 2005 stand-your-ground law was widely considered a model for other states. A provision in Florida's law, since mirrored by about 15 others, added a presumption that, in most cases, a killer claiming self-defense acted reasonably, requiring prosecutors prove otherwise.

 

When Florida's law was being debated, its Republican sponsor, Rep. Dennis Baxley, a funeral-home owner, said it would provide greater protection for residents. "What I want is for the criminal to know that every single door he breaks in, those people may have a firearm," he said, "and they absolutely have the right to protect themselves."

 

Democratic lawmakers argued the bill's expansion of self-defense rights to public places would lead to more people killing each other and getting away with it.

 

One Democratic lawmaker raised a hypothetical dispute at a market checkout line. "I'm in the 10-items-or-less line, and I've got 15. The shopper behind me is understandably irate and proceeds to push me out of line," Rep. Ari Abraham Porth said. "Can I then pop a cap on him, proceed to check out my 15 items, and ask for a cleanup in line 3?"

 

"You're authorized to meet force with force," said Baxley, who has since left office.

 

After the law passed, Florida reported an increase in justifiable homicides, excluding those by police, according to state law enforcement. Such cases averaged 15 a year in the decade before the law. The figure reached 45 in 2009 and 77 in 2020, when Florida stopped reporting the tally.

 

Reported justifiable homicides also have risen in recent years in the 20 states, plus the District of Columbia, without specific stand-your-ground laws, the Journal found, but the numbers are small. Agencies in those states that consistently reported to NIBRS recorded 43 justifiable homicides in 2024, compared with 38 in 2019, the Journal found. Many of these states have other legal protections for those claiming self-defense, including jury instructions or judicial decisions.

 

Homicides in stand-your-ground states were nearly twice as likely to be deemed justifiable as they were in other states in 2024.

 

Supporters of stand-your-ground laws have often argued that the measures would mostly be used by people to protect against armed strangers. Nationally, FBI data shows about 60% of reported self-defense killings involved a family member, boyfriend, girlfriend, friend, neighbor or acquaintance, according to a tally of 2019-2024 cases that recorded such relationships.

 

Most cases in one type of self-defense killing involved strangers -- those that took place in a street, alley or parking lot. The FBI data don't tally how many are road-rage cases, but experts say it has become a common scenario.

 

People "feel compelled to imagine living in a world where everybody might be armed," said Caroline Light, a Harvard professor who wrote a book on the history of stand-your-ground laws. "Suddenly it isn't just an annoying confrontation with somebody who's being a jerk on the road. Suddenly it's that split second decision, is my life actually in danger? What if that person's armed? Well, I better get to my gun first."

 

In the early afternoon of Nov. 21, 2023, Robert Hoy, 69, had picked up a prescription and a sandwich for his wife at a Las Vegas Walmart and was headed out of the parking lot. Hoy was a retired network engineer who had worked on government contracts and held security clearances, according to his wife. He also had a temper and was armed with a 9mm handgun.

 

Witnesses told police Hoy was at a parking lot intersection, yelling at the driver of a Chevrolet Equinox. The Chevy driver, 67-year-old retired Las Vegas police officer Kerry Ruesch, kept driving. Then Ruesch backed up his car and stopped about 10 feet away from Hoy's Toyota Camry.

 

Both men got out. Ruesch told police that Hoy first held his gun pointed down and then aimed it at Ruesch. The ex-cop said he "reactively pulled out" his holstered .45 caliber handgun and fired. Hoy crumpled to the ground.

 

"Oh my god. . .This f---ing dude just f---ing capped" somebody, a nurse at the scene told a 911 operator. Ruesch took the woman's phone and said, "He was trying to shoot at me and I pulled my gun in self-defense."

 

Hoy's wife, Kathleen, said her late husband had medical issues, used handicapped parking and though he would sometimes "yell at traffic" she had never known him to draw his weapon. "My question is, if this man was a retired police officer, if there was an argument, why couldn't he de-escalate that?" she said.

 

After Ruesch was handcuffed, police found a second gun, pepper spray, drawstring handcuffs and a folding knife.

 

In September, nearly two years after the shooting, Las Vegas detectives concluded the shooting was a justifiable homicide. The report was dated six days after the Journal asked Las Vegas police about the case. Shortly after, the county district attorney's office said it wouldn't charge Ruesch. Under Nevada law, the office said, it wouldn't be able to disprove Ruesch's self-defense claim in court. Ruesch didn't respond to requests for comment.

 

Patrons at the Reno Club in Billings, Montana, on Nov. 14 last year learned firsthand the danger of gathering in spots where booze and guns mix.

 

Roxsand Reichert, 42, a refinery worker, was at the bar with her husband. She carried a 9mm SIG Sauer in her handbag. On her way outside for a cigarette, Reichert noticed a man yelling at a woman she had met that evening.

 

Reichert decided to intervene and tried to draw the woman away.

 

The man, Marshall Wilson, 46, then hollered at Reichert, according to a memo from the Yellowstone County prosecutor's office. Reichert walked out of the bar to the crowded parking lot, and Wilson continued his tirade. Reichert's husband, who was outside, confronted Wilson. Bystanders anticipated a fistfight.

 

Instead, Wilson retrieved a handgun from his truck and shot Reichert's husband at arm's-length. Seeing her husband collapse, Reichert fumbled in her handbag and pulled out the 9mm handgun. She exchanged shots with Wilson, who fired wildly, grazing a bystander. Reichert was hit by several of Wilson's bullets and fell to the ground.

 

A bystander, Mathew Dugger, 25, drew his own weapon. Dugger believed Wilson was about to execute Reichert as she lay on the ground, and he fatally shot Wilson, the prosecutor's memo said.

 

An autopsy found Wilson had been under the influence of alcohol, cocaine and marijuana.

 

Reichert and her husband survived. In all, 23 shots were fired. "If my brother wasn't in a position to act, and didn't act, more people would have been injured and killed," said Tyler Dugger, a lawyer who represented his brother Mathew in the case.

 

Prosecutors in September concluded Wilson's killing was justified under Montana's stand-your-ground law.” [1]

 

1. Your Best Homicide Defense: 'I Feared For My Life, Officer'. Maremont, Mark; Overberg, Paul.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 30 Oct 2025: A1.