Florida Sheriff Says Home Invaders ‘Should Expect To Be Shot’ [Video]

Home invaders “should expect to be shot,” a Florida sheriff has said, after a homeowner opened fire on two suspected intruders on Thursday night, one of whom later died.

“The bottom line is, this is the state of Florida,” Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells told reporters during a press conference on Friday. “You want to break into someone’s home, you should expect to be shot.”

Why It Matters

In 2005, Florida passed the “Stand Your Ground” law, which removed the duty to retreat from an intruder when acting in purported self-defense in the home if the home-dweller reasonably believed that they were in danger.

The Stand Your Ground law is widely associated with the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain who claimed he was acting in self-defense, according to ProPublica. He was charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter, but was …