City & State PA published an article on Tuesday, July 30 titled “The trial of a Black veteran will test PA’s ‘Stand your ground’ law” which analyzes a recent homicide in Hatboro.
The backstory: Maurice Byrd, owner of Razor Reese’s Salon and Spa in the Hatboro section of Upper Moreland Township, was arrested on June 8 for the first-degree murder of 37-year-old Stephen Strassburg of Hatboro.
The shooting took place in a parking lot next to Byrd’s barbershop and allegedly stemmed from an argument over a parking spot in that lot. According to the District Attorney’s press release, police determined that there was an ongoing dispute between Byrd and Strassburg, who lived above Razor Reese’s. Byrd had called 9-1-1 at 5:45pm to report that he was being verbally assaulted by Strassburg.
While he was on the phone, the 9-1-1 dispatcher heard five gunshots, then a pause, followed by two additional gunshots, police said.
Witnesses said they saw Strassburg, who is white, grab Byrd, 41, who is black, by the front of his shirt. According to those witnesses and a recording of the 9-1-1 call, Strassburg pursued him and asked, “What you gonna do, shoot me (N-word)?”
Strassburg then threw three punches before Byrd pulled his handgun from a holster and fired seven shots, striking Strassburg twice.
“I just had to shoot him, I had to shoot him. He was after me. … There are witnesses,” Byrd said, according to the recording. “He’s down, please. He’s down.”
According to City & State PA, there’s no consensus as to whether Byrd’s actions were justifiable or criminal. “Under Pennsylvania’s Stand Your Ground law, a person acting lawfully in a public place who is attacked by someone without a weapon must first attempt to retreat before using deadly force,” the article states.
The law’s language:
A person in any lawful place outside his home has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his ground and use force, including deadly force if . . . (he) believes it is immediately necessary to do so to protect himself against death, serious bodily injury, kidnapping, or sexual intercourse by force or threat. [18 Pa.C.S. Section 505(b)(2.3)].
A 2011 amendment to the law further states that in order to “stand your ground” instead of retreating, the assailant against whom you are going to use deadly force must have a lethal weapon.
Byrd had a valid permit to carry a firearm and Strassburg did not have a weapon at the time of the shooting, according to the District Attorney’s statement.
“It’s happening all over. The climate, with the political environment that’s brewing, I’m not shocked,” Maurice Davis, president of the NAACP Willow Grove chapter, told City & State PA. “I would have hoped that he would have walked away from it, but who knows what’s in his head when his emotions get involved.”
You can read the rest of their analysis here.
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Photo: Hatboro police