DETROIT, MI -- When 55-year-old Theodore Wafer of Deaborn Heights shot and killed 19-year-old Renisha McBride of Detroit on his front doorstep, he initially told police it was accidental.
Wafer's defense team is now claiming self defense.
Prosecutors on Thursday, the second day of testimony, presented dash-cam video and audio from Dearborn Heights Police Sgt. Rory McManmon, the first officer on the scene about 4:45 a.m. Nov. 2.
"It's a little Mossberg (shotgun) you know, self-defense ... I opened the door and it's kind of like, who is this, and the gun discharged," Wafer is head saying. "I didn't know there was a round in there. I don't get it. Who's knocking on your door at 4:30 a.m., bang, bang, bang, somebody wanting in."
Cheryl Carpenter, Wafer's lead attorney, never mentioned the firing of the weapon being accidental during her opening statements. Carpenter said Wafer pulled the trigger out of fear, that McBride was banging doors so hard it was shaking the house. Wafer, who was awoken from his slumber in a living room recliner, thought there were multiple people outside, couldn't find his cell phone and grabbed his shotgun.