Pontiac — Oakland County Circuit Court jurors are deliberating the fate of a Rochester Hills homeowner charged with attempting to kill a lost teenager who…
Pontiac — Oakland County Circuit Court jurors are deliberating the fate of a Rochester Hills homeowner charged with attempting to kill a lost teenager who showed up at his door seeking directions to his school.
Jeffrey Zeigler, 53, is charged with assault with intent to commit murder and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the April 12 incident at his home.
Assistant prosecutor Kelly Collins told the jury evidence indicates Brennan Walker, then a 14-year-old Rochester Hills High freshman, was not injured but escaped fatal injury only because Zeigler was unable to immediately fire his 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun since the safety was engaged, giving Walker enough time to run for his life down the horseshoe driveway outside Zeigler’s home.
“There were choices made and choices have consequences,” Collins told the jury in closing arguments Friday morning. “… He told you of his past and his credentials and how he is an upstanding citizen and homeowner who was broken into before… and how he felt he and his wife were in danger.
“He was the danger on April 12.”
Zeigler’s attorney, Rob Morad, told jurors his client was firing into the air, not to harm anyone, and trying to protect his wife. He noted the shotgun had other rounds in it and Zeigler only fired once and never chased after Walker.
“If he wanted to kill him, he could have shot him on the porch,” Morad said.
Judge Wendy Potts instructed the jury that besides not guilty or guilty as charged, they could consider a lesser charge of assault to do great bodily harm less than murder.
The incident involving Zeigler, who is white, and Walker, who is black, sparked accusations in the community that it was racially motivated.
More coverage: Tearful wife recounts husband’s gunfire incident with lost teenager
Zeigler, who spent more than 24 years with the Detroit fire department, testified things were “chaotic” that morning around 8:15 a.m. when he awoke from a sound sleep to his wife’s screams that someone was trying to break into their home at the front door. He ran down the stairs after seeing a man at the door and grabbed a loaded shotgun he kept behind his office door.
A home surveillance video captured him stepping out and pointing the weapon at Walker running down the driveway, and then lowering it when it didn’t fire and disengaging the safety, raising it again and firing off one round. Zeigler testified he was attempting to shoot off a “warning shot” to the fleeing man and anyone else who might have been trying to invade his home.
The video was making the rounds on social media Friday.
In early statements to police, Zeigler gave a different version: that he had slipped on the porch and the shotgun accidentally discharged. When confronted with his own video, Zeigler took a drink of water and told Oakland County Detective Shawn Pace, “I was tired of being a victim,” Pace testified this week.
Oakland County deputies responded to the breaking and entering as reported by Zeigler’s wife to a 911 operator. They encountered a “shaken-up” and tearful Walker on a nearby street in the subdivision.
Walker told them he had missed his school bus and decided to try to walk to school, cutting through an unfamiliar subdivision when he became lost. He stopped at one address for directions to the school, and becoming confused a second time, stopped at the Zeigler house.
The Zeiglers have lived in the house in the Christian Hills subdivision for more than 13 years. There have been five breaking and enterings or attempts, including one in which they were asleep in the home, Zeigler said. A teenage neighbor was prosecuted for three incidents in 2010.
Citizens have the right to protect themselves in their homes if they feel threatened by an intruder trying to break in a door or window. If a suspect is fleeing and there is no danger, shooting at them is a chargeable offense.
“Nothing justifies his actions that morning,” Collins told the jury.
If convicted as charged, Zeigler could have any term of years of up to life in prison.
mmartindale@detroitnews.com
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