http://www.freep.com/news/locway/shot29_20040429.htmDetroit woman tells of self-defense shooting
April 29, 2004
BY BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Their eyes locked.
Then Barbara Holland saw the barrel of the gun.
She lay on the floorin her house after an intruder had knocked her down while pushing through her side door. While on her back, she drew a 9mm handgun from a holster on her waist.
Her assailant's glare suddenly changed.
"He looked surprised," Holland said.
Then she pulled the trigger.
Holland, a 38-year-old Detroit business owner and mother, remembers firing three shots. Detroit police told her she fired six.
Either way, she killed the 42-year-old man, Clabe Hunt -- who had shoved intoher home on Troester, near Hayes, on Detroit's east side at 8:10 p.m. April 13.
He was an ex-con with five children and was armed with a loaded, nickel-plated semiautomatic handgun that was not registered to him. Autopsy reports indicate he was shot in the head multiple times. He never fired his weapon.
Police officers said Holland's gun was licensed, and they determined the shooting to be self-defense. Wayne County prosecutors continue to investigate, which is routine in most fatal shootings.
Citizens defending themselves are precisely what backers of Michigan's controversial concealed-weapons law had in mind when they worked to pass the legislation in 2001. The law makes it easier for anyone without felony convictions or mental illnesses to obtain a permit to carry concealed weapons.
"The more the criminal element knows that Michigan residents can protect themselves and will protect themselves, the more crime goes down," said state Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-Dewitt.
Some opponents of the law predicted a large increase in self-defense-type shootings. Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who opposed the measure when she was state attorney general, has acknowledged that has not occurred.
Even a justified shooting takes its toll, though, as Holland has discovered.
She is slowly coming to terms with the fact that she took a life. Sometimes she has tinges of remorse. Mostly she feels as though she had to protect herself and her 15-year-old daughter, who was home that night, hiding in the living room after the shots.
Hunt's family members are also hurting. They want more answers from police.
"Was someone else with him? Where is his car?" said Hunt's 40-year-old sister, who requested anonymity because she is the owner of a business.
"I'm not necessarily mad at her, but I don't know enough. Why unload the gun on him?"
